Sin is Bloody Business
Parable of the Hasty Cattleman
A certain man bought a fine herd of excellent beef cattle which he purchased on impulse to create wealth. His inexperience and lack of knowledge led him to believe that the cattle business was easy and the shortcut to riches. He hastily secured property to house his herd and proceeded to be a cattleman. The entry into a complicated endeavor was made on a whim without a proper counting of the cost.
The man instituted a naive, bargain-basement plan of benign neglect of the herd and piecemeal care. Inexperience and blind optimism allowed the man to miss critical physical signs of overcrowding and stress. Within a few short months, drought and surface conditions dictated a reduction and movement of the herd.
After kicking against the goads for several weeks and attempting to force his plan, the man was faced with an ultimatum. He must hire help to oversee the herd and institute a time tested beef cattle plan or move the herd. Arrogance and pride prevented him from taking counsel from those who knew the business, this very herd, and the leased land.
The man was overcome with spirits of anger, pride, arrogance and pettiness. Rather than taking the allotted 8 weeks to decently and orderly reduce and relocate the herd, the man forced a spiteful, stressful, immediate collection and movement of his animals.
In his zeal, inexperience and insistence to move all the animals immediately, the man stressed the animals and caused two to rebel, abandon their un-weaned calves, and run from the corrals into the brush. Rather than exercising wisdom and patience and allowing the two cows time to return to the feed source and their nursing calves, the man hired some cowboys to herd the two cows. The cowboys did exactly as instructed…they captured the cows immediately.
However in the forced capture and knee jerk dissolution, several things happened. The herd was disbursed. The older, but still productive cows were slaughtered. Calves were orphaned. The un-weaned calves were separated from their mothers and sent off to auction. The effects of stressed separation and premature weaning are yet to be seen.
The two cows that were captured also suffered . One cow was attacked by a cow dog that subdued her by repeatedly biting and tearing her neck, ears and legs. The other cow fell down a ravine and could not get up. After being dragged by ropes around her legs and being repeatedly shocked to force her to get up, the cow simply gave up and refused to move.
After being stressed for a day, she then suffered in the
100 degree heat and tormented by fire ants for more than 24 hours, the defeated
cow was finally shot and butchered in a dusty gully, where her blood ran down
the creek, while the meat was hauled off.
Because of the sins of pride and arrogance of one man, and his refusal to take good counsel, an entire herd of exceptionally fine beef cattle was stressed, orphaned, haphazardly liquidated, scattered, or slaughtered.
All animals suffered, several are permanently wounded, and one was sacrificed in the dirt. The wages of sin is death. Sin is indeed a bloody business.
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There is a spiritual parallel of this story with pastors of churches today. When faced with testimonies of faith, or doctrinal questions and challenges from their congregations, instead of seeking wisdom from above and proving all things in scripture, the leaders choose to dictate their dogma, place their fiefdoms at the forefront, separate the ones who will not cower and force their sincere but incorrect position on the entire flock.
The result is often similar to the parable above. All
of the flock are confused and experience upheaval. They are scattered and
separated. 
The older but still productive ones are lost. The young are orphaned and deprived of milk at the appropriate time which force them to seek artificial milk or start on advanced feed before their time. Some are hurt and some are sacrificed in the dirt.
At the end of the age...when presented with the recollection of these events, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.