'As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth
abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings.'--DEUT.
xxxii. 11.
This is an incomplete sentence in the Authorised Version, but really it
should be rendered as a complete one; the description of the eagle's
action including only the two first clauses, and (the figure being
still retained) the person spoken of in the last clauses being God
Himself. That is to say, it should read thus, 'As an eagle stirreth up
his nest, fluttereth over his young, _He_ spreads abroad His wings,
takes them, bears them on His pinions.' That is far grander, as well as
more compact, than the somewhat dragging comparison which, according to
the Authorised Version, is spread over the whole verse and tardily
explained, in the following, by a clause introduced by an unwarranted
'So'--'the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with
him.'
Now, of course, we all know that the original reference of these words
is to the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, and their training
in the desert. In the solemn address by Jehovah at the giving of the
law (Exodus xix. 4), the same metaphor is employed, and, no doubt, that
passage was the source of the extended imagery here. There we read, 'Ye
know what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings,
and brought you unto Myself.' The meaning of the glowing metaphor, with
its vivid details, is just that Jehovah brought Israel out of its fixed
abode in Goshen, and trained it for mature national life by its varied
desert experiences. As one of the prophets puts the same idea, 'I
taught Ephraim to go,' where the figure of the parent bird training its
callow fledglings for flight is exchanged for that of the nurse
teaching a child to walk. While, then, the text primarily refers to the
experience of the infant nation in the forty years' wanderings, it
carries large truths about us all; and sets forth the true meaning and
importance of life. There seem to me to be three thoughts here, which I
desire to touch on briefly: first, a great thought about God; then an
illuminating thought about the true meaning and aspect of life; and
lastly a calming thought about the variety of the methods by which God
carries out our training.