The Ox Knows His Owner

THE OX KNOWS HIS OWNER

ISAIAH 1:3-4

Isaiah 1:3-4 (KJV) 3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. 4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

It is interesting to me that man with all of his intellect, can be so dump when comes to God. In our text God uses two of the dumbest animals to make man look so inadequate in his thinking whe it comes to worship of God.

The ox knoweth—An amplification of the gross insensibility of the disobedient Jews, by comparing them with the most heavy and stupid of all animals, yet not so insensible as they. Bochart has well illustrated the comparison, and shown the peculiar force of it. "He sets them lower than the beasts, and even than the most stupid of all beasts, for there is scarcely any more so than the ox and the ass. Yet these acknowledge their master; they know the manger of their lord; by whom they are fed, not for their own, but for his good; neither are they looked upon as children, but as beasts of burden; neither are they advanced to honors, but oppressed with great and daily labors. While the Israelites, chosen by the mere favor of God, adopted as sons, promoted to the highest dignity, yet acknowledged not their Lord and their God; but despised his commandments, though in the highest degree equitable and just." Hieroz. i., Colossians 409.

When our not our own.

We belong to a creator. God is our creator, he made us and we belong to Him. Because He is the creator we owe Him all the praise. We can’t over praise, we can’t give to much praise. We need to learn how to just praise him.

He has put so much into us

The Lord provide for us, He continually take care of us.

We continually go backwards

They are gone away backward "They have turned their backs upon him"—So Kimchi explains it:" they have turned unto him the back and not the face." See Jeremiah 2:27; 7:24. I have been forced to render this line paraphrastically; as the verbal translation, "they are estranged backward," would have been unintelligible.

but it now time to turn unto the Lord. God deserves our worsip, He deserves our praise for He sent his son to die on Cross.