Shamgar’s Ox Goad

Judges 3: 31; 5: 6

“And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred
men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel.”

Shamgar's story just takes up one verse in the Bible, but his example demonstrates the grace
and might of God for all generations. God sent the judges as temporary and unique deliverers to
free the Jews from their captors. Shamgar, who used an ox goad to kill 600 Philistines, exemplified
the gruesome and violent nature of the task of many individual judges.
The story of Shamgar illustrates how God will sometimes let people feel overpowered and
unprepared. Six hundred to one outnumbered Shamgar. He felt overpowered. Shamgar's only
weapons against the Philistines were an ox goad or a sharpened stick. He lacked sufficient tools.
Nonetheless, Shamgar was successful because he had both righteousness and the strength of the
All-Powerful God on his side. Whenever God's power and justice are combined to advance a just
cause, powerful and amazing things happen. The victory against the world is still one of faith.

Ox goad- An ox goad is a wooden tool, approximately eight feet long, fitted with an iron spike or
point at one end, which was used to spur oxen as they pulled a plow or cart. It often had an iron
scraper at the non-pointed end to clear clods of earth from the plowshare when it became weighed
down.