Deuteronomy 32 – July 4
This song that God led Moses to write and then read to all of Israel was designed for the entire universe to hear. In it you will read of many of the wonderful attributes of our great God. We read that He is the Rock, faithful, upright, and just in all of His ways. We read of His tenderness and His wrath, His mercy and His justice. There is so much to consider in this chapter that warms and warns my heart. For today, I will focus on verse 11.
This is figurative or symbolic language being used here but itreveals so much about God’s tenderness towards His children and His amazing care for us. The verse says this, “Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions (wings).” This passage teaches us that God exercised His loving care for Israel the way an eagle does for its young. The picture here is one of teaching, preparing, pushing, and catching should one fall. His desire is that we would learn to fly and to soar in this life of faith. Let me explain.
When an eagle has babies (eaglets), she makes sure that the nest is extremely comfortable. I am told that the eagle will make the nest rather plush and soft like a pillow. Now, as the eaglet grows and nears the time that he should be getting ready to fly, the eagle will begin to remove some of the more soft parts of the nest making it more uncomfortable for the young eagle. As the nest gets more uncomfortable, the parent eagle will begin to nudge the eaglet to the edge of the nest in hopes that her young eagle will want to take flight as the nest is no longer so plush. She will eventually give her eaglet a push right out of the nest. Now that sounds pretty crummy doesn’t’ it? Here is the beauty of it. As the eaglet falls to the ground, the hope of course is that he would being to flap his wings and fly. If he does not, then the adult eagle will swoop down underneath the falling eaglet and literally catch him on her wings carrying the eaglet back to the nest to try flying again a little later.
The lesson for us today is that God will oftentimes make our situation a little more uncomfortable in an attempt to get us to step out of our comfort zone and into exciting new adventures. Think for a moment what the eaglet will experience once he can soar through the sky from high up in the heavens versus the limited view of sitting in a nest all day. God knows the splendor and majesty of His creation can only be experienced by stepping out into this big, scary world by faith. Once we do leave the nest and learn to soar on the wings of faith we experience so much more of God’s wonder and beauty.
Oh how I am encouraged by the fact that our heavenly Father gently, slowly, but certainly prepares me for my future. How patient He is to allow me failures as I learn to trust Him by faith and grow into all that He is preparing me to be. Indeed our God is going to finish in us what He started (Phil. 1:6). Don’t ever forget dear friends that we’re just unfinished right now and He’s not done. I thank God that Jesus Christ is the author (originator) of our faith and the finisher of it too.