Proverbs 14:4
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Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.
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Oxen are large bovine animals God created for the service of man. Today, when domesticated, we generally call them cattle; and specifically, they are castrated bulls that have reached full maturity and strength. (Bulls do not submit well to handling, yokes, and plowing!) They may easily weigh one ton and have enormous strength for pulling.
A crib is a barred storage apparatus where corn and other grain products are kept for feeding cattle and other farm animals. From this usage we have adapted the word to mean the barred small bed for children, which has a similar appearance. A cattle crib is similar to the manger in which our Lord and Saviour was placed after birth (Luke 2:7).
If a farmer plows, cultivates, and harvests by hand, he only has the strength and endurance to work a very small section of ground. His family may barely survive. And he will never get ahead. The storage crib for corn or other produce will be clean - empty, because he and his family will have eaten all he could plant and harvest. Nations in the world even today that still rely on manual labor are as poor as they were 4000 years ago.
But if a farmer can scrimp and save to purchase an ox, he will have invested in the means of much greater production. The strong ox can pull a plow through the soil for many hours a day (I Kgs 19:19). Many acres can be cultivated. The ox can trample the raw corn and separate it from the stalk (Deut 25:4), and he can drive a grinding wheel much better than Samson (Judges 16:21). The ox can pull heavily loaded wagons to market (Num 7:3). The farmer now produces much more than he needs to eat and increases his wealth and farm. This great reversal of fortune came by saving and investing.
Saving and investing are pillars of a capitalistic economy. To buy an ox, a farmer denies himself short-term pleasure to accumulate the needed funds: this is saving. Then he must spend it for an ox that eats much feed each day and requires expensive upkeep: this is investing. By saving some of his own production, the farmer created capital; by investing it in better means of production, he has converted his capital to be income producing. Capital so invested will bring wealth, which creates more capital and investment, which leads to even greater wealth. Much increase is by the strength of the ox!
Consider the wisdom of our proverb. Oxen eat a lot of corn and other feed, yet it is a farm without oxen that has nothing in the crib. Farms with oxen, though they eat much corn, have great increase in their net corn production. There is very much corn left over to sell and buy luxuries they never dreamed of when cultivating their land by hand. God has created means of production that wisely used will produce far more than they consume. Thank you, Lord. And God has given the wisdom to do so. Thank you, Lord.
Both the ox and the wisdom to use the ox come from the Lord of hosts. In fact, even the knowledge of how to plant, harvest, and process corn comes from the Lord (Is 28:23-29).
Here is economic wisdom, and Solomon taught this three thousand years ago! But there are whole continents, societies, and nations that have not learned these simple lessons. They still rely on manual labor, do not understand saving, make no investments, and ignore the means of production that are available. They pick berries and nuts, hunt wild game, wear skins, and live in huts or tents. They have not changed in thousands of years.
The United States exploits these principles of wisdom more than any other nation, and we enjoy the greatest wealth and prosperity. We enjoy luxuries and leisure like no other society in history. And we categorize these other nations as second world or third world countries based on their ignorance and lack of use of these simple economic principles.
Once a man sees the profit of saving and investing in an ox, he becomes very conscious of other possibilities; and so we have other witty inventions, which are a further blessing of God upon those who fear Him (8:12). They invent better plows, planters, pickers, threshing devices, and tractors! They invent chainsaws, combines, PTOs, conveyors, washing machines, typewriters, vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens, and computers!
Would you like to be a lumberjack with an axe or a chainsaw? Would you like to slice meat in a deli with a knife or a meat slicer? Would you like to be an accountant with an abacus or a computer? Would you like to unload trucks with a forklift or by hand? Would you accept the assignment to build a car by hand or on an assembly line?
Now let us summarize and bless the Lord! The ox, the economic wisdom to use the ox, agricultural wisdom, and witty inventions are all from the Lord! Give God the glory!
Are you saving and investing as wisely as you should? Are you obeying this proverb in your own life? Do you own any means of production? Do you have any income-producing assets? Are you accumulating funds - capital - to invest in such things?
Paul applies care of oxen to ministers, so let us consider how our proverb addresses them (I Cor 9:6-14; I Tim 5:17-18). A church without a pastor will see little spiritual growth, for the God-given strength of the spiritual ox is missing. But where there is a laboring pastor, the church will benefit by this God-ordained means of increase. A hard working minister can be very profitable - and this is his calling (I Tim 4:13-16). And the harder he works, the more he should be fed (I Tim 5:17-18).
Are you taking care of your ox - the watcher of your soul? Do you pray for him daily?
Further, it is the spiritual duty of God's saints to seek the purity of their churches, for spiritual and carnal blessings are by His favor (Psalm 144:9-15). Even the means of natural production, and certainly the means of spiritual production, are by His blessing. Strong and healthy oxen and garners full of food are both by divine mercy (Psalm 144:13-14). And it is a happy people indeed who have honored the Lord with holy lives to bring these great blessings! Happy is that people whose God is the LORD (Ps 144:15)!
Adam Smith wrote "The Wealth of Nations" in 1776; and savings, investment, capital, means of production, income-producing assets, and distribution of labor were little understood until then. But the Preacher taught these things in 920 BC, or almost three thousand years before Adam Smith! Give God the glory! Love Scripture! Love Proverbs!
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