I do not know if you have spent much time around cattle, or lived in areas where they are raised, but if you have, then you understand that what they do for the most part is quite unsurprising after some time without the need to observe them. What I mean is that they are quite predictable, they eat, walk, rest, and sleep. There are of course nuances to their behavior, they are, as much as cattle are, cognizant of their surroundings, they have been given enough sense by the Lord to seek the lee side of the hill or shelter under trees when the weather is foul, they are, in the best sense of the word, good at what cattle do, and one can generally determine their behavior without constant observation. They are as easily led from the grazing land, to the feedlot, then to the slaughterhouse as a fool is led to the stocks. (Prov. 7:22)
There is much attention being drawn to the world today and what the cattle of it, the lost souls that inhabit it, are doing, and many born-again believers are falling into the well-worn trap of spending far too much time observing the cattle. We know from the Scriptures, what is going to occur on this planet, and we know the reasons why, and to those brothers and sisters in Christ that are being drawn away from the path that the Lord has placed them on and spending an inordinate amount of time paying attention to what the lost are doing, I would suggest limitations.
Self-imposed limitations can be very difficult to enact when something interesting is happening “over there,” but my friends, what the lost are extremely good at doing is pointing over there and exclaiming with much intent and immediacy, “This is important, pay attention!” Diversion has always been one of the greatest tools of our enemy, attempting to exchange the eternal view for the immediate, and breaking the habit of constantly watching the cattle can be extremely difficult, no different than any other habit. You must think back here, perhaps only a few months or to a single digit number of years, what storyline is still prevalent, what newsworthy event took place three years ago that is still on the lips of every one you know, and what is now the next major event we are all supposed to be concerned with. This supposed newest strain of the flu of course is what we are all supposed to be consumed with at this time, and they will drag it on as long as the advertising revenue continues to pour in. And then what, what will be required of our attention, what will be so important that all of our spare time should be enamored by it, right after this commercial break, of course.
We know what cattle do, it is not necessary to constantly observe them to know their behavior patterns, and the same goes for the lost. They want you to believe that what they think is important is as important as what they say it is, they want you to pay attention to them, and those that lead them, that are themselves led by their father the devil, want nothing more than your rapt attention and obedience. It is an easy trap to fall into, but if you think on these terms, you can begin to free yourself from that obsession, from the supposed constant need to know what the cattle are doing.
If you have no plans to go outside of your house tomorrow, what difference does it make what the weather is going to be like?
“But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption.” (2 Peter 2:12) They are the lost, and we are not to follow them, for they are blind and those who do will also fall into the ditch. (Matt. 15:14) Cattlemen go out into the fields once or twice a day to check on the herd, beyond occasionally searching for the wounded or sick, all those who work in the feedlots have one task to perform twice a day, feed the cattle. Those in the slaughterhouse wait patiently for the first man to greet the cattle upon their arrival to perform his one and only task, kill them. The attention that some who are called by the name of the Lord are giving to the events of the world is excessive, and must be looked upon in one way, are you spending at least the same amount of time in the Scriptures, how much of your life is spent in the company of the concerns of the world and how much is spent with the Savior.
I know what is going to happen, things in the world are going to get continuously worse, violent upheavals in the earth, (Haggai 2:6) signs and wonders in the heavens, (Acts 2:19) men’s hearts failing them for fear. (Luke 21:26) Let the cattle go about their business, check on them once or twice a day, but don’t try to be one of them, don’t try to live with them, they are doing what they have always done, what is expected of them. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” (Isaiah 26:3)