What does the Bible say about the eagle?

nesher, ἀετός. This is supposed to be the bird known as the Griffon Vulture or Great Vulture — the Gyps fulvus of the naturalists — though it may include other species. Its habits agree with those related of the eagle in scripture, and they are plentiful in Palestine. No sooner does an animal fall than these birds congregate in numbers on its carcase, according to Job 9:26; Matt. 24:28. The true eagle is a solitary bird, but vultures are seldom found alone. The expression "beareth them on her wings" exactly describes the way the vultures bear up their young, and teach them to fly. Ex. 19:4; Deut. 32:11. The vulture also agrees with Micah 1:16 which speaks of its baldness, for the vulture's head and neck are without feathers. Its swiftness is proverbial, Lam. 4:19, and it rests on the highest rocks. Job 39:27; Jer. 49:16. In Ezekiel and in the Revelation the living creatures have the eagle character as portraying the swiftness in execution of God's power in creation and judicial government. Ezek. 1:10; Ezek. 10:14; Rev. 4:7.

And now, in the midst of the throne, and around it, are seen "four living beings full of eyes before and behind." The translation "beasts," as in the common version, is plainly wrong and misleading, the human element here being degraded to the bestial, for the third living being has the face of a man. The word, although applied constantly to animals, simply means (as the word animal itself does) "a living being." In these we find the four divisions of nature as Scripture presents them: the wild beast in the lion; cattle in the ox; one with the face of a man, the form not being given; and the last, the flying eagle, the prince of the birds of the heaven. We necessarily connect them with the similar figures in Ezekiel, connected also with the throne of God, and which are cherubic: remembering the cherubim also upon the veil, the figure of Christ's humanity, we should have no difficulty in seeing their typical resemblance to what is presented of Christ in the four Gospels. This has been already before us in looking at the Gospels themselves. Christ is He into whose hands divine government is entrusted, and therefore the connection of these symbols of it with the veil. But the cherubim speak of divine government, no doubt, as identified with the instruments used of God, in whose hand all things are, and who works out His purposes by means of whatever instrumentality He pleases. In Ezekiel we find, accompanying the cherubim, wheels within wheels — the wheels of the chariot of deity, which present, after the manner of Ecclesiastes, the course of things continually revolving; the history, as men say, that repeats itself with the generations of men, yet never returns to just what it was before, the course being ever onward. This is because it is God who is controlling it, and there is in it divine meaning and purpose, even while necessarily the creature is put into his place as such; man, if you look at him in himself, but vanity, and yet God working throughout that which is not vain, and of which eternity will proclaim the wisdom.

But the wheels are not seen in Revelation: we have simply the cherubic beings, the coursers of the chariot. And here, as we look at them, we see evidently that they show us the character of this government which God is exercising; the order itself being also significant, and indeed that which, as connected with Christ, we find in the Gospels. For the first being, like a lion, represents, as is plain, that power which is the first requisite to any government at all, the "lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any" (Prov. 30:30). But this needs guarding against thoughts which might attach to it, for the lion is a beast of prey pure and simple, and his rush and spring are little characteristic in general of the government of God, although there are crises, as we know, which may be better represented by it. But here, the second living being, the patient ox, comes in, in which strength is imaged also, but strength devoted to service and working in the interests of man; and thus the rule of God is service also, and in man's fullest interests, as we are sure. The hands that hold it now are human also, and the hands of the perfect Servant who has served us well, and whose humanity is the pledge that He will serve us ever. The third living being has therefore the face as of a man. The face is that in which you read both intelligence and heart, and God has in Christ come near us after this manner. A man's face may, after all, hide the secrets of his heart; but here is One with whom there is no hiding, who seeks to be known by men, and to make God known; God being indeed manifest in flesh as nowhere else, come to be so near to us, so tender in condescending grace. Yet here also the fourth living being adds what we must not, and cannot, forget — the inscrutability oftentimes of perfect wisdom; ways that in one sense are open to us, and yet everywhere beyond us: this is the thought of the flying eagle. "The way of an eagle in the air" is one of the four things which the wise man declares "too wonderful" for him (Prov. 30:18-19). The eagle naturally reminds us of judgment also, and that "wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together:" a scripture which applies to the very time before us, when the instruments of God's judgment will cleanse the earth from all its defilement, and by the very ban upon evil consecrate it to God. But the eagle is associated by God Himself with much more tender thoughts. "I bare you on eagles' wings," says the Lord to Israel (Ex. 19:4), "and brought you to Myself;" and again (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." The flying eagle naturally connects with such passages as these, and there is no contradiction in any of them; God's judgments also being under the control of and working out the purposes of His love — love to which judgment is at the same time a necessary and yet a "strange act."

There is a lovely allusion to this in Deut. 32:11; and to the figures of what the “eagles’ wings” signify. Indeed the gospel of the glory speaks in this figure with great significance. In this grand and touching passage we read, “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 (Israel), and there was no strange God with him!” The Lord asked Job (39:27-29), “Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off.” On the crag of rock, inaccessible to man, she builds her nest, and rears her young. The time arrives when she would teach her young ones to gaze upon the sun, and soar from the rock themselves. Then she “stirreth up her nest and fluttereth over her young.” The young ones must dare the space mid-air below, and she flings them off the rock! They flutter and sink down toward the abodes of man. They near the fowler’s arrow. She swoops in her might of wing from the height above, she “spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings.” The fluttering eaglet rests its pinions on the tried strength of the parent wing; the fowler’s dart can reach the eaglet’s life only through her own. Thus she teaches them to soar, and rise and gaze, as none other can but she, on the bright and glorious sun. Thus we are taught as “the way of an eagle in the air” (Prov. 30:19) to walk above the world and to gaze on Christ on high, sure that as He lives we live also. We learn too that “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” (Isa. 40:31).

Moses in his last exhortation to the children of Israel likens the Lord's dealings with His people to the eagle stirring up her nest. (Deut. 32:11). The eagle is a very sagacious bird. It is said that in building her nest she lays the floor with sharp thorns and covers them over with soft down. In this cosy bed her young are hatched and grow up. As they become strong enough to fly, they are loath to leave the comfort of the nest. But that condition would not fit them to fulfil their normal functions in subsequent life. Hence the mother scrapes up the down in the bottom of the nest. When the young eagles feel the sharp thorns they jump over the side of the nest and thus the strength of their wings and the support of the air are tested. Christians are frequently placed in similar comfortable circumstances. Not a jarring note breaks in on the harmony of their life. As with the eagle's nest, however, underneath the downiest bed are strewn the sharp thorns swept in from the hedges of life's chequered pathway. If there were no thorny incidents in our career we should never be caused to experience the wealth of God's resources. He stirs up the most comfortable nest and causes the inmates to feel the thorn pricks. As a result, they are caused to jump out, metaphorically, into the atmosphere of God's resources, and the wings of faith are called into action.

But the "flying eagle" can yet suggest other thoughts, ― thoughts not only of divine strength or of divine wisdom, but also of divine tenderness no less and ministering care. "Ye have seen," says the Lord to His people of old, "how I have borne you upon eagle's wings, and brought you to myself." (Ex. 19:4.) And again, "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." (Deut. 32:11-12.) Here then under this figure we may think not merely of heights that surpass our powers, and of ways too wonderful for us, but of divine love that would enable us to soar, and support our feebleness in it with divine omnipotence. And of this character truly is the fourth Gospel.

The living creatures were four, that number speaking of that which is universal. One was like a lion, another like a calf, a third had the face of a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. Lion is the symbol of strength and power and majesty. Calf is the symbol of endurance. Face of man is the symbol of intelligence. Flying eagle is the symbol of rapidity of execution.

"Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall." "But they that wait on the Lord shall renew [or change] their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles [rise triumphant over every difficulty and depression], they shall run and not be weary [be untiring in their errands of ministry and mercy for the Lord to others]; and they shall walk and not faint," tread steadily and with endurance the upward way to "the hope that is laid up for them in heaven, whereof ye have heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel."

Apart from such general predictions as found in verses 64-66 and fulfilled, as everybody knows, in the dispersion of Israel, there are others, which are more minute. The Roman power, which was used to break the Jews, is clearly predicted by Moses, and that in a time when no such power existed. Read verses 49-50. "The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth, a nation, whose language thou shalt not understand." The eagle was the standard of the Roman armies; the Jews understood many oriental languages, but were ignorant of Latin. "Which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young." Rome killed the old people and the children. "And he shall beseige thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land" (verse 52). Fulfilled in the siege and overthrow of Jerusalem by the Roman legions. "The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, shall eat their children, for want of all things in the siege and straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates" (54-57). Fulfilled in the dreadful sieges of Jerusalem, perhaps the most terrible events in the history of blood and tears of this poor earth. Every verse beginning with the fifteenth to the end of this chapter has found its oft repeated fulfilment. It does not surprise us that the enemy hates this book, which bears such a testimony, and would have it classed with legends.

Unclean fowls were not to be eaten, not to be touched; even their carcases could not be borne without uncleanness being contracted. We may, for the sake of brevity, group them into classes, though each creature has doubtless a separate line of instruction to us.

Some of these fowls feed upon carrion and other unclean things, and strikingly exemplify the filthiness of the flesh that which finds its pleasure in what is vile and corrupt. Hence, as Christians, we are enjoined to "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." There are things not even to be once named among us, "as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks." And again, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers." (Eph. 5:3-4; Eph. 4:29.) The eagle, the vulture, and such like, belong to this class. Our Lord said, "Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together." It is a well-known fact that when an animal dies in the desert, the flight of these unclean birds towards the dead body for food takes place with incredible rapidity. They maintain themselves, and find their pleasure in feeding on that which is filthy and corrupt.

Rev. 8:13. — “And I saw, and I heard an eagle flying in mid-heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to them that dwell upon the earth, for the remaining voices of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound.” “I saw and I heard,” both eye and ear were engaged, thus intimating the rapt attention and interest of the Seer in the events which passed before him in the vision. The Authorised Version reads “angel,” but we have substituted “eagle” on decisive and competent authority. There is a mission entrusted to a flying angel (Rev. 14:6), as also one, but of a different character, to a flying eagle (Rev. 8:13). Mid-heaven, or the firmament, is the sphere traversed by both, so that they could scan the earth from its centre to its remotest bounds. The former is a messenger of mercy, this latter is a herald of judgment. The triple cry of “woe” finds its fitting announcement by the eagle. In its rapid and lofty flight across the meridian sky it aloud proclaims the coming doom of the christianised portion of the earth, of those who proudly rejected the “heavenly calling,” of whom Paul writes, “Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, who mind earthly things” (Phil. 3:19). A special class is here singled out from earth’s inhabitants, a moral class, spoken of as those “that dwell upon the earth,” and twice previously referred to (Rev. 3:10; Rev. 6:10). On these apostates, the worst in these dark and evil times, direct and irremediable judgment is publicly and loudly announced. A more fitting symbol could not be employed than an eagle in its aerial flight across the heaven, scanning from afar its prey. The eagle is the harbinger of approaching judgment (see Deut. 28:49; Jer. 48:40; Matt. 24:28). The four preceding judgments were of a general character, but in those to come the climax of horror is reached; hence this preliminary announcement.*