Stab the Cow!

“Mr. Gillock! Mr. Gillock!”  It was Ross Beeghly, and he was running pell mell up the hill to our house. “Your cow is laying down in the pasture and her feet are sticking up in the air!”

Those words got my Father’s attention.  Having farmed for many years and dealt with dairy cattle in particular, he knew instantly what was going on with Jewel, our family milk cow.  She had gotten into a weed that is toxic to cows and causes them to bloat.  Because cows can’t vomit, unless the pressure is relieved by some other means they will die.

When Dad got to the pasture he took out his pocket knife and immediately thrust it deep into Jewel’s side.  With a gigantic whoosh there was a release of methane from the dying cow’s body and she was saved in the nick of time.

I was about four or five when this all took place.  It never occurred to me then to think of what it must have been like for my dad to kneel by his beloved cow’s side knowing that what he was about to do was going to cause her some severe pain and him some severe discomfort.  Methane usually doesn’t smell very good and he was about to get a cow’s belly full of it in the face. 

The Lord reminded me of this incident recently as I pondered the condition of our world.  We have fed on the weeds of sin and it is about to destroy us.  We are full of the sickness sin produces and we can’t cure the problem by ourselves.

My friends, God is about to take His pocket knife to this world and it is going to be painful and very unpleasant to both Him and us but it is the only answer if we are to be saved.

Know what I believe?  Glad you asked.  We are the knife.  Remember what Jesus said about being the salt of the earth?  We get the “privilege” of being the instrument by which God is going to release the vile gases that are killing the world He created.

With that acknowledgement keep in mind the knife doesn’t make any decision about where, when or how it is going to do this.  We are the instrument and God is the decision maker.  We simply have to be willing. 

I am pretty sure if the knife could’ve spoken out that day it would have asked my father to use something else to do this deed rather than it.  It is ugly, stinky, uncomfortable, even revolting business; Nothing cute about it.

The situation we are in nationally and internationally is fatal unless there is a Divine insertion of judgment.  Just remember that it is justice coupled with mercy.  Had my father not exercised judgment Jewel the cow would not have lived.  She had passed the point where any other means could be utilized.  So it is with our world today.  The cow is down for the count unless there is intervention.

Good news friends!  It is going to get worse before it gets better but, according to the word of the Lord, it definitely is going to get better.