The Ox and The Goad

Jesus even out of Heaven speaks in parables, according to his accustomed.

To Paul he briefly utters the parable of the rebellious ox.

Note the tenderness of the appeal: it is not, “You are harming me by your persecutions,” but, “You are wounding yourself.” He says not, “it is hard for me,” but “hard for you.”

May the Lord thus speak in pity to those who are now resisting his grace, and thus save them from wounding themselves.

Listen attentively to the simple comparison, and observe—

I. THE OX. A fallen man deserves no higher type.

1. You are acting like a brute beast, in ignorance and passion. You are unspiritual, thoughtless, unreasonable.

2. Yet God values you more than a man does an ox.

3. Therefore he feeds you, and does not slay you.

4. You are useless without guidance, and yet you are unwilling to submit to your Master’s hand.

5. If you were but obedient you might be useful, and might find content in your service.

6. You have no escape from the choice of either to obey or to die, and it is useless to be stubborn.

II. THE OX-GOAD. You have driven the Lord to treat you as the gardener treats a stubborn ox.

1. The Lord has tried you with gentle means, a word, a pull of the rein, etc.: by parental love, by tender admonitions of friends and teachers, and by the gentle promptings of his Spirit.

2. Now he uses the more severe means—

   • Of solemn threatening by his law.
   • Of terrors of conscience, and dread of judgment.
   • Of loss of relatives, children, friends.
   • Of sickness, and varied afflictions.
   • Of approaching death, with a dark future beyond it.

3. You are feeling some of these pricks, and cannot deny that they are sharp. Take heed lest worse things come upon you.

III. THE KICKS AGAINST THE GOAD. These are given in various ways by those who are resolved to continue in sin.

1. There are early childish rebellions against restraint.

2. There are sneers at the gospel, at ministers, at holy things.

3. There are willful sins against conscience and light.

4. There are revilings and persecutions against God’s people.

5. There are questionings, infidelities, and blasphemies.

IV. THE HARDNESS OF ALL THIS TO THE OX. It hurts itself against the goad, and suffers far more than the driver designs.

1. In the present. You are unhappy: you are full of unrest and alarm, you are increasing your chastisement, and fretting your heart.

2. In the best possible future. You will feel bitter regrets, have desperate habits to overcome, and much evil to undo. All this if you do at last repent and obey.

3. In the more probable future. You are preparing for yourself increased hardness of heart, despair, and destruction.

   • Oh, that you would know that no possible good can come of kicking against God, who grieves over your infatuations!
   • Yield to the discipline of your God.
   • He pities you now, and begs you to consider your ways.
   • It is Jesus who speaks; be not so brutish as to refuse him that speaks from Heaven.
   • You may yet, like Saul of Tarsus, become grandly useful, and plough many a field for the Lord Jesus.

Striking Thoughts

Did not Lord Byron feel the sharpness of the goad when he exclaimed, concerning the gospel, “The worst of it is, I believe it”?

You have heard of the sword-fish. It is a very curious creature, with a long and bony beak, or sword, projecting in front of its head. It is also very fierce, attacking other fishes that come in its way, and trying to pierce them with its sword. The fish has sometimes been known to dart at a ship in full sail, with such violence as to pierce the solid timbers. But what has happened? The silly fish has been killed outright by the force of its own blow. The ship sails on just as before, and the angry sword-fish falls a victim to its own rage. But how shall we describe the folly of those who, like Saul of Tarsus, oppose the cause of Christ? They cannot succeed: like the sword-fish, they only work their own destruction.—Illustrative Teaching.

Dr. John Hall, in one of his sermons, compared the attacks of infidelity upon Christianity to a serpent gnawing at a file. As he kept on gnawing, he was greatly encouraged by the sight of the growing pile of chips; until feeling pain, and seeing blood, he found that he had been wearing his own teeth away against the file, but the file was unharmed.

Oh cursèd, cursèd Sin! Traitor to God, And ruiner of man! Mother of Woe,

And Death, and Hell!

—Pollok.

Cowper describes Voltaire as—

“An infidel in health, but what when sick?

Oh—then a text would touch him at the quick.”

Men complain of their circumstances, and cry, “This is hard—hard as for the bird of plumage to beat against the wires of its cage.” Nay, harder far than that. It is hard for loss of time, for loss of temper, for loss of strength, for loss of trusting, loving obedience; and because no good can come of it, no success can be gained in the vain, Utopian, and worse than foolish struggle. Let every man struggle to improve himself, and he will not fail to improve his lot also. But let him never “kick” against his earthly lot; for so, if hurt at all, he hurts himself the more. He “kicks against the pricks.”—Pulpit Commentary.

The Spirit of God can make use of any agency to bring sinners to repentance and faith in the Redeemer. Commenting once upon the words, “The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people does not consider,” the speaker sought to impress upon his people how strangely guilty the human heart is, despising the goodness of God, and forgetting his very existence. Three or four days after, a farmer, who had been present, was giving provender to his cattle, when one of his oxen, evidently grateful for his care, fell to licking his bare arm. Instantly, with this simple incident, the Holy Spirit flashed conviction on the farmer’s mind. He burst into tears, and exclaimed, “Yes, it is all true. How wonderful is God’s word! This poor dumb brute is really more grateful to me than I am to God, and yet I am in debt to him for everything. What a sinner I am I” The lesson had found its way to his heart, and wrought there effectually to lead him to Christ.