OXES AND TIGERS (A Modern Parable)
The circus lion was tamed (broken) through abuse. Yet its trainer backs up when the abused lion remembers that it is a lion and with a mighty roar and bared claws begins to assert its own will. But the cruel trainer does not permanently back up, he backs up to regroup and to let the lion get the rebellion out of his system. Then the cruel trainer comes back with the same cruel tactics previously used he makes the lion obey. The lion submits and so his abuse begins again. The lion had a glimmer of hope but now the hope is snatched from him. Now he is more broken than before. Now he believes that the cruel whip that keeps him in control is his lot in life. He is now less what he was born to be, even than before he rebelled against his treatment. Now he is less likely to think for himself, to be himself and instead he will even more believe that he has no rights and deserves no rights to freedom. And when he returns to the cage to be with his companions they mock him. What has he gained? For all his troubles he is back in the same spot. They sneer “you have suffered for nothing.” Mocking, they say He should give up his hope for freedom and become obedient to the whip the master holds. He should accept his fate as they have. Yet his cage companions don’t know what he saw when he was briefly loose. The feeling he had during his short freedom. For the rest of his life he will long and sigh for the sweet freedom he had once tasted. The taste his fellows never had. In his sleep he dreams of freedom, but when he wakes, he faces the cruel trainer with his biting whip.
While the beaten into submission circus lions submit, there are, in the wild, free lions who live out lion lives. These lions would rather die than submit. They know who they are. They know what they were born to be. The fierce roar of the free lions warns the surrounding occupants of the land that he is free, that he is untamed and he is living as he was created to live.
The cruel tyrant of the circus lions will never let them be free. They will die a slave to the whip. He will never willingly give up control. Tyrants never do.
Family and Friends have we sludged through mud all this time to return to the path of sludge we have already dirtied ourselves with? From the beach shall we return to the mud pit? Having crawled through the mire (that we had so despised crawling through) do we now so quickly fall back into believing the lies that first forced us through the mud? Are we beasts of lower station that only submit to the cruel taskmaster’s whip and know nothing of God given intellect or God given free will? Cruel taskmasters do not love the beast of burden that they control. Instead they will drive an ox until it falls. Then the taskmaster will finish it off, consume it, and start the cycle afresh with a new beast. Family and Friends are we only unthinking beasts who have beaten to into a brain-washed state that only obeys the taskmaster.
Galatians 5:1 – It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Hebrews 2:15 – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
John 8:36 – So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
2 Peter 2:21-22 – It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”
Did God free Israel from Egypt to lead them back to the cruel leadership of the Pharaohs? Does God give us a taste of freedom from the Law to then put us back under it? We are freed in the spirit how will we willingly allow ourselves to be physically shackled and physically enslaved. It is not as if we were born slaves. People born free do not willing become slaves to tyrants. However, some have willingly become indentured servants (willing) to the kind and generous. They are those who finding something better than they can produce for themselves and so have submitted to the one who can, and will, provide them a life far superior to anything they could provide for themselves. We were born free, do we now agree to submit to cruel and capricious tyrants. Family and Friends, tyrants never willingly give up control. Their whipping arm never tires. Control must be snatched from them and given back into the hands of trusted fellows or settle for a tyrant’s control and for a lifetime grow accustomed to the sting of the tyrant whip that will provide scars on our backs. How do people willingly allowed ourselves to become enslaved by evil men? Have we known freedom so much in vain, was it really in vain?
Yet “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, k neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39) So, while we do not willingly give up the freedom were born into, whether we are free, or are slaves, our spirits remain free because Jesus Christ. Thank you Jesus! Praise God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.”