As Strong or as Stubborn as an Ox?

Pastor Nate Walther

“As Strong as an Ox.” It’s a saying we have for people who are really strong, and one I especially appreciate after living in North Dakota and serving ranchers. Once cattle have it in mind that they are headed in a particular direction? They are not easily stopped. Likewise, the men who wrangle such steers? Pound-for-pound the strongest guys I’ve ever encountered.

It’s an image that adds color to certain words of Scripture, but words that are not so complementary. Several times throughout his Word, God calls his people “stiff-necked and stubborn” when they have rebelled against him. The picture behind these words is that of an ox headed in one direction, who will not turn even when you try to lead him.

How often do our sins leave us “stiff-necked and stubborn”? Just like a stiff neck that grows worse every hour you sleep on wrong, so also is our stubbornness with every sin to which we succumb. The more we tread the same path, the more easily we walk in that same groove. And we’d like to think that we can break out of it at any time! Yet how strongly does our sin have a hold on us?

It’s why we needed help from someone who didn’t once veer into the cascading path of sin where one evil leads to a million. Someone as “strong as an ox”, at least compared to us, but who would only head in the right direction. And just like oxen were sometimes used for burnt (or, “whole”) offerings on Israel’s altars, which was supposed to represent total and complete dedication to the Lord, Jesus was the burnt offering that finally got the job done God’s way, without any blemish or defect.

Thank God for the strength Jesus has as our Savior from sin! Now, with Christ’s strength, we can now find the strength to walk like an ox, but not in a stubborn or stiff-necked way. Rather, the more we follow Christ’s Word and tread that path, the more strongly we will be able to remain on God’s path.