[One-Verse Meditation]

Judges 3:31 (NIV) “After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad. He too saved Israel.”

[Meditation]

There were twelve judges in the era of the judges. Half of them were Major Judges, accompanied by long narratives, while the other half were Minor Judges, recorded in only a few verses. The third judge, Shamgar in today’s text, is mentioned in just a single verse. We don’t know the specific events of his service. We are only told the result: that he saved Israel from the Philistines with an oxgoad. He was probably a shepherd who drove oxen; he likely wasn’t a warrior whom people admired. But God saved Israel through him.

Could it be that the thrilling stories of the Major Judges are encapsulated within the one or two verses of the Minor Judges, whose names are not even familiar? In God’s eyes, the story of each and every judge must have been just so. Because His story of salvation was written into each of their lives.

It wouldn’t be easy for readers to pay much attention to the Minor Judges like Shamgar. Nevertheless, the reason the biblical writer recorded them is clear: it is because the love and zeal of God, who raises up the utterly ordinary to save His people, was present in their lives.

The stories of the judges, as types of Christ Jesus, also contain our own image in between the lines—the story of God who chooses those who are nothing without Him and entrusts them with His work. Come to think of it, the steps we take on the path of salvation through Jesus Christ, the true Judge, are the very steps of a judge.

[Prayer]

Lord, the whole of my life is a story of salvation, because each and every day is filled with Your love and justice. So, I have no choice but to sing to You this new day. To sing of Your dazzling name. Amen.
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(Daily Reading)

Judges 3:31-4:16