Manure or Minimum?

Where no oxen are, the trough is clean;
But much increase comes by the strength of an ox.
Prov 14:4 NKJV

Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty,
but from the strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest.
Prov 14:4 NIV

In the spring of 1977, I began pastoring a group of people who wanted to grow themselves into a church. I was as green as they come and found myself making many mistakes. I also discovered that I did not come by the heart of a pastor naturally. There are some folks who are care givers by their very nature. They have infinite patience and a capacity to nurture that I was lacking.

One morning in prayer, I was asking the Lord to forgive me for causing so many problems and questioning His wisdom in choosing for me to pastor this growing group. In reply, He directed me to the above verse. I was encouraged as the Spirit began to speak to my heart regarding this ox.

The phrase that is translated “the trough is clean” and “the manger is empty” can also be translated as “the stall is clean.” I took this to mean that if you have no oxen, you do not have to shovel any manure.

However, the verse goes on the say that much increase or an abundant harvest comes from the strength that the ox provides. The Lord encouraged me by letting me see that if the people wanted the benefit of my giftings and talents that they would have to learn to shovel some manure as well.

I was not and am not perfect. I am being perfected or completed in Christ Jesus but the process continues even after these almost 30 years in ministry. I make mistakes even today. I get angry at overt stupidity. I cannot abide injustice or gossip. I will not tolerate hypocrites or those who have hidden agendas and I do not always deal with these situations with the greatest of tack or diplomacy.

It must be recognized, though, that I bring experience, wisdom, giftings and insight to the table that may be difficult to otherwise locate. It was the Father’s good pleasure to grant these gifts, to design these experiences that I might be more like His Son and better fit to accomplish His desire. This is not arrogance. It is fact. There was a TV show in the late 60s called “The Guns of Will Sonnet”. It starred Walter Brennan among others. He had a catch phrase that he used throughout the show.

“No brag, just fact.”

The Apostle Paul gave us this admonition.

Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
Rom 12:3-4 NIV

Many would take that to mean that that we must be self-deprecating, that we must not acknowledge who we are in God, or how He has blessed us. Paul also wrote the following,

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Phil 3:4-11 NIV

Paul knew well who he was and what made him the unique vessel that he was, but he also recognized that outside of God and knowing Jesus who he was and what he had accomplished were not worth anything.

We are given gifts by God and have received calling from God which He will not revoke. (Roman 11:29) He has made us uniquely who we are for a specific purpose which He knew before we were born. Read Psalm 139. Paul also weighs in on the predestination issue very clearly.

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Rom 8:29-30 NIV

Returning to the analogy of the ox, there are several other references that I would like us to look at.

In majesty he is like a firstborn bull; his horns are the horns of a wild ox.
With them he will gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth. Deut 33:17 NIV

In this verse, Moses is pronouncing a blessing upon the tribes of the children of Israel. Specifically, he is blessing Joseph’s progeny by comparing them to a wild ox. In our hemisphere, this would be equivalent to the bison.

The Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament has this to say about the sons of Joseph.

“All the sons of Joseph resembled oxen, but Ephraim was the most powerful of
them all. He was endowed with majesty; his horns, the strong weapon of oxen, in
which all their strength is concentrated, were not the horns of common oxen, but
horns of the wild buffalo (reem, Num 23:22), that strong indomitable beast (cf.
Job. 39:9 ff.; Ps 22:22)”*

In an article from the State Museum of Illinois, we read

Although some accounts of successful domestication do exist (Dary, 1974; Belue,
1996; Roe, 1972), they are few relative to those of failures. Schoolcraft (1820)
wrote:
The attempts which have been made to domesticate this animal, have
not been attended with success. Calves which have been taken in the woods and
brought up with the tame breed, have afterwards discovered a wild and
ungovernable temper, and manifested their savage nature by breaking down the
strongest enclosure, and enticing the tame cattle into the woods.

This wild ox or bison cannot be domesticated, cannot be tamed and should not. They very value comes from being a wild ox. For a fairly complete list of how the Native Americans utilized this wild ox, visit Bison Central here.


For surely your enemies, O LORD, surely your enemies will perish; all evildoers will be scattered. You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured upon me. My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries; my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes. Ps 92:9-11 NIV

In this passage, the phrase “You exalted my horn like that of a wild ox, fine oils have been poured over me” is interpreted as follows,

The hitherto oppressed church then stands forth vindicated and glorious.

The primary passages for figures taken from animal life are Num 23:22;
Deut 33:17. The horn is an emblem of defensive power and at the same time of
stately grace; and the fresh, green oil an emblem of the pleasant feeling and
enthusiasm, joyous in the prospect of victory, by which the church is then
pervaded (Acts 3:19).*

This wild ox or buffalo, as it is translated in Spanish, represents the victory won through its strength to defend. When attacked, it will not be overcome, will not be tamed, will not be enslaved. So it is with me. So must it be with you. So must it be with all of us as the church.

Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Rom 6:16-18 NIV

If we want the benefit of having the ox around, if we want a great harvest, sometimes, just sometimes, we are going to have the shovel some manure? However, all too often, we want our Christianity, our church services and our relationships to nice and neat and orderly. Why do you think that God called the prophets in the Old Testament? To shake up the status quo, to wake up the sleeping, to mess up their nicely ordered universes!

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Eph 4:11-13

These five offices are called to prepare God’s people. Perhaps at a later date I will expound this passage further but suffice it to say that included in this grouping are the prophets. We can rest assured that God the Father is prepared to do what ever is necessary into to have a bride prepared for God the Son and it will inevitably required the calling forth of the prophetic by God the Spirit.

Be prepared to shovel some manure. But be equally prepared to reap a great harvest!

*(from Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)