I was raised in a home where cows and horses were a mainstay and I experienced both to the fullest extent. Most of my life lessons when working with cows were learned through hit and miss efforts by me. When I was 16 years old we lived in a rock house out in the Howell Valley area close to West Plains Missouri. We had 63 acress of prime bottom land and it yielded some great grass and some great hay for the winter. My dad was a cattle auctioneer and cattle buyer and he would buy cattle during the week and my job was to get them settled in the right pasture when the huge truck brought them to our farm. On this day I was about to learn some more lessons about herding and working with cattle and this lesson was going to hurt. I was in my room listening to music (as usual) and my mom called out to me and said "the load of cattle is here and the trucker is backing up to the shoot right now!" I jumped up and ran out and directed him to the shoot he needed to back up to and the trucker did a great job of getting flush with the boards. Being flush with the boards was important because if there is gap a cows foot could get caught in the that gap and injure the cow.
I went to the front pasture and closed all the outside gates so I could direct the cows in to the barn to get them settled down before releasing them to the back pasture. After checking all of the barn divider gates I proceeded up the shoot to open up the truck gate to let the cows out. I didn't anticipate how anxious the cows were about getting out of the truck and to my surprise, when I opened the gate they came out like a flood and proceeded to knock me down and begin to run over me. I kind of panicked and my adrenaline helped me get up before the whole load of cattle ran over my body and the cows pushed me down the shoot and I jumped out of the way at the last second. Of course I was covered with manure, but still alive. I looked back up the shoot and that trucker was grining from ear to ear. He said,"Guess you didn't plan on that did you?" To which I replied "I sure learned a lesson there!" 2 Kings 7 tells us a story of such an incident that didn't end as good as mine did. The prophet Elisha brought a message from God to the Israelites who were starving at the time because their economy had bottomed out because they had followed the wrong leaders and were once again found worshipping something besides God. Here is Elisha's message found in Chapter 7 Elisha replied, “Listen to this message from the Lord! This is what the Lord says: By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, six quarts of choice flour will cost only one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain will cost only one piece of silver.” 2 The officer assisting the king said to the man of God, “That couldn’t happen even if the Lord opened the windows of heaven!” But Elisha replied, “You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won’t be able to eat any of it!” You may think "what is the deal with the officer not believing Elisha's prophecy?" He was a doubter, and his experience was going to cost him his life and his doubt would find him out.
Of course, God came through as He said and he turned up the volume (literally) on the Arameans and made it sound like an army of chariots and soldiers were coming and the Arameans fled, dropping clothes and food in their haste to get away. Their camp was well supplied and the ones who found out that they had fled the camp were four lepers who went to the camp through a gate in hopes of getting captured and given food. To their amazement the camp was empty and God had provided. They went back and told the king and after the king sent scouts to assess the situation they realized that God had given the victory to them and all of the food and clothing of the Arameans was their's for the keeping. Guess who the king sent to to control traffic at the gate? The officer who doubted God doing anything!! He couldn't control anything and was knocked down and trampled to death by the people. Here is the scripture that tells of the result in verse 18-20 So everything happened exactly as the man of God had predicted when the king came to his house. 18 The man of God had said to the king, “By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, six quarts of choice flour will cost one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain will cost one piece of silver.” 19 The king’s officer had replied, “That couldn’t happen even if the Lord opened the windows of heaven!” And the man of God had said, “You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won’t be able to eat any of it!” 20 And so it was, for the people trampled him to death at the gate!
Lessons for life.
1. Some lessons help us learn how to handle things differently the next time we do something
2. When God says He will provide. He will provide!
3. Do not mock the Word of God
4. When God moves don't get trampled because you are stagnant.
5. Trust God to come through every time.
6. Don't follow Idols and you won't get in this situation anyway
7. When God mobilizes His church and calls them back and they respond, be at the front of the herd, not trying to control them or you might get run over.
The Pilgrimage Continues......
David Warren
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