Shamgar Made Simple

Shamgar -- the judge Israel barely remembers: he struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad, and in his days the highways were deserted until God gave His people rest through him (Judges 3:31; 5:6-7).

Shamgar Made Simple is a Scripture-first walk through the Bible's briefest deliverer: his one-verse biography and what it teaches about faithfulness in obscurity, the meaning of "the son of Anath," the deserted highways and silenced villages of his days, the farmer's oxgoad as God's chosen weapon, the six hundred Philistines and the God who gave the victory, the gallery of unlikely weapons throughout Scripture (Moses' staff, David's sling, Jael's tent peg, the boy's lunch, the cross), the power of one available person, and the legacy of a man remembered by God though forgotten by men.

Explicitly Trinitarian: God the Father who raises deliverers and gives the victory; Jesus Christ -- Son of God and Son of Man, Lord and Savior -- the final Deliverer every judge foreshadows; and the Holy Spirit, who empowered Shamgar's arm and empowers every believer's obedience today. Every prayer is to the Father, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit.

Read one chapter a day. Come honest. Read slowly. Pray openly.

More from Kimani Upshur: https://kimaniupshur.com