RUSSELL SANDERS
4-19-2021
THE SACRED COW
What do we mean by the term “sacred cow?” It is a belief often of a secretive nature that is hedged by deeply held emotions and is accepted without question. The validity of it is not open for discussion or questioning.
The term originally came into our English language in association with the “sacred cows” of India. The Hindu religion believes in reincarnation. They believe that what you will be in your next life is determined by how you live and what you do in your present life. A life lived well is rewarded by returning in a higher “estate” of life. A life lived badly can cause you to come back in a devalued “estate” of life, perhaps as a “lower” animal. It could be as a dog, a cat, a possum, a mosquito, although it would take multiple lifetimes to reach the lower forms. It would also take a human being multiple lifetimes to reach the highest estate, Brahma, which is blended into the universal creative power.
Because of this reincarnation cycle, they believe the cow is one of the high forms of life. The Hindus of the northern states of India revere the cow. These cows have liberty to roam the streets freely and unharmed. These Indians will eat no beef because they believe they would be eating somebody’s relative as well as a “being” closer to godhood than themselves. They feed these cows from their own household food, a sacrifice for which they think they may be blessed. They take care of their sacred cow. You dare not challenge their belief.
The high esteem given to a cow (heifer, calf, or bull) is not unique to India. Egypt also worshipped the calf, matured as a bull. The Hebrews who spent 430 years in Egypt were heavily influenced by the pagan gods of Egypt, especial the Apis Bull.
The Egyptian god of the creation of the world was Ptah. The creator god Ptah was represented by a living bull known as the Apis Bull. This bull was so sacred that when it died, the Egyptians mourned it as though Pharaoh had died. The Apis bull was embalmed and placed in a tomb just like a Pharaoh. A new Apis Bull would take its place.
When the Hebrews left Egypt, they crossed the Red Sea into the Sinai Peninsula. It was during the first two months there that God called Moses, accompanied part of the way by Joshua, up the mountain for forty days to receive commandments from God.
Joshua rejoined Moses as he came back down. Upon returning to the encampment of Israel, they found an astonishing development. Aaron had fashioned a “sacred cow” for the people to worship. The golden calf (Exodus 32) represented the Apis Bull as their god, and they declared it along with other “gods” (Ex. 32:4) as the gods who delivered them from Egypt.
Their choice of the molten gold calf was no accident. It was easier for them to believe in a “god” (the Apis Bull) that they could see with their eyes than to believe in this “I AM” that Moses spoke of who they could not see. They turned back to what they “knew” from Egypt, the Apis Bull that represented the creator of the universe, the sacred cow.
Moses had given them truth. How easily Satan deceived them. How easily Eve and Adam were deceived. How easily people today are still being deceived.
You absolutely must study and know the word of God. A lack of knowledge of His Word opens one up to be easily deceived. Psalm 119:11 says, “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, (so) that I might not sin against thee.”
