I Want to Be Like Shamgar

The Book of Judges covers the period of Israel's history between the death of Joshua and the establishment of the monarchy. This was a time of political instability and moral decline, characterized by a repeated cycle of sin, oppression, repentance, and deliverance.The Philistines were one of Israel's primary enemies during this period. They were a seafaring people who settled in the coastal regions of Canaan and often clashed with the Israelites.

Our study of Judges is the story of Israel's rebellion and their longing for a king. They thought that an earthly king would solve their problems. God in Providence and mercy raises up judges to deliver the people. But as great as they are, they are fallen and sinful. The inferiority of their judges is only rivaled by the inferiority of the earthly kings that would follow them. In each case, it was to remind Israel that their ultimate deliverance would not come from an earthly leader. They needed a king to come, a king named Jesus. We see Him pictured tonight in the strange story of a strange deliverer most people have never heard of. (Judge 3:31) Several years ago, a contemporary Christian group named FFH released a song called, "I Wanna Be." I wanna be like Daniel in the lion's den Waiting for God's love to save him I wanna be, I wanna be I wanna be like Moses when he raised his hands And all the winds and seas obeyed him I wanna be, I wanna be Before that, the group 4Him recorded a song called, "I Want to be a Man You Would Write About." That song mentioned King David and Father Abraham. I've heard other songs and other sermons that have admonished God's people to be like Paul, Joseph, and the woman with the alabaster box. But very few people who've ever aspired to be like a Bible character mentioned their desire to be like Shamgar. And the reason for that is understandable. Precious little is said about this powerful Deliverer. His name appears in 2 verses in all the Bible. Here, and in Judges 5:6, where in Deborah's song of victory, she alludes to brother Shamgar. A total of 50 words in the KJV about a man of whom most have never heard. A Bible that has nearly 800,000 words, 50 of them are about Shamgar. And in that fact alone, there is a beautiful lesson about this next deliverer.

Namely that he is a man that either by his own will or the Providence of God, or both. He was willing to minister and serve in relative obscurity. So long as the work of God was done.

I want to be like Shamgar. All we really know about him is that. After ahud. Shamgar, the son of Anath. His name indicates he's probably not even a Hebrew. Most likely of Canaanite. Parents. But Shamgar, the son of Amath, killed 500 philistines, and he did it. With an ox goad. And like a hood before him, the left-handed assassin of God. Like Othniel, the lion of the tribe of Judah. Shamgar saved Israel.

three things I want to notice about Shamgar

1. The wickedness in his land

The text about Shamgar is not very much, he’s just a little blip in the overall scheme of Judges 3 -4 in fact it goes right back to Ehud.

It would seem that there were about 80 years of peace and rest in the nation until the death of Ehud, after that we read

Judges 4:1–2 “1 And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, when Ehud was dead. 2 And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles.”

I simply want to remind you that. The days of the Judges, the days of Ehud, the days of Shamgar were dark and devilish.

For in those days, as the scripture says, there was no king in Israel and every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

As we think about being like Shamgar, we need to think about the wickedness that was in the land,

There's a part of me and I suspect a part of you that sometimes wishes to go back in time to a time in our own nation, a period of history in which the gospel was more popular, where it was easier to serve the Lord.

I just need to tell you time has never existed. You read some of the things those early Methodist suffered as they attempted to take the Gospel across these vast united planes is a read of persecution, egged, tomatoes thrown at them, tarred and feathered, mobbed, beaten, robbed,

We think about the evil in the land and we see it in two ways:

Danger on the highways

I heard the story of two elderly women who were out driving 1 evening in a large car, both of them because of their shortness of stature. Barely able to see over the dashboard as they were cruising along, they came up on a busy intersection and they just drove right on through the red light. The stop light was red, but they just went on through. They went on through a second red light and finally after running 1/3. Stop light. Ethel turned to the other woman and said. Mildred, do you realize you just ran through three red lights in a row? You could have killed us both, and Mildred turned to Ethel and said, am I driving? In a much greater way, there was danger on their highways.

In a much greater way, there was danger on their highways.

As I mentioned, we know of Shamgar from 3:31,

but also the song of Deborah in Judges 5:6 in this patriotic worship song of celebration Deborah says

Judges 5:6 KJV 1900

6 In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, In the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, And the travellers walked through byways.

The idea seems to be that the Philistines had conquered that part of Canaan.

They had the countryside locked down, and the main roads were filled with bandits and bullies and battles.

So much so that when the people of God went to do their business and. Conduct their trade and their commerce. They had to slink around on the back roads,

imagine in our own community. If some foreign army came and occupied and shut down Kellogg, and 235, and 254, and 96 All of them shut down.

In a very similar way, it was not safe for the people of God to go out in public.

And I believe that is a picture of what we face, even in our own modern culture.

Now the danger that we face may not be physical martyrdom.

It may not be that we are assaulted by some Philistine army out on the major roads of our community, but that does not mean that there will be no danger if you raise your head and lift your voice for the cause of Christ.

Brothers and sisters in our day, if you are opposed to the radical LGBTQIA plus agenda, you better buckle your Pew belt because opposition will come.

If you stand for the sanctity of all human life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death, you will be at odds with a large percentage of our own American culture.

If you stand to oppose racism in all of its forms while simultaneously denouncing our country's seeming love affair with critical race theory and intersectionality and the Neo Marxism that is infecting our nation's public school systems

Satan and all his minions will be unleashed against you.

If you are bold enough to declare that all lives matter regardless of the color of a person's skin,

if you believe that boys are born as boys and will always be boys, regardless of what they get some surgeon to do in mutilation of their body.

If you believe that girls are born as girls. And will always be girls. Then you will face persecution. You will find in those moments it will be dangerous for you to navigate the highways of polite American Society

Some godly men and women bold enough to say:

I want to be courageous like Daniel,

I want to be bold like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

I want to be brave like David, standing before Goliath,

and I want to be fearless, like Shamgar who'd finally had him a God-given belly full of slinking around and hiding out. And he takes his stand and bows his back. Swears his shoulders and takes on the enemies of God and the enemies of God's people.

There was wickedness in the land, manifested by danger on their highways, but also because of depravity.

Depravity in their hearts

It wasn’t just the depravity in the hearts of the Philistines… It was the sin of the Israelites that ended the 80 some years of peace. Listen to the text again:

Judges 4:1–2 “1 And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, when Ehud was dead. 2 And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles.”

Vance Havner tells the story. The great preacher of Olde of talking one night about the depravity in the human heart, and he was met at the door and the handshaking line with someone who said I just can't swallow all that teaching about depravity, Havener said. You don't have to swallow it. Brother, it's already on the inside of you.

Not only was there wickedness in the land - but next I want us to notices...

The weapon in his hand

Ehud Used an 18 inch dagger strapped to the inside of his thigh.

Jael will use a hammer and a tent peg.

Gideon will use a torch, a trumpet, and a pitcher

Samson will use the jawbone of a donkey.

But Shamgar - the weapon of choice in the life of Shamgar is interesting

I want us to notice two things about this weapon

A simple tool

The scripture tells us that Shamgar struck down 600 Philistines with an ox goad

It was used to goad an ox

Similar to a cattle prod

Imagine a rod like a javelin or spear - it was blunt and they would poke or prod the horse or the ox or donkey to get it to do what they wanted them to do.

We are not told what Shamgar’s strategy or method was

Did he take them out one by one

Die he swing it around wildly and just mow them donw

Did he knock them in the head or did he jab them in the chest? I don’t know

But we are told that Shamgar did not wait until he had all the same equipment as the Philisitnes did they had iron chariots, and all kinds of other weapons - Shamgar did not let that stop him

Shamgar took what he had and fought the battle - so often we think we have to wait until we have the crowds, the latest techniques, methods, programs, - no we need to be using what we have at hand

In reality Shamgar is a tool in the hand of God - it wasn’t the simple tool in the hand of Shamgar that brought deliverance it was the Power of God on the life of Shamgar using the tool that brought the victory.

Shamgar as obscure and unknown as he seems to be is an Old Testament example of that great New Testament truth: 1 Corinthians 1:26–27 “26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;”

the simplest tool in the hand of a master can make all the difference. It's not based on the effectiveness of the tool, but in whose hand is that tool. I think of Moses and the rod.

A symbolic truth

The Bible says here that Shamgar killed 600 philistines with an ox goad

now I just want to ask a simple question tonight. Why? Did Shamgar use an ox goad?

I'm a simple man preaching a simple sermon to simple people in a simple church. So could I give you a simple answer?

That's what he had. I don't think the answer is one bit more complicated than that.

This was an Agricultural Society. And most likely Shamgar was some sort of farmer. So he used what God had given to him

. I am personally convinced that I can't be dogmatic, that had Shamgar been a Carpenter, he would have killed them with a hammer. Had he been a mechanic, he would have gotten his biggest, longest, 916th wrench and knocked them into eternity.

Had sham guard been a painter, I think he would have picked up a couple of paint cans and done battle with the Philistines

The wisdom that was in his stand

there are a couple of very important lessons we can learn from this. Obscure Farmer turned Canaanite Terminator.

Watch him as he takes his stand in the middle of the road. And knocks cold and dead 600 philistines. With a cattle prod. What wisdom can we glean from this tonight?

the gospel still calls us today. To stand up, stand up for Jesus. Ye soldiers of the cross. To lift high his royal banner, knowing that it must not suffer loss so

two lessons can we learn

First, his commitment. To availability. His commitment. To availability. After him came Shamgar, the son of Anath, who struck down 600 philistines with an ox code, and he also saved. Israel. We don't know much about Shamgar. We don't have any record of his ability. But he seemed to understand a wonderful truth. That the greatest ability is availability. To simply say, take my life and let it be. Consecrated Lord. To thee, take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love. Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee. Take my love. My God, I pour at your feet. It's treasures store to say take my silver and my gold. Not a mite. Would I withhold Lord? Here I am. I am available for your service. Doctor Bob Pittman, who has preached in our church, is one of the few preachers that I know that actually has a sermon. On this man named Shamgar. From this one verse, Doctor Pittman's outline is very simple. He says that Shamgar did what he could. Where he was. With what he had. For the glory of God. That's kind of hard to improve on, isn't it? He did what he could. Where he was. With what he? Had. For the glory of God. This afternoon at lunch, I was talking to our daughter Sarah who. Very gifted with. Music and singing. Has largely taught herself guitar and piano and. Played the guitar and LED some worship on the youth fall retreat just a couple of weekends ago. Thinking about this truth, this principle today, I reminded her that if I had waited. Until I thought that I could proficiently and effectively play the guitar before I ever led a worship service. Brother Andrew, I would have never led one. But if you know anything about guitar, if you've got a GACAD seven and a capo, you can lead the people of God in some songs. And why in the world would God ever give you a bigger platform or a greater area of ministry if you're not willing to make available to him? What you have right now. Shamgar made himself available to the Lord. Dear Christian friend, may I ask you tonight, are you available to the Lord? Is your time available or have you filled it up? Are your finances available to the Lord, or have you committed them all elsewhere? Is your energy. Available to the Lord. Or are you spending it all in other places? Tonight, perhaps we need to be reminded that at Calvary, Jesus brought us lock, stock, and barrel from the crown of our head to the soles of our feet, and Shamgar had a commitment to availability.

Secondly, and finally, we're talking about the wisdom we can learn from his stand for God. I see his contentment with obscurity. His commitment to availability, his contentment with obscurity.

The fact that this man seems to come from out of nowhere. Perform an amazing feat of deliverance and then disappear on the pages of scripture about as fast as he showed up. That provides a lesson in and of itself. In fact, one commentary labels this section of Scripture on this one verse, the label of that passage is the man from nowhere. Dale Ralph Davis in his commentary says it is particularly the glory of God to save by instruments unknown. Or scarcely known to us. Shamgar seems to be content. To serve the Lord and relative. Obscurity. It has been frequently said that the world has yet to see. What the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ could accomplish. If nobody cared who got the credit? But that only Christ received the glory. So I close tonight, reminding you of something I said at the outset of this message. Why do I want to be like Shamgar? Because here's a man. Who, by his own choice or the Providence of God, or both? Was willing to minister in relative obscurity. So long as the work of God was done, the people of God were blessed, and the glory of God. Was revealed. I pointed out to you earlier in this service, this weekend, March 25 years since I LED my first service at Emmanuel. Years ago, I became the longest tenured pastor in the history of the church. I say that only to say this. However long God allows me to serve and I pray it's for the rest of my ministry in this church. But sooner or later? If the Lord doesn't come first. There'll be a group of people sitting at the Emmanuel Baptist Church that don't even remember my name. I'll be a footnote. In the back of your grandma's Bible. Where she wrote down the date and the titles. And the name of the preacher. And I come tonight. To tell you that by the grace of God. That'll be all right with me. So long as the work of God is done. The people of God are blessed. And the glory of God. Is revealed. I might merit fewer than 50 words that Shamgar received in the Bible. But one of my favorite songs by. Author and composer. Larry gauss. Says inside my heart there burns a question. What was I placed on Earth here for? It truly was to build a Kingdom. But not my own. Of the Lord. So I want my life to count for Jesus. If no one ever knows my name, no need to add to earthly riches. I only seek eternal gain. Bottom Line, tonight, church. Forget me. You lose nothing. Forget Jesus. You lose everything. And I challenge you tonight, as this verse has challenged me, I will be a whole lot more like Jesus. If I can be at least a little bit more like Shaman. You've been listening to the Emmanuel pulpit, the broadcast ministry of Pastor Mike Stone, senior pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, GA, with confidence in the authority and sufficiency of the Word of God. Pastor Mike is committed to walking you verse by verse through books of the. Bible. We pray this message has been an encouragement to you. As you seek to learn and live the word of God, Free audio downloads of this message as well as general contact information are available through our website at ebchurch.net. Thanks for joining us for today's message from the Emmanuel Pulpit.

A symbolic truth. The Bible says here that Shamgar killed 600 philistines with an ox. Go now I just want to ask a simple question tonight. Why? Did Shamgar use an ox goad? I'm a simple man preaching a simple sermon to simple people in a simple church. So could I give you a simple answer? That's what he had. I don't think the answer is one bit more complicated than that. This was an Agricultural Society. And most likely Shamgar was some sort of farmer. So he used what God had given to him. I am personally convinced that I can't be dogmatic, that had Shamgar been a Carpenter, he would have killed them with a hammer. Had he been a mechanic, he would have gotten his biggest, longest, 916th wrench and knocked them into eternity. Had sham guard been a painter, I think he would have picked up a couple of paint cans and done battle with the Philistines similarly tonight. I think God wants to raise up some modern day sham gardens. Men and women who will simply use the tools that God has given you for the honor and glory of Christ. He'll say I'm not going to wait until I get something. Better. I'm not going to wait until I get something stronger. I'll not wait until I get something more impressive. Hey, by application, I'm not going to wait until I get 20 people. Committed to come to my Sunday school class before I'll be faithful. I'll faithfully prepare and teach the three people that God has given me. I'm not going to wait until I get an extra $1000 in my wallet to honor God with my stewardship. I'm gonna use the $5.00 bill that God has given me. Now, I don't know what God's called you to do with it, but I will tell you he wants you to use what he has already given you for his honor and for his glory. Some mom and dad needs to know tonight. Don't wait until you've got a perfect spouse and perfect kids to try to have a Christian home. Serve God with the family you've got now. Somebody tonight needs to be reminded. Don't wait till you get a better job. Don't wait till you get a bigger house. Don't wait until you get more education. Students don't waste your life. Waiting until you get one more degree. Serve God now look into the face of heaven tonight and say, Lord, here I am with what I've got. And if you can use me where I am with what you've given me, spin me and use me for your glory. God, if you can use a whale to deal with a backslidden prophet if you can use a donkey to speak, to, bail him. If you can use a slingshot to kill a giant, you can use me. The weapon that was in his hand. The wickedness that was in his land, thirdly and finally, I want you to notice the wisdom. That was in his stand. Where you see, I think there are a couple of very important lessons we can learn from this. Obscure Farmer turned Canaanite Terminator. Watch him as he takes his stand in the middle of the road. And knocks cold and dead 600 philistines. With a cattle prod. What wisdom can we glean from this tonight? To be clear, I highly doubt that God is calling you to be a Rambo for Jesus tonight at the Huddle House or the Circle K. But the gospel still calls us today. To stand up, stand up for Jesus. Ye soldiers of the cross. To lift high his royal banner, knowing that it must not suffer loss so quickly tonight, what two lessons can we learn from this ancient black belt named Shamgar 2? Simple things. First, his commitment. To availability. His commitment. To availability. After him came Shamgar, the son of Anath, who struck down 600 philistines with an ox code, and he also saved. Israel. We don't know much about Shamgar. We don't have any record of his ability. But he seemed to understand a wonderful truth. That the greatest ability is availability. To simply say, take my life and let it be. Consecrated Lord. To thee, take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love. Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee. Take my love. My God, I pour at your feet. It's treasures store to say take my silver and my gold. Not a mite. Would I withhold Lord? Here I am. I am available for your service. Doctor Bob Pittman, who has preached in our church, is one of the few preachers that I know that actually has a sermon. On this man named Shamgar. From this one verse, Doctor Pittman's outline is very simple. He says that Shamgar did what he could. Where he was. With what he had. For the glory of God. That's kind of hard to improve on, isn't it? He did what he could. Where he was. With what he? Had. For the glory of God. This afternoon at lunch, I was talking to our daughter Sarah who. Very gifted with. Music and singing. Has largely taught herself guitar and piano and. Played the guitar and LED some worship on the youth fall retreat just a couple of weekends ago. Thinking about this truth, this principle today, I reminded her that if I had waited. Until I thought that I could proficiently and effectively play the guitar before I ever led a worship service. Brother Andrew, I would have never led one. But if you know anything about guitar, if you've got a GACAD seven and a capo, you can lead the people of God in some songs. And why in the world would God ever give you a bigger platform or a greater area of ministry if you're not willing to make available to him? What you have right now. Shamgar made himself available to the Lord. Dear Christian friend, may I ask you tonight, are you available to the Lord? Is your time available or have you filled it up? Are your finances available to the Lord, or have you committed them all elsewhere? Is your energy. Available to the Lord. Or are you spending it all in other places? Tonight, perhaps we need to be reminded that at Calvary, Jesus brought us lock, stock, and barrel from the crown of our head to the soles of our feet, and Shamgar had a commitment to availability. Secondly, and finally, we're talking about the wisdom we can learn from his stand for God. I see his contentment with obscurity. His commitment to availability, his contentment with obscurity. The fact that this man seems to come from out of nowhere. Perform an amazing feat of deliverance and then disappear on the pages of scripture about as fast as he showed up. That provides a lesson in and of itself. In fact, one commentary labels this section of Scripture on this one verse, the label of that passage is the man from nowhere. Dale Ralph Davis in his commentary says it is particularly the glory of God to save by instruments unknown. Or scarcely known to us. Shamgar seems to be content. To serve the Lord and relative. Obscurity. It has been frequently said that the world has yet to see. What the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ could accomplish. If nobody cared who got the credit? But that only Christ received the glory. So I close tonight, reminding you of something I said at the outset of this message. Why do I want to be like Shamgar? Because here's a man. Who, by his own choice or the Providence of God, or both? Was willing to minister in relative obscurity. So long as the work of God was done, the people of God were blessed, and the glory of God. Was revealed. I pointed out to you earlier in this service, this weekend, March 25 years since I LED my first service at Emmanuel. Years ago, I became the longest tenured pastor in the history of the church. I say that only to say this. However long God allows me to serve and I pray it's for the rest of my ministry in this church. But sooner or later? If the Lord doesn't come first. There'll be a group of people sitting at the Emmanuel Baptist Church that don't even remember my name. I'll be a footnote. In the back of your grandma's Bible. Where she wrote down the date and the titles. And the name of the preacher. And I come tonight. To tell you that by the grace of God. That'll be all right with me. So long as the work of God is done. The people of God are blessed. And the glory of God. Is revealed. I might merit fewer than 50 words that Shamgar received in the Bible. But one of my favorite songs by. Author and composer. Larry gauss. Says inside my heart there burns a question. What was I placed on Earth here for? It truly was to build a Kingdom. But not my own. Of the Lord. So I want my life to count for Jesus. If no one ever knows my name, no need to add to earthly riches. I only seek eternal gain. Bottom Line, tonight, church. Forget me. You lose nothing. Forget Jesus. You lose everything. And I challenge you tonight, as this verse has challenged me, I will be a whole lot more like Jesus. If I can be at least a little bit more like Shaman. You've been listening to the Emmanuel pulpit, the broadcast ministry of Pastor Mike Stone, senior pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, GA, with confidence in the authority and sufficiency of the Word of God. Pastor Mike is committed to walking you verse by verse through books of the. Bible. We pray this message has been an encouragement to you. As you seek to learn and live the word of God, Free audio downloads of this message as well as general contact information are available through our website at ebchurch.net. Thanks for joining us for today's message from the Emmanuel Pulpit. Audio file 95bddfa9-6972-45b4-82d0-94c901f3fde3-2021.10.24-PM-Judges-09-I-Wanna-Be-Like-Shamgar-Judges-3-31-Mike-Stone-Senior-Pastor.mp3 Transcript