6/25/2023 0 Comments Warlike eagleScripture adapts to our sense of up-gazing toward the blue sky or starry heavens-as the place where God dwells. God accommodates us earth-bound creatures so dependent upon what our eyes can see. Three things are too wonderful for me four I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a virgin (Prov 30:18 ESV). Proverbs speaks of the mystery of the eagle’s way in the sky: What does it mean for the Holy Spirit to be likened to an eagle? In Scripture, as lion is king of beasts, the eagle is prince among birds. So along with the dove, the eagle augments understanding of the Spirit’s warming, protecting, and covering over the deep. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. The song triggers remembrance of eagle imagery in the nation’s nearness to God: Sinai, as God prepared to announce the Ten Commandments. This song also remixes a familiar melody of a more recent past, on the slopes of Mt. Deuteronomy populates the Spirit’s indistinctness with an image of a mother eagle hovering- rāḥap̄-over her eaglets. That rare word rāḥap̄ is a flashback to the Holy Spirit fluttering- rāḥap̄-over the waters. Rescuing Israel from Egypt and shepherding them through the wilderness, the Lord likens Himself to a mother eagle caring for her young. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the Lord alone guided him, no foreign god was with him. ![]() He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As God speaks by His prophet Moses, this occurrence of rāḥap̄ opens up further insight: It seems God has another bird on His mind besides the dove. I want you to consider, though, another bird possibility, confirmed by later revelation. The Spirit symbolized by the dove has been permanently etched upon our imaginations. The grand storyline of the Bible portrays the Spirit of God hovering- rāḥap̄-over the face of the deep as a dove. The Jordan is soaked with symbolism and historical significance, distant echoes of the primordial chaos waters at the beginning of creation (another story for another day). All four Gospels compare the Holy Spirit to a dove coming down from heaven as Jesus emerged from the baptismal waters of the River Jordan. Noah released a dove over the chaos waters of the Flood (of these things we cannot now speak in detail). The Holy Spirit hovering over the waters as a mother bird brooding over her young anticipates a richer, fuller development. Gaps and mysteries in comprehending these introductory sketches are filled in and solved for us. The dim dawn of Genesis is outshone by the noonday sun of Jesus Christ and His apostles. Unlike the agitated, surging mass of chaotic waters below, the Spirit hovering above is relaxed and at rest, so r āḥap̄ conveys.ĭid God have any specific bird in mind when correlating the Spirit’s activity to a mother bird brooding over her young? As God spoke by the prophets long ago, at many times and in many ways, His revelation progressively matured until He had spoken to us by His Son, Jesus Christ (Heb 1:1-2). 32:11 figuratively used of the Spirit of God, who brooded over the shapeless mass of the earth, cherishing and vivifying.” The Spirit of God over the face of the deep impresses upon our imagination a mother bird brooding-warming, protecting, covering her young with her wings or body. Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon defines rāḥap̄ as “t o brood over young ones, to cherish young (as an eagle), Deut. The word for hovering is rāḥap̄ (raw-khaf’). I want us to pay particularly close attention to the Spirit’s collaboration that sprung creation into being.Īnd the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. ![]() ![]() The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. We’re only two verses deep in the Bible, and the Spirit bursts on the scene! My hope and prayer is that God may shape your walk with Him by it as mine has been. ![]() As mentioned before, we’ll take occasional rests from 1 Peter to take in fresh vistas of our rich inheritance of the Holy Spirit. We’ve barely begun to explore the exquisite excellencies of the gift of the Holy Spirit to us! It will take eternity to plumb the depths of this vast cosmos of the Spirit, “who knows the deep things of God.” While our journey in 1 Peter is delayed by needful construction, I’m delighted to return to revelations of the Holy Spirit I’ve received from God’s word.
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