The common cuckoo is recognized as a “brood parasite.” A brood parasite is a species of bird that deceives another bird into nurturing its offspring. Specifically, the female cuckoo observes the nesting behaviors of a smaller bird, such as the reed warbler. At an opportune moment, the female cuckoo descends upon the reed warbler’s nest, displaces one of the host’s eggs, deposits her egg in the vacated space, and subsequently departs. This entire process occurs in roughly ten seconds. Remarkably, the egg of the cuckoo closely resembles the eggs of its selected host, facilitating this deceptive strategy. During a single breeding season, a cuckoo may infiltrate as many as fifty distinct nests, depositing one of its eggs for the host birds to incubate and raise.
Many people do not realize that the devil, like the cuckoo bird, has laid his egg in the Christian church, it has been hatched, adopted, and fed until it has grown bigger than life. The Bible says Satan’s ministers can “transform themselves into ministers of righteousness” 2Corinthians 11:15. And Jesus warned about “false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves” Matthew 7:15. Ezekiel 14:10 gives this stern warning,
“The punishment of the (false) prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him”