Sufficient Grace for Suffering Saints: Devotional: As An Eagle...

As an Eagle...

By Marsha Iddings

Deut. 32: 11 As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.

This verses continues the thoughts in the previous verse about God's loving care and instruction of His people. It just uses different metaphors. I did a little research on eagles in preparation for this devotional.

Both parent eagles share in raising the young. The female does most of the work, however. During the first four weeks one or both of the parents brood the young to keep them warm in cool weather and they spread their wings out over them to keep them cool in hot weather.

The babies sometimes poop in the nest, food scraps fall in the nest too and after a while it gets goopy, dirty and stinky. Eagles don't clean their nest. Instead they just add more nesting material to cover up the mess.

The babies practice flapping their wings for weeks before they try to fly for the first time. When it's time for the babies to learn to fly, the parents encourage them by flying around the nest carrying food to entice them to try to fly.

There are several words in this verse that I looked up in the Hebrew lexicon. The phrase "stirreth up" carries the idea of waking up. In the context of this verse perhaps it is saying she is waking up her self and her babies. It would be similar to us saying that the noise woke the whole house. So, the eagle is stirring up her nest.

The next word I looked up was "fluttereth". The Hebrew meaning is to brood. So the verse is saying that she is brooding her young, keeping them protected.

It says she "spread aboad her wings". That's self-explanatory. She spread her wings out most likely to shade the babies from the scorching sun.

The next phrase is where I was puzzled. It says she "taketh them, beareth them on her wings: " I read one website that was expounding on this verse and they tried to make a case that when the babies learn to fly, if they falter, she swoops up under them and catches them on her wings. While that sounds nice, from the research I did, there is nothing that says anyone has ever observed this behavior. Since this whole verse is a figure of speech to show God's care for His people, I have to think that since this wasn't meant as a study of eagle parenting habits, that Moses was taking poetic license to make his point about how God "carried" His people through the wilderness.

God cares for us in the same way and better than the eagle does for its young. I am reminded of another verse in Isaiah 40:31 that says, " But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." I have had times in my life when I was pushed beyond my limits and God gave me the strengh to carry on in spite of a lack of rest and overwhelming stress.

Wait on His care and provision. Remember the eagle and know that God cares for you.

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