Written by Aaron D. Messner |
Saturday, August 13, 2022
He comes in judgment against His enemies, none can withstand Him. He swoops in against His prey, swift, fierce, and strong, and none can deliver. When He secures an eternal home for His people and covers them with His protection, we are safe indeed. None can harm us there. When He elevates and upholds our spirit in times of trial, none can drag us down. And when He saves, He does so to the uttermost with absolute and unfettered victory. 

The eagle in flight is a picture of serene beauty and majestic strength. It is not without reason that nations and empires, both ancient and modern, have embraced the eagle as their symbol, and one who is acquainted with the Scriptures will certainly call to mind God’s bearing His people “on eagles’ wings” (Ex. 19:4) and causing them to “mount up with wings like eagles” (Isa. 40:31). Such words stir the heart and inspire the poetic imagination, but what exactly do they mean? What is the actual theological reality behind the literary metaphor in Scripture? To understand this more fully, it is helpful to take in a fuller range of references to eagles and eagles’ wings in Scripture.

For starters, the eagle is portrayed as a bird of prey (Job 39:27–30), and in keeping with this idea, the most common way that eagles are referenced in Scripture is as images of devastating, swift, and unstoppable judgment. Judgment (generally in the form of an invading nation) comes “swooping down like the eagle” (Deut. 28:49) or “swiftly like an eagle” (Jer. 49:22) or “like an eagle swift to devour” (Hab. 1:8). Mighty foreign nations in the Bible (such as Babylon and Egypt) are often portrayed as an eagle (Ezek. 17:3, 7; Dan. 7:4). So in the Scriptures, “the eagle’s wing” often brings swift and unstoppable destruction and death.

Yet at the same time, the eagle is also portrayed as a nurturer and protector of her own chicks. Job 39:27–30 speaks of the eagle as a bird of prey, but it also highlights that the eagle seeks its prey to feed its young, who dwell secure in the “nest on high . . . the rocky crag and stronghold.” The eagle is thus used in Scripture as a metaphor for God’s tender care and sure protection of His people.

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