Today we have read 20% of the Bible, or 1/5th. What a great way to start the new year! Today is also the last dayof January. I really pray this reading challenge has been a blessing to you. I pray that you have been encouraged, inspired, pricked, quickened, and rejuvenated in the word.
Today I want to take note of someone pretty insignificant in the Scriptures. This is what we read about Shamgar: "And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel" (Judges 3:31).
Shamgar is one of those intriguing persons in Scripture because he is only mentioned twice in a way that may seem like an afterthought. But this is not so with God. God does not include anything in his word that is insignificant. But neither does this mean we should speculate upon profound fantasy to strive toward a meaning that is absent of the Scriptures. What we know about Shamgar is exactly what we need to know about Shamgar.
He is a man used by God to "deliver Israel". An insignificant man who had nothing worthy of writing about: This is who God chose to "deliver Israel". The power did not exist in Shamgar's greatness - He had no greatness worthy of writing about. It wasn't even in his weapons - He used a common farmers tool, an ox goad. In Shamgar we are reminded that God uses whom he chooses for his purposes. Nobody is off limits. There are no pre-requisites to meet.
So do you feel insignificant? I mean, you haven't done anything worth writing about, have you? You are not a person we will be reading about in Scripture anytime soon, right? But these things are not pre-requisite to serving God. Service is not reserved for the elite, the educated, the sophisticated, the prepared. Service is reserved for his holy chosen people. In Christ we have all that is necessary to rise up and serve him.
Do you believe that?
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