Tag: meditations

One time I was at a camp in Romania by the mountains. We were staying at a holiday cabin in a tiny village. To get to where some of the people were staying, it was necessary to take a short walk. While walking one morning, I noticed that to my left in the field there was a pig lying with its feet in the air. Alongside were some people, one of whom had what looked like a blow torch in hand. A little later someone brought some pig’s skin over for us to try. I managed to convince an American lady to try it by saying that it was Romanian style pancake (which I guess that it sort of was!).

I guess this is as close as I have ever been to seeing an animal sacrificed. If, however I had lived in ancient times, I suppose animal sacrifices would have been a much more common occurrence. The Bible talks a lot about this. Interesting, even the first two people born, Cain and Abel, seem to have had a concept of bringing sacrifices to God.

Cain was a farmer and brought some of the things he had grown. Abel on the other hand was a shepherd and brought some of his flock. In Genesis 4:3-5 we are told about this. Here we see that there was a significant difference between the offerings that Cain and Abel brought to God.

Abel brought ‘fat portions’ from ‘firstborn’ animals. This suggests that he brought the best he had. In terms of Cain’s offering, it just says that he brought ‘some of the fruits of the soil.’ We then see that the Lord was pleased with Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s. From this, we can deduce that Cain just offered what he didn’t need, maybe some left over produce or somethings that were deformed or going bad. In any case, he seems to have brought the sacrifice just for the sake of it, whereas Abel appears to have made a true sacrifice from the heart.

By its very nature, the concept of sacrifice means giving up something, however there is obviously a temptation as humans to sacrifice that which we don’t really need. Later on in the Bible, in Leviticus 22, there is passage which talks about unacceptable sacrifices. Here, it is made clear that God’s people aren’t allowed to bring any old sacrifice to God. The sacrifice was meant to be a male animal without defect, not just a way of getting rid of a sick, unwanted animal.

This concept is illustrated in 2 Samuel 24. Here David has sinned because he decided to take a census of the fighting men in Israel. He insists on this in spite of Joab’s protest. So, the census is carried out, but then David realises that he has sinned. Presumably, the sin was that by counting the fighting men, David was putting his trust in them, instead of God. The consequence of all this is that a plague comes on Israel. The prophet Gad then comes to David and tells him to go and make an altar to the Lord to resolve the problem.

David goes where he is told and wants to buy the piece of land so that he can make the sacrifices required. The owner of the threshing floor, Araunah, however offers to give it for free to David. As a result, in 2 Samuel 24:24 David makes a very telling statement. ‘I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.’ Again, we see the concept of true sacrifices being those that cost the offerer something.  

I heard an illustration once about a rich man who put a large amount of money in a church collection. A deacon of the church offered it back to him, thinking that it was too much and maybe a mistake. The rich man said though that he was very wealthy and that actually for him it wasn’t such a lot of money. When the deacon told the church’s pastor though, the pastor told him to give the money back because at their church they only wanted sacrifices that cost.

In conclusion, Jesus says something similar to this at the beginning of Luke 21. Here we see him commend the widow, who although she only puts a small amount in the temple collection, relatively speaking she had put in a lot compared to the rich people who, although they probably gave expensive gifts, were actually only giving a small percentage of what they had. The widow gave everything and so that shows that she was truly trusting in God and giving out of love.   

Cain is very angry about the fact that his sacrifice is not accepted. God gives him the opportunity to repent of this anger and do what is right. However, his response is to kill his brother and then to try and cover it up. Interestingly, the first human born, murders the second human born, and we see the words of God in Genesis chapter 2, that death would enter the world if humans ate of the fruit of the tee of knowledge of good and evil,  begin to come true. So, we see that something that in Genesis 3 seemed small and insignificant, such as eating fruit, has led to very serious consequences.

A story is told of a man who while on holiday in South Africa decided to ignore the warning that there were sharks in the water and go for a swim anyway. As a result, one of the sharks bit him and he lost a leg and could have died. Likewise, the Bible very clearly warns against sin, however often we choose to ignore those warnings, thinking that there’s no harm in a little thing like going swimming, however we are risking getting bitten.

Genesis 4 gives a sign of hope though. At the end of the chapter we see that Eve gives birth to another son, Seth. He takes Abel’s place. This idea of substitution is also an important one throughout the Bible.

As mentioned, before the sacrifices that people were supposed to bring to God, are instructed in Leviticus to be male and without defect. This is because in the New Testament, Jesus, a man without sin came into the world. He came to sacrifice His life in our place. So, just as in one sense Abel’s death gave rise to Seth’s life, Jesus’ death gives us the chance of a new life.

So, what should our response to be to this offer? Some people still have the concept that we need to bring sacrifices to God today. There are probably still cultures out there where animal sacrifices are given. In the modern western world though, this type of sacrifice has been long forgotten. People still try though to bring other types of sacrifice, whether it be time, energy, money or other resources. However, Hebrews 7:27 very clearly states that Jesus sacrificed himself once and for all. His sacrifice was the supreme sacrifice which resolved the problem of sin and so we don’t need to add to this sacrifice other sacrifices.

The Bible does nevertheless talk about offering to God a sacrifice of thanks (Psalm 50:14) and offering our bodies as a living sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1). In other words, if we have received the benefit of Jesus’ sacrifice into our lives, that is the new life that He offers, we should then live for Him out of gratitude for what He has done for us.

For a number of years, I have travelled regularly to Alunis, a small village twenty or so kilometres from where I live in Moldova. There was a period when we got up early on a Saturday morning to go and run a children’s club. This wasn’t always easy, partly because of the children’s misbehave, but also because of the conditions there. In winter, it was often warmer outside than inside the church, for example. Sometimes I thought to myself that it would be easier to not go there. And it would have been. However, God calls us sometimes to do things that are not easy or comfortable for us. This then is our sacrifice of thanks to Him.

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My sporting achievements are few and far between. One of the few was when I was at primary school. Every lunchtime and after school, I went to football training. However, for not hard to surmise reasons, I was never selected for the school team until one fateful day. It was my final year at the school before moving on to secondary school and the last match of the season was approaching hence my last chance to be chosen for the team. And believe it or not, I got the nod (probably more out of pity than anything else; a little reward for my persistence in coming to so many football practices without actually ever being picked for the team).

The day of the match arrived, and the school bus sped its way to the fixture with, for the first and indeed last time, me in it. We made it to the school where the match was to take place and the two teams lined up on the field to begin the match. I of course was watching from the side as I was a substitute. The first half went well, and we raced into a lead. This continued into the second half where eventually it was three-nil to our team. So, finally the moment came when it was safe to introduce me into the fray. I could no longer do much harm as we were well ahead with just twenty minutes to go. However, more so than that after a few moments of headlessly running around and maybe the odd touch, the ball was crossed into the area and not only all the defenders but also the goalie missed it. It fell at my feet with just a couple of metres to the goal and no one in the way. Even I couldn’t miss, and I didn’t. Four nil a d I had scored the winning goal!

From then on, I can claim the best record of anyone who ever played for Rise Park Junior school; 100% scoring record that is a goal in every match I played and furthermore, a goal with every shot!

For obvious reasons, I have never received much attention in spite of this glorious footballing achievement. In the Bible, there are mentioned a number of people who did great things but are rarely talked about. Unsung Biblical heroes we might say. For what reason I don’t know. Maybe there are just so many Biblical heroes or maybe just some of them did slightly odd things.

I would say Shamgar definitely falls into this second category. I can’t imagine that Judges 3:31 is many people’s favourite verse, however it contains some deep truths, despite at first reading seeming a little strange to say the least.

We are told that Shamgar, the son of Anath, managed to defeat 600 Philistines using just an ox-goad. This raises a number of questions. To begin with though, I think it is good to look at the context.

The verse begins by telling us that Shamgar came after Ehud (incidentally, another unsung Biblical hero). In other words, he was just one in a long line of special people called, “Judges”, who God chose at a particular time in Israel’s history, to save them from difficult situations. The problems were caused by the fact that although the Jews were God’s chosen people, they had the tendency to allow themselves to be tempted into sin by the other people groups around them. As a consequence God allowed oppression to come on them at the hands of certain people’s. Just as suffering and difficulty today encourages many to seek God’s help, so the Jews, when they were in these difficult times of oppression began to call out to God for help. He’s response was to raise up these Judges to get the Jews out of the fix that they were in.

Shamgar is mentioned as having been the third of these Judges. He is described as the son of Anath. Anath is the name of a Canaanite Goddess of fertile. In what sense Shamgar was her son is debatable. Maybe it was title to show that he was somehow connected to her or maybe it was his mother’s name. Either way, it suggests that Shamgar might not have been Jewish, at least not 100%. Nevertheless, here he is being named as a hero who saved Israel. It just goes to show that God can use anybody he chooses to do His work, even unlikely candidates such as Shamgar who might not have even originally been a part of God’s people.

The way that Shamgar actually goes about his task appears extravagant even compared to today’s Hollywood offerings. We are told that he managed to kill 600 Philistines using just an ox-goad.

In this early part of Israel’s history, the Philistines are mentioned a number of times as being enemies of Israel, so this explains why Israel would have needed help to get free from there. However, why an ox-goad and how did Shamgar manage this extraordinary feat?

In terms of the question regarding the ox-goad, there is a clue in Judges chapter 5. Here in verse 6 it mentions the days of Shamgar and the days of Jael. Jael was the wife of Heber the Kenite, who is one of the starring figures in Judges chapter 4, where she kills Sisera, the bad guy who is leading the Canaanite King’s army. This suggests that Shamgar and Deborah, the female hero who motivates the Israelites to go out to battle the Canaanites who are oppressing them, were contemporaries. In verse 8 of this chapter we find out that at this time not a shield or spear was seen amongst forty thousand in Israel, in other words weapons were rare. Thus, we can surmise that Shamgar didn’t have access to more conventional means of fighting the Philistines and so was forced to turn to a more creative method, using an ox-goad, which would have been a piece of metal normally used to prod animals into working.

Additionally, in 1 Samuel 13:19-22 there is a passage which sheds some more light onto the situation. Here we discover that early in Saul’s reign as King of Israel, there was a period when the Philistines were oppressing Israel and one of their tactics to keep the Israelites under control was to ensure that there weren’t any blacksmiths around to sharpen weapons. Shamgar himself was fighting against Philistines, so maybe in his day there was a similar strategy at play.

In any case, the bottom line is that it seems like Shamgar used an ox-goad to defeat the Philistines because that’s all he had. It might appear to us to be an unusual weapon and it’s most certainly hard to imagine how he managed to defeat 600 men with it, but the key point is that Shamgar used what he had to bring about a great victory for God’s people. In the same way, although we might feel like we don’t have much to use for God in Christian lives, the main thing is take that which we do have, no matter how insignificant it might seem, and trust that God can bring about a great victory through it.

A simple example would be Dwight Moody, who was not very well educated and indeed after becoming a Christian could barely read the Bible due to his lack of education. Nevertheless, he dedicated what he had to God’s work and ended up preaching the Gospel to many, and even the President of America came to hear him!