Drawing on Shammah, the lone warrior who held his field of lentils when Israel's army fled, a field guide to identifying, entering, and holding the ground God has assigned you.
About the book
In 2 Samuel 23, a man named Shammah plants himself in a field of lentils while the army flees, fights off the Philistines alone, and wins a victory Scripture credits entirely to God. From that image Bruce Ladebu builds a sustained argument: courage is not a gift handed to exceptional people, but a code, cultivated through conviction, discipline, and dependence on God.
Each chapter pairs the Shammah principle with a true story of moral courage: Ryan Pitts bleeding out on an Afghan hilltop, Nancy Wake riding four hundred kilometers through occupied France, Witold Pilecki walking voluntarily into Auschwitz. Woven through is the author's own story of building the Children's Rescue Initiative from a vision received in the early 1990s into the rescue of more than 2,600 people. The book closes with a ten-question workbook to help you name your own field.
What you’ll discover
Six threads that run through The Shammah Code.
Courage as a code
Cultivated through small daily choices long before any crisis arrives.
The field
Everyone is assigned specific, sometimes unglamorous ground that they alone are responsible to hold.
Faithfulness in small seasons
The material from which dramatic courage is later made.
The cost of standing
An honest look at what holding the line takes from the people nearest to us.
Mission sustained
Where The David Effect established vision and mission, the Shammah principle keeps both alive through long difficulty.
The unseen battle
Drawing on Ephesians 6, fields are contested by forces beyond the human, and the armor of God is the field-holder's equipment.
From the book
Shammah stood in a field. He could not have known that his story would be recorded in Scripture and read by millions of people across three thousand years. He did not stand for his legacy. He stood for the field.
Who it’s for
For adult Christians carrying a calling that has become costly, slow, or unrecognized, who feel alone in their assignment and tempted to retreat. Also for readers drawn to military history and moral biography read through a faith lens, and for men's and small-group ministry.
Get the book
Available now on Amazon.
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