Shamgar the Vague Hero
What God can do through an unknown
When reading the book of Judges, you may come across this passage about the third Judge of Israel name Shamgar. Unlike the stories of other judges, the mention of Shamgar is quick, slight and to the point. Here it says,
After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel. – Judges 3:31
There are plenty of places you can go to reference what others have learned about Shamgar but to sum it up; 1. He was a judge. 2. He was a son of Anath. 3. He killed 600 Philistines with a tool. 4. He saved Israel. That’s it. There is a short mention of him in the song of Deborah and Barak.
“In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned; travelers took to winding paths. – Judges 5:6 NIV
Trying to discover more about Shamgar’s lineage you may do a study on who Anath was. The majority of scholars agree that Anath is probably referring to the Canaanite god by the same name. There are few who may try to argue that his name is short for another name, which may or may not be true. In fact, scholars claiming the first is true would tell you that though wrong, many Israelites did worship or incorporate the worship of foreign gods into their religious practices. This was not unusual.
Killing 600 Philistines is no small feat! You would hope that we’d get more information about a guy who did such a thing. In fact, not only did he kill them, but he killed them with a tool that was used to motivate oxen to plow fields. Even though his name means ‘sword’ he wasn’t known for using one.
I looked up how many people are uniquely named in all of the Bible, both New and Old Testaments. The best answer I could find was between 3,000 and 3,500 (making room for translations and unknown names). Let’s say it’s the latter. In all of human history, from the beginning of time until right now, after billions upon billions of people that have existed in the Earth’s history, the Bible identifies 3,500 of them. For the ‘un-mathed’ that’s not a lot of people.
Has God interacted in all of human history with only 3,500 people? I think we could agree that’s probably silly. So why is it that we think that only those mentioned in the Bible are the ones who are important? I think the mention of Shamgar is incredibly vital to see this truth! This guy saved Israel, he got two lines. Saving Israel seems pretty important to me. It led to Deborah, Saul, David, Solomon…..to Jesus!
Shamgar’s existence was just as critical for the advent of the Messiah as was Noah’s. To me that’s pretty startling and humbling! It reminds me that we are likely living around Shamgar-esque people in every generation, even less so those who aren’t mentioned or known. Those who aren’t making popular content on social media or praying publicly for presidents. You or I could be a Shamgar.
Even Jesus tells us that we who are full of the Holy Spirit will do greater things than are mentioned in the scripture.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. -John 14:12
Jesus said this two-thousand years ago! In the last two thousand years, greater works have been done and by people who aren’t mentioned in our treasured texts. We can be thankful for the Luthers and the Spurgeons, the Sprouls or the Augustines but don’t dismiss the work God is doing through you, and your neighbor. Don’t dismiss the glory God is receiving through your small church or your “insignificant” friend group. God is working all of the time, and using Shamgars in every generation.