What is in Your Hand?

Judges 3:31 — "After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel."

Shamgar.  He must have lived in a different part of the country from Ehud, whose history was earlier in Judges 3.  Ehud was from Benjamin, and interacted with the Moabites around Jericho and the Jordan River.  Shamgar, on the other hand, was in or near Philistine territory—very likely the western foothills of Judah down toward Gath or the Mediterranean Sea.

Who was Shamgar? 

First of all, his name means "named a stranger" or "he is here a stranger." http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/shamgar/

Second, his father was Anath.  There is conjecture about who he was and what exactly his name meant, but most say that Anath was not a good Jewish name and it may have even been a Philistine name, ie, son of the goddess Anath.

How bad were the times of Shamgar? 

We have one more clue found in Deborah's song, Judges 5:6-7a:

   NIV: "In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,
     in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned;
     travelers took to winding paths.
   Villagers in Israel would not fight...."
  
   KJV: "In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael,
      the highways were unoccupied,
      and the travelers walked through byways.
  The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel....

Picture it: Raiding parties from Philistia oppressed the Israelites living in the western foothills; they controlled the main roads and either caused people to abandon towns or at least quake in fear, afraid to resist.  Why?  Because they had neglected their Covenant Lord and went off after sin.

Yet, because of the Lord's mercies He did not completely abandon His people.

Into this picture we now see Shamgar.  He must have been a farmer of some kind.  Perhaps he was out tending the animals or perhaps plowing with his oxen.  We see that he had an oxgoad and that's all.

"What do you have in your hand?"  Ex. 4:2

And then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.  Maybe it was a sense of, "Oh no, not again! I'm not letting that raiding party destroy my crops again."  Or perhaps it was a sense of outrage that the heathen was doing this to the people of God.  But in some way he was stirred to action and used what was in his hand to do the Lord's work.

Moses had a staff but it became the a mighty staff by which the Lord performed many signs and wonders.

Doesn't this illustrate 1 Cor 1:25 - 29.

  "For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.  Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him."

 
God chose the weak, the nothings, the strangers, the unlikelies to do His work in His way through His power and for His glory.

In addition to Shamgar's oxgoad, we see other examples in the Book of Judges, where God uses nothings and powerless things to do His work:

• Judges 7:16 — trumpets and torches
• Judges 9:53 — a millstone
• Judges 15:15 — a jawbone of a donkey

With God, a little becomes much.  Consider how Elijah and the widow and her son were fed through the famine with only a little handful of flour and a small jar of oil.  Consider also how Jesus took the loaves and fish and multiplied it for the people.  In the burning bush He asked Moses, "What do you have in your hand?"  To the disciples by the Sea of Gaililee, he asked, “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”  (Mark 6:38)  This is the Mighty God who spoke and the whole universe sprang into being.  He is the Omnipotent God "who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were." (Rom. 4:17)

This should give us courage and comfort.  Our little when used with God's power and for God's purposes becomes a mighty force.  We can overcome only by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony—that is, by Christ's salvation applied to our hearts and our living faithfully to obey His will.

Then we can say, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  (Phil 4:13)