What do birds represent in the Bible?

On the expiry of this time Noah sends out first the raven and then the dove. The distinction between unclean and clean is many sided in meaning, but the broad general feature is that the unclean feeds on dead flesh, whereas the clean does not touch that, but, being herbivorous or graminivorous, eats what has been dead but is now alive in resurrection — grass or grain. Birds, dwelling in the air — the heavenly places, are symbolic of spiritual natures either good or bad — clean or unclean. [ Both in the Old and New Testaments the same word expresses spirit and air (in motion).]

The raven is representative of the latter; the nature "earthly, sensual and devilish." "The ghastly, grim, ungainly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore," haunting the "night's Plutonian shore"; delighting in carrion: its sable wing poised ever above the weak and sickly of the covey, and its iron beak plunging first at its victim's eyes — is so expressive a symbol as to need no explanation. Being released from the ark it gladly departs: it is much more at home on the floating carrion than in the ark: and then it is lost sight of for a time. Something similar takes place at the beginning of the millennial age which is here typified. The fowls of the air are afforded a great feast (at the end of Rev. 19), the flesh of the overthrown opponents of Almighty God. Then follows on the new epoch wherein Satan and Satanic elements are out of sight — for a season.

That the development of the kingdom, viewed from the outside, is negative is confirmed by the reference to the birds of heaven. Birds have different meanings in the Bible. Sometimes they are a symbol of judgment (e.g. 1 Ki. 14:11); other times of many nations (e.g. Ezek. 17:23). But they also speak of evil and satanic influences (e.g. Gen. 15:11; Jer. 5:27). It is clear this must be the significance of the birds in our parable.

The birds which roost in that tree would mean, if the parable applies to the church, converted sinners. Do birds ever represent clean persons? We need not go outside of the chapter to answer this. The birds which fell upon the seed which had fallen by the wayside were instruments of Satan. Birds of heaven, or fowls, never mean anything good in Scripture. Abraham stood in the midst of the pieces of the sacrifices and drove away the fowls which were ready to fall upon the pieces (Gen. 15). The animals divided there represent Christ and the fowls nothing good. Birds in this parable mean unsaved, unconverted people and nations who flock for selfish motives to the tree, the outward form of Christendom, and find shelter there. But they defile the tree.

The dove is a well-known emblem of the Holy Spirit, not only because He came upon Christ "in a bodily shape like a dove," but because of what is said of this bird elsewhere in Scripture.

We read of it first in connection with the deluge (Gen. 8:6-12). First, Noah sent out a raven. This bird is a type of "the flesh," that evil principle within us, with which we were born into the world. The scene was one of judgment and death, but it was congenial to this unclean creature, and, the raven did not return to the ark.

These are employed as symbols of evil agents: as, in the dream of Pharaoh's baker, the birds ate the bakemeats he was carrying on his head, Gen. 40:17; and in the parable of the Sower the fowls or birds which devoured the seed by the wayside are interpreted by Christ to signify 'the wicked one.' Matt. 13:4, 19. In the parable of the Mustard Seed the kingdom of heaven becomes a great system with roots in the earth, under the protection of which the birds of the air find shelter. Matt. 13:31-32. The Greek is πετεινόν, the same in the two parables.

A list of the unclean birds is given in Lev. 11:13-20; Deut. 14:12-18. In the A.V. the unclean are called the Bat, Cormorant, Cuckoo, Eagle, Gier Eagle, Glede, Hawk, Heron, Kite, Lapwing, Night Hawk, Ospray, Ossifrage, Owl great and little, Pelican, Raven, Stork, Swan, Vulture, and 'fowls that creep, going upon all four.' This leaves for the clean birds the Bittern, Crane, Dove, Ostrich, Partridge, Peacock, Pigeon, Quail, Sparrow, and Swallow. Of these the Ostrich is supposed to be among the unclean under the name of Owl; the Peacock was not a native bird of Palestine; and the Bittern and Crane were inhabitants of the marshy ground among the reeds, and were probably classed with the unclean under some of the above names. We do not read of the ordinary domestic fowl in the O.T. See under each of the above names.

Two birds which the priest commanded to be taken for the leper are a beautiful type of Christ in His death, and Christ risen from the dead. The birds are typically belonging to heaven. The first bird was killed in an earthen vessel over running water. This likewise typifies Christ. The earthen vessel stands for the humanity of Christ. The running water is the Holy Spirit, who filled Him and then He gave Himself and shed His precious blood. And that blessed blood of atonement is what cleanses from all sin, and on account of that blood the leper can be restored. The second bird did not die, but was set at liberty to take up a heavenward journey. The second bird was dipped into the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. This bird typifies Christ in resurrection. The bird in its upward flight, singing perchance a melodious song, bearing upon its white wings the precious token, the blood, typifies Christ in His accomplished work, risen from the grave and going back from where He came. He died for our offences and was raised for our justification. But with the living bird there was also used the cedar wood, the scarlet and the hyssop; these, with the living bird, were dipped into the blood. What do these things signify? Scarlet is the bright and flashing color, which typifies the glory of the world (Dan. 5:7; Nahum 2:3; Rev. 17:3-4; 18:12, 16). Cedar wood and hyssop are things of nature. The cedar stands in God's Word always for that which is high and lofty. The insignificant small hyssop typifies that which is low.

Birds are now considered, but only specific birds mentioned that were forbidden, with no rule given as to distinguishing clean from unclean. Yet all of these considered unclean are evidently those that feed on flesh or other animate life. These unclean birds of the air are typical of what is Satanic (Matt. 13:4 and 19), for Satan is "the prince of the power of the air." How many there are everywhere who follow Satan's example of consuming others rather than being of blessing to them. Such an unbeliever is referred to in 1 Corinthians 3:17: "If any man destroy the temple of God, him shall God destroy." In that chapter the believer is a builder, not a destroyer. Sometimes one can be so deceptive as to appear to be a believer in order to get in among God's people to destroy them. This is satanic deceit. We must therefore be on our guard not to have fellowship with what is unclean or questionable.

Clean birds were however not forbidden, for they speak of what is genuinely heavenly in character, such as is seen in Colossians 3:2-3: "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you have died and your life is hid with Christ in God." Those who have this attitude are fit companions for believers. There are certain birds that in fact are typical of the Lord Jesus, being used in the offerings, as in Leviticus 1:14-17, turtledoves or pigeons. Again, at the baptism of the Lord Jesus, we are told that "He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him" (Matt. 3:16). This is a precious contrast to Genesis 15:11, where the vultures came down on the carcasses of Abram's sacrifice with the object of devouring it, just as Satan tries to destroy the value of the sacrifice of Christ. Abram, the man of faith, drove the vultures away.

Birds are now considered, but only specific birds mentioned that were forbidden, with no rule given as to distinguishing clean from unclean. Yet all of these considered unclean are evidently those that feed on flesh or other animate life. These unclean birds of the air are typical of what is Satanic (Matt. 13:4 and 19), for Satan is “the prince of the power of the air.” How many there are everywhere who follow Satan's example of consuming others rather than being of blessing to them. Such an unbeliever is referred to in 1 Corinthians 3:17: “If any man destroy the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” In that chapter the believer is a builder, not a destroyer. Sometimes one can be so deceptive as to appear to be a believer in order to get in among God's people to destroy them. This is satanic deceit. We must therefore be on our guard not to have fellowship with what is unclean or questionable.

Clean birds were however not forbidden, for they speak of what is genuinely heavenly in character, such as is seen in Colossians 3:2-3: “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you have died and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Those who have this attitude are fit companions for believers. There are certain birds that in fact are typical of the Lord Jesus, being used in the offerings, as in Leviticus 1:14-17, turtledoves or pigeons. Again, at the baptism of the Lord Jesus, we are told that “He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him” (Matt. 3:16). This is a precious contrast to Genesis 15:11, where the vultures came down on the carcasses of Abram's sacrifice with the object of devouring it, just as Satan tries to destroy the value of the sacrifice of Christ. Abram, the man of faith, drove the vultures away.

(3) When we come to the birds in connection with the burnt-offering, we are made to see clearly that it is fitness of relation rather than the character of the type in itself that gives it its grade in connection with these offerings. Here, for example, we have in the birds — the "birds of heaven," as they are commonly called in Scripture — the type of the Lord as a heavenly being: yet they come in as a lower grade, and evidently a smaller offering. Beautiful types they are, the turtle-dove and the pigeon, though it may not be easy to distinguish between them. The latter is the word most commonly rendered "dove," being the rock-dove or rock-pigeon (Cant. 2:14; Jer. 48:28.) It is the bird of love and sorrow (Isa. 38:14; Isa. 59:11; Ezek. 7:16,) and fittingly therefore characterizes the Spirit of Him whose love made Him a man of sorrows in an alien world. Its wings are again referred to in the sixty-eighth Psalm: "Though ye have lain among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove, covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold." The sense of the first part is disputed, yet the reference is surely to Israel in her defilement, now redeemed from her misery and degradation: silver wings speak of redemption; redeeming love has come in for them, and in the silver is the gleam of gold — the glory of God therein displayed.

That the dove is the type of the Holy Spirit needs hardly to be stated. In this outward symbolic form He came upon our Lord. But what does the black raven represent? The raven is the type of evil, a representative of the god of this age and the flesh as well. We may see in the raven flying to and fro until the waters were dried up, a type of the prince of the power in the air, the devil. His work and activity; the devil describes himself as "going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it" (Job 1:7; and 2:2). He is doing this still, but there is a time coming when the black raven will stop his restless flight. When this present age ends with divine wrath revealed once more, and the waves of divine judgment have rolled over the earth, then Satan, the devil, that old serpent, will be bound a thousand years.