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Ox-Goad Potential
What can one person do with an ox goad? We wonder if anyone actually
gave it much thought before a man named Shamgar came on the scene in the
early part of the Israelite period of the judges.
The period of the judges was an era filled with heartache and
sadness and ‘ups and downs.’ Because of the repeated apostasies of
Israel, God sold them into the hands of the surrounding nations. When
Israel eventually came to their senses and repented, however, God each
time raised up a judge to deliver them.
During one of these apostasy/repentance/deliverance cycles, God
had used the Philistines to harass the Israelites. But as Israel turned
to the Lord, God raised up “Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed six
hundred men of the Philistines with an ox goad; and he also delivered
Israel” (Judges 3:31).
Do you know what an ox goad is? It’s a long, narrow farm
implement, up to eight feet in length, fashioned of wood or iron, made
for the purpose of goading or prodding oxen along. It isn’t made for war
purposes. (We strongly doubt that at various soldiers’ gatherings, when
men came together to compare and boast about their weapons, that anyone
would have brought forth his ox goad.)
“Why, then, the use of an ox goad in battle?” you wonder. It may
have been the only implement at Shamgar’s disposal. A song written by
Deborah (a later judge) speaks of the “days of Shamgar” as a time when
“not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel” (Judges
5:6-8). A humble ox goad may have been the best fighting tool he could
find. And use it he did in doing the Lord’s work of defeating Israel’s
enemies. He used what he had.
Is there not some lesson to be learned by us in this?
What if every disciple of Jesus could be persuaded to, like
Shamgar, take what he or she has and by faith put it to work for the
Lord?
“Oh, but I’m just a nobody… I don’t have much ability… I’m just a
one-talent person… What can I do?” Those are the sentiments of a person
with a defeatist attitude, a disposition that accomplishes nothing.
Sadly, it is an outlook that prevails in the hearts of many a disciple
today. But, beloved, such wasn‘t Shamgar‘s viewpoint. Who can deny that
his God-aided ingenuity fulfilled the potential of his cattle device? He
is but one of many biblical illustrations of how God uses little people
with seemingly little capabilities to accomplish great things.
SO WHAT if your abilities are nothing of which to boast? What
abilities are?! (Read 1 Corinthians 4:7.) The real question is, “What
are you doing with the abilities God has blessed you with?” Are you an
‘ox-goad’ (one-talent) person? The Lord wants to know, and will someday
bring you into account for, what you are doing with the talent he’s
blessed you with (Matthew 25:14-30).
If we would be pleasing to the Lord we must throw off these
debilitating mindsets that freeze us in place. We must with confidence
believe what the Scripture says, that God “is able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that
works in us” (Ephesians 3:20).
Repeat after Paul: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me” (Philippians 4:13).
--Mike Noble
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