His Ways

Uplook – May 2022 — Grace & Truth Magazine

His Ways

“As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, so the Lord alone led him.” — Deuteronomy 32:11-12 NKJV

High up in a tree near a remote lake sits a bald eagle’s nest. A few fortunate people have seen the majestic inhabitants of that nest soaring high above the lake, or screaming downward to prey below.

Thousands of years ago Moses saw a similar sight as he tended sheep in the wilderness of Sinai. In the verses quoted above, he compared the eagle’s method of training its young to the ways of the Lord in leading His people.

At just the right time, an eagle stirs its nest to push out the young eaglets that they might learn to fly. Without this stirring, the lazy young birds would be content to rest in the nest and let their parents provide all their food. This sounds just like Christians! Describing how the Lord stirs the nest of His people, one preacher remarked, “He knows how to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.”

As the young eaglet plunges downward, struggling to flap its wings, the mother bird hovers above watching. And just in the nick of time she soars beneath her falling offspring and bears it back up to the nest – no doubt to the great relief of the eaglet! This process is repeated until the young eagle learns to fly.

So, too, the Lord leads His people. He knows perfectly when to push us out of the nest and when to bear us up on His powerful wings. The Lord will never let us perish, but will teach us in such a way that we will learn to “mount up with wings like eagles” (Isa. 40:31).

As we contemplate such a God – our God – we will join Moses in his song of praise (Dt. 32:4):

He is the Rock, His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
A God of truth and without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He.

By Grant Steidl