An unlikely farm labourer becomes
warrior, hero, liberator, general and judge.
Shamgar – faithful and full of faith
Although the land we are told v30 had rest 80 years, we are also told Ch 5.6 that the roads
were abandoned,
It seems that the rest (according to
Matthew Henry) was not in the south east part of the land where
Philistines still marauded, but rest in the north west from the
Moabites. The Israelites had abandonded the roads because of these
looting, pillaging Philistine thieves that controlled the highways.
Apparently one day Shamgar saw a
raiding party and got up a Holy Spirit inspired anger.
The word says he killed 600 with an ox
goad,
(This
implement, Mr. Maundrell informs us, in Palestine and Syria is of an
extraordinary size. He measured several, and 'found them about eight
feet long; and at the bigger end about six inches in circumference.
They were armed at the lesser end with a sharp prickle for driving
the oxen; and at the other end with a small paddle of iron, strong
and massive, for cleansing the plough from the clay. In the hand of a
powerful man such an instrument must be more dangerous and fatal than
a sword.
)
He took what was at hand.
The impulse was
sudden and strong, He had no sword only the tools of his trade
God can make those whose family,
finance and position are of no consequence (he was following the
plough) and save a nation with them.
God can make ploughmen into judges and
generals
Shepherds into kings,
Fisherman into apostles
It doesn’t matter how weak the weapon
is if God directs and strengthens the arm that uses it.
Then the ox goad does more than
Goliaths sword ever can.
Sometimes God chooses to work by
unlikely means that the excellency of the power may be seen to be of
God and not of men.
But what if Shamgar didn’t respond
that day.
What if he hid in fear and the
Philistines ravaged the land yet again.
Who knows how many times they had done
it before and how many other men God had put the impulse in but they
had shied away from the task.
Are we taken with a passion and love
for His house that we won’t allow the marauding armies of the
Philistines to plunder our land.
Are we the people who will stand and
deliver a nation, a people, a community, an individual person.
Are we the ones that see ministry as
doing what ever God requires (not just some high position that
inflates our ego).
Are we consumed by a passion for His
House that we come and do the work so that the house looks good, not
out of a sense of duty,
Not out of a sense of “its my job”
But because I want to serve my Lord and
do whatever it takes to make His house
- a place of praise,
- a place of excellence,
- a place of real spiritual worship,
- a place where others can find the
presence of God that heals their hurts, bathes their emotions,
softens their spirit and enables them to find the God who cares.
1 Cor 4.17 Paul spoke about Timothy as
His faithful son, “faithful in the Lord”
he spoke about Moses as "faithful in all
his house."
Faithful:- those that have the Lords
best interests foremost in everything they do.
We are building His house full of this
kind of people, not merely doing a job in church but faithful in a
ministry to the Lord.
Here this message live
here.
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