The Strength of the Ox

King David was a strong and very influential man in the life and times of the Biblical Kingdom of Israel. He was the 'great warrior king' and a 'man after God's own heart'. He conquered the enemies of Israel, and held his reign over God's nation with His anointing for the longest of all the kings of Israel. It is fitting a king of David's character and reputation would produce the wisest earthly king ever to hold the throne of Israel. King Solomon, David's son, found favor with God as he prayed for wisdom to lead God's people. Finding Solomon to be a righteous man with a heart to please Him, God gave solomon all wisdom and blessed his reign with riches beyond compare. Solomon eventually lost God's favor by turning away from His commands, turning instead to the pleasures of this world. He did, however, impart his wisdom to countless generations through his books preserved in the scriptures before he made his exit, most notably the book of Proverbs (coming right after the book of Psalms, a good portion of which was written by his father). In the verses of Proverbs, we find many profound truths and observations of reality. I'd like to focus on one of these verses in particular. This proverb is profoundly accurate in describing simultaneously the truth lying at the core of both a life lived to the full and a life squandered.

Proverbs chapter fourteen verse four reads, " Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox." These words, up front may seem like meaningless ramblings, but within these two phrases are contained a truth that one would do well to pay attention to. To begin with, let's look at the two sides of this proverb and discuss and dissect it for its face value. The first part of the proverb states that "where there are no oxen, the manger is clean." Without overanalyzing it, this makes sense. If a manger is meant to house oxen, that will naturally mean that oxen would eat there. And where oxen eat they... well lets just say what goes up must come down if you catch my drift. Of course, if there are no oxen to... come down in the manger, the manger is clean. Easy stuff. What this also implies, as we can see, is that where there are oxen, the manger is messy. Anyone who has ever been around a feed yard where cattle are kept, or in a dairy barn, or in a stable knows that, when these are full of their respective tenants, they tend to have a very distinct oder. It's messy.

The second part of the proverb argues, "but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox." In the time when this was written, oxen were used as beasts of burden. They were used to pull carts, thresh grain, and tow plows. Any farmer that was serious about growing any kind of crop had an ox or a team of oxen. Basically, the ox was the equivalent of a tractor. So, to have any kind of crop, oxen were necessary. Pretty straight forward right? By putting these two face-value observations together, we should get a clearer picture of what this proverb is meant to communicate. Oxen are messy to keep, and to be without them would result in a clean(er) environment, but if one is to expect to raise a crop, one must have them.

It seems that, like most of Solomon's proverbs, it presents us with two incompatible realities. Reality one: Life without oxen is a clean one. Reality two: Life with oxen produces abundant crops. In presenting us with two realities that are mutually exclusive, that is, two realities that cannot exist together, Solomon presents us with a choice: Reality one, or reality two. In short, we can choose to be clean and tidy, or to be productive. It is in this distilled simplification of the proverb that we find truth that we can apply to many areas of our life. For example, if you have a shiny new car, you can either put in a garage or under a cover and never drive it in order to preserve its clean and shiny appearance, or you can use it to get from point A to point B and get it dirty with grime and dust and bugs and bird poo. The first choice would keep the car looking pretty and shiny, but would not be very practical at all. You would have an eighteen thousand dollar center-peice. The other choice would foul the pretty and shiny appearance of the car, but would allow you to travel much more quickly and easily between places. Or, to use a slightly more abstract example, one could either stay at home all day and do only the things one wanted to do like watch TV and sleep and maybe spend some time outdoors at one's own leisure, or one could get a job and work during the weekdays and subject oneself to activities that maybe aren't at the top of the list of fun things, in order that one can earn some money to live with. While the first sounds like it would be a good life to live, it wouldn't be very productive, and the quality of life would be severely hindered by a lack of resources. But the other choice would limit some of the immediate gratification, but would yield more resources and thus more options when the time came to enjoy ones free time.

The context that this applies most directly to, and that I would like to highlight, is that of the spiritual life, specifically, that of a believer; a follower of Christ. Jesus, in his commands and parables, tells us to do some things that could get pretty messy, some things that could drastically alter the course of one's life. In hearing these commands and the promises of what obeying these commands will yield, we are faced with the decision of Proverbs 14:4. We can remain clean and tidy, or we can dive into life headfirst for Christ and get messy, dirtying up our shiny lives and producing a crop for harvest. Jesus says "Give to the one who begs form you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you" (Matthew 5:42). He also says that when we give aid to those in need, we give aid to Jesus himself, who will in turn give us the Kingdom of heaven (Matthew 25:34,40). So when confronted with this command it's resulting effect, we can either, keep for ourselves our resources and our time, and let those in need find their own, maintaining a self-appeasing lifestyle, or we can give of our resources and our time, sacrificing what enjoyment we could have gained from those things for the enjoyment of others, and ultimately the eternal reward that is created in Heaven. The first is clean, and safe, and not very challenging, but it flies in the face of productivity for God's Kingdom. The second is messy; sometimes producing uncertain outcomes, and leaving us in situations that we might not be comfortable in, but will produce fruit in our lives and possibly the lives of others. The truth is, to follow Christ, to obey His commands and live the lifestyle that He calls all believers to live is messy and stinky and at times it can be very hard. But it's that lifestyle, the lifestyle that creates a messy and stinky and hard life, that will produce the most fruit for the Kingdom of God. Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.