6. Shammah

6. Shammah.

There’s something vaguely terrifying about the idea of a man defending a field of lentils if you were born in the 70’s and remember the “More-with-Less” cookbook. Part of me wants to shout “run you crazy fool!”.

Lentils to one-side, there’s something compelling about the tale of Shammah when you live in streets stripped bare of fruit by an enemy that likes to intimidate.

“Next to him was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines banded together at a place where there was a field of lentils, Israel’s troops fled from them. But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the Lord brought about a great victory.” 2 Samuel 23:11-12

Toward the end of the records of King David in the books of Samuel, when he is dog-tired but still singing songs of praise, here we find three little tales of three of his mighty men, each giving the reason why they are named mighty. The third one is Shammah, son of Agee the Hararite.  There’s no context to this story, and no detail about the situation in Israel at the time. All we have is a field, a threat, a fleeing, a solitary man who stood, and a God who won the battle. This in itself is a gift: a reminder that in the face of a threat we either stand or run; a reminder that one can stand against an army; and that if we stand God brings the victory. Two little verses.

But this is no ordinary book, and Shammah was no ordinary man. Deeper treasure can be gleaned.

We are told that the battle took place in a field of lentils. Now I’m no gardener, but even I can see that if there is a distinguishable crop, there’s been some work going on. It takes time and effort to clear and prepare ground, sow seeds, tend to the crop and protect it from any threat as it grows. A field of lentils is not a leisure activity, it is provision in a time and place without Aldi at the end of the road as a fallback option. Winter follows harvest, and winter is harsh. So I’m guessing that if this crop was distinguishable as lentils, harvest wasn’t far off. It strikes me as interesting that the enemy gathered at this point in this place. If Shammah defended the field, it was the field the enemy was after. I can’t imagine them stealing lentils and running, so I’m guessing they intended to destroy the crop, leaving the Israelites discouraged and facing a hungry winter. That seems like a strategy of an enemy intent on beating down a people and destroying not only their food, but also their hope.

Israel’s army ran. The lentils, they thought, weren’t worth their lives. Maybe they’d forgotten that it wasn’t just lentils, it was the survival and morale of their people, their children, their inheritance. Shammah stood. Alone. Apart from his name and his status as a mighty man, I found nothing about him that told me the secret of his courage.

Shammah. I remember that name. In Ezekiel 48:35 it is the name of God given at the close of the rebuilding of the temple. YHWH SHAMMAH: the God who is present. A name that carried a sense of presence and ability to finish what was started.

We are also told that he was son of Agee the Hararite. Shammah had a father, and his father was a Hararite, a mountain-dweller. We read in many Bible stories that God chooses mountains as His dwelling place, His home, where He hangs out and lets it all hang out. On the mountain top His glory is so tangible that few dare visit, and those who do know that He will have to hide Himself somewhat so they don’t combust. Agee was a mountain-dweller.

Who can be a mountain-dweller, the Psalmist asked (Ps 24:3) and answered that only one who had clean hands and a pure heart could go up. What secret did Agee know? Did he know that God had pre-made a way for his hands to be clean? While I was pondering this I remembered Matthew 5 and Jesus taking the people up the mountain with him, all of those who gathered round him. They were invited up before he was crucified and resurrected. In John15:3 Jesus affirms that we are clean because of the word he has spoken to us, and in Ephesians 2:6 Paul reminds us that we were raised up and seated with Jesus in heavenly places, the top of the mountain, because God both invited us up and made a way.

Seated. We are invited up to be dwellers not visitors. Maybe this was Shammah’s secret: that he carried the name of the God who is present because he was the son of a mountain-dweller. And because the God who was present is the God who finishes what He starts Shammah was able to stand in the face of the enemy in full and fearless anticipation of victory. And because of this there was a harvest, and an inheritance, for his people.

I wonder if my tendency to run, to hide, to surrender what I’ve worked for, is connected to the fact that I’ve not yet taken my seat on the mountain I’ve been qualified to climb up. That I’ve not sat down in the presence of the One who has already finished what He started, who has won the battle, and to whom victory belongs.

YHWH SHAMMAH, I don’t want my people to be robbed anymore. There’s been too much stolen already, and I won’t surrender the lentils so easily next time. I see the treasure here in these two little verses and the story of Shammah, and I deeply want to know the secrets Shammah knew. So I will sit down in His presence and become a mountain-dweller.  I will sit and I will wait and I will slow down, because if I make that my home there, then at the very same time I can dwell on the contested ground again, and fight.

“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus”  (Ephesians 2:6)