1. Judges 3:31 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is the God-centred significance of Shamgar?

Judges 3:31 (ESV)

31 After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an oxgoad, and he also saved Israel.

Should we not see here the very glory of the Lord? Can’t he deliver his people as he sees fit, whether by a follower or a pagan? Isn’t there something so mysterious about a God like this? A God who gave an oxgoad to Shamgar, a dagger to Ehud, a hammer to Jael, horns and torches to Gideon, and a donkey’s jawbone to Samson? Deliverance is of the Lord, who can use weak and foolish things to shame the strong and wise.1