1 Samuel 6:7-9 (NIV) “Now then, get a new cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. Take the ark of the Lord and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way, but keep watching it. If it goes up to its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh, then the Lord has brought this great disaster on us. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us but that it happened to us by chance.”

Tragedy had struck in Israel because of their sin and their idolatry. The high priest’s son’s, Hophni and Phinehas, were making a mockery of the things of God. They were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the tabernacle and were taking the portion of the sacrifices that belonged to God for themselves. During a battle with the Philistines, Israel suffered many losses and the unthinkable happened: the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the enemies of God! But because God is God over all and not to be trifled with, disaster came upon the Philistines to the point where they became very afraid and wanted to send it back to Israel. They devised a plan to get it back in a way that would prove or disprove whether it was the God of Israel who had brought the disaster upon them. They got a new cart and got two cows that not only had never been yoked, but that had each just given birth to a calf. Everyone knows that cows that have calved will not leave their young. They will refuse to go away from them. Also, cows that had never been yolked would struggle against the yolk and against each other. But as it turned out, the cows worked in harmony together, forgot about their calves and made their way unguided by anyone right into Israel. God countermanded two animals’ strong natural instinct to accomplish what He wanted to happen. There was never any doubt that it would happen the way that it did.

That brings us to whatever you are facing and going through in your life right now. In scripture, God asks the rhetorical question, “Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27). The Lord wants us as His children to know that NOTHING is beyond His power and control. We tend to forget about the omnipotence of God when we face something that we see as hopeless and impossible. But no such thing exists when it comes to God. Not only is He omnipotent and able to do whatever He pleases (Isaiah 46:10), but He uses His omnipotence to help and deliver those that belong to Him. Two dumb cows without the ability to make a decision on their own because they were hard-wired to act in a way that should have prevented God’s Ark of the Covenant from being returned to where it belonged experienced the vast power of God and did what God commanded and directed them to do. Neither nature, nor instinct, nor anything else we can think of can thwart our Almighty God who uses His power for good on our behalf. Don’t be afraid and don’t lose hope no matter what you are facing, because there is no one like our God!

Pastor Joey Vazquez