killing the sacred cows

Sacrificing the sacred cows: The Priests

The story was told about a man who visited a cattle ranch and found one cow with a wooden leg, curious, he asked the rancher why the cow has a wooden leg. The rancher replied by telling the man great things that the cow has done for him and his family. ‘My friend’ he said, ‘That cow was the very first cow I bought with my retirement settlement from the railway services where I worked for twenty five years, it got pregnant and gave birth to twins nine times in a row, it is the reason why my stock grew so large in a short time. Apart from that, when my son was drowning in the river nearby the cow jumped into the river and rescued him, at another time the cow gored the men trying to steal my money and protected me from theft, I cannot tell you how well that cow has served me and my family and if I continue to recount its heroic deeds, it will take all day.

The man looked at the rancher intently and said, ‘You still have not told me how it came to have one wooden leg’

The rancher smiled and replied ‘One cannot eat such a cow at once, it is sacred’

The sacred cows are the greatest psychological block to the progress of a Christian in the lifestyle he has been called to, one does not kill a sacred cow by cutting off a leg at a time; you kill the sacred cow once and for all and find freedom in the act.

There is a lot of sacred cows as regarding holiness, many preachers pick on some aspects of the scriptures and present it to the world as definite facts and thus put people in unnecessary bondage that Christ Jesus has died to free us from. Apostle Paul noted this in his address to the gentiles after defending their cause before the council in Jerusalem, to the Jews with a background of Judaism, circumcision is a must as God commanded Abraham and Moses that none that is uncircumcised must stand before him under any circumstances, the book of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, the latter part of the book of Exodus and Numbers are rife with laws, precepts, instructions and the doctrinal necessities in the worship of the Lord God Almighty!

The truth is by the standard of the old testament and Judaism, no one can ever attain holiness! The worship of God under the teachings of Judaism, makes use of a worship intermediary (The priests) who act on behalf of God in forgiving sins, cleansing the Israelites from all unrighteousness and ushering them in worship. The problem with this system of worship was inevitably corruption!

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely! The priests were king makers, God’s representatives and unquestionable even by the king! Every system of government needs a mode of checks and balances in order to ensure that one arm of government does not abuse the use of their office, in the days of Moses, God is invoked as the judge and his presence ensures that the people and the priests were kept in check. Remember Aaron’s rod budding? Remember the ground opening up to swallow Dathan, Kora and Abiram, remember Hophni and Phineas (Eli’s sons), remember the consummation of Eli’s sons?