Two Milk Cows

Two milk cows

1 Samuel 6:10”Then the men did so, and took two milk cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home.”

NOTE: I write this for all Pastors, preachers, Youth leaders, Prayer cell leaders, Sunday Class teachers, Christian ministers, Bible College students, Women leaders and to all serving the Lord in His Vineyard.

OPENING: I recently heard Ps. Joel Osteen, Sr. Pastor of Lukewood Church, share a testimony about his father Rev. John Osteen, who at the age of 77 while going through kidney dialysis, asked his son Joel Osteen to preach on a particular Sunday, though he first refused then stirred by the Holy Spirit, he agreed to preach on that Sunday and made his father very happy; however, that following Friday Rev John Osteen went to be with the Lord. I saw the commitment of Rev John Osteen, who preached Sunday after Sunday though writhing with pain, no wonder his church reaps bountiful harvest now. God watches our faithfulness in our adversity and how we keep our stability, when everything around us is shaking! Anybody listening?

INTRODUCTION: Two Milk cows: Let me read verse 7: prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves home, away from them.

After the deadly confusion that we read in 2 Samuel chapter 5, the Philistines, went to their priests and diviners to find out the reason for the mayhem. The presence of the Ark and right reverence to the Holy God would have brought peace and joy in the land, but here their priests were giving them instructions as to how to send the Ark back. Imagine! Many people run to the wrong people and in the wrong direction for instructions and eventually get into a greater mess.

In order to know the heart of God, the Philistines took two milk cows, now I got to talk more about these two cows because everything revolves around them, observe the qualities of these two cows: “prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves home, away from them.” Phew! It was too much, now let’s watch and hear the voice of God today!

The deal was, read verse 9, “Watch, if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth-shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then we will know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance."

A. Inexperienced for the job: 1 Samuel 6:7. “…prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never been a yoke..” Cows that have never carried a heavy load were chosen for the job, so that if they do carry the load and go to the destination then the test that the Philistines conducted would be proved – whether the crisis they were facing were because of their sins or if it was by chance, and yet, in verse 12, it states:

“And the cows took the straight way in the direction of Beth-shemesh..” We see perfect unity, harmony and oneness in their spirit as they go forward with a heavy load on their back. Experience is of no big concern if God has cherry-picked you for the assignment, He would empower you with the expertise, skills and knowledge required for the job. When we relocated our ministry to Hyderabad, little did I know that God would be sending me into an arena where I had no expertise or know-how., neither did I possess the skills to handle children. EDUCATION INSTITUTION was never in my mind; however, God in fact had been planning this from my birth. I had this passion to instill education in the lives of the poor so that their lives improve; God used my childhood trauma, ordeal and adversity as a platform to launch me to start a full-fledged English medium school for the poor with afternoon lunch.

B.The cows were focused: “the cows took the straight way in the direction of Beth-shemesh..”

The cows were being directed by God, though they were set up by the Philistines, anybody listening? When you are sent by God, then you would go in the right direction stage by stage, watch me say stage by stage, the blue print is not given to you, are you listening? Though there may be severe obstacles, failures and discouragements during the process, we got to keep going in the same direction like the milk cows rather than change route. It’s easy to say, than do it when you are in it, are you listening? People get discouraged after one year of starting the church and compare themselves to mega churches and feel down but fail to understand that they didn’t arrive there in a jiffy.