********Deuteronomy 32:11–12

(God’s Care of His Children) (Deuteronomy 32:11–12))

The Eagle Stirs Its Nest (God’s Care Of His Children)

Deuteronomy 32:11–12

“Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions. [12] “The LORD alone guided him, and there was no foreign god with him” (NASB).

As we focus on this text, it is important for us to understand that the emphasis is not on an eagle. It is on God. This is not a passage about an eagle’s care of its young. It is about God’s care of his children. God found Israel in a desert land. He called them from that wilderness and gave them privilege and prosperity. This was an expression of his love for them.

In the verses of this text, God is pictured as an eagle. The eagle represents grace and power in the bird creation. The eagle builds its nest of pointed sticks and high in the mountains. Its nest is protected by its inaccessibility. The nest of the eagle is built near the cliff of mountains to make it easy to get the young eaglets started flying.

In this picture, Moses was seeking to show Israel how God loved and cared for them. Moses wanted Israel to know that God alone had delivered and cared for them. God provided Israel with protection. He kept them as the apple of his eye (10). Through his tender love, he gave them help and training. God had taught them, watched over them, and protected them. The apple of the eye is the part of the eye that is protected with the greatest care.

I. The Plan

“Like an eagle that stirs up its nest …”

The word “stirs” (` uwr) means to rouse oneself, to awaken. Here Moses painted the picture of an eagle teaching its young eaglets to fly. The intent of the eagle was to teach the eaglets to function responsibly. As important as dependence on God is, we must learn to function in a responsible way to all of life’s situations.

If you will note the picture, the eaglets are lying in the nest sleeping. They will continue to sleep until they are hungry again. But they are awakened out of their sleep. An eagle is a strong bird and the nest is stirred to bring out the inner strength of the eaglets.

The eagle does not leave the eaglets to lie around in the nest and do nothing. He rouses them out of the nest by breaking it up and causing them to become uneasy. The straw of the nest is pulled back so that the pointed edges will stick the tender skin of the young birds.

Like the little eaglets, we love the nest of ease. We love to sleep all night and eat full course meals whenever we want to. We do not want any struggles in life. We want everything to go our way all the time. Sometimes God has to stir our nest of ease so that he can bring us to a higher level of living. Ease is a dangerous thing. It nourishes a false security. It makes us think we can function without God. Ease produces a weak prayer life. We do not pray as long and hard when we are living at ease.

It has been said that “God comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.” The eagle places its eaglets in trying situations by taking away comforts. It knows that if the children do not have some struggles, they will never develop the strength to live in a world that is full of storms.

God used the forty years Israel spent in the wilderness to not only punish them, but to also teach them responsibility. He taught them to have active dependence on him.

God deals with his children out of his wisdom. There are times when we think we need one thing and we actually need another. God always knows what we need, when we need it and why we need it. The picture of the eagle suggests that God is always working in our lives for our good.

II. The Protection

“Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions.”

Although the eagle breaks up its nest and challenges the young eaglets to fly on their own, it does not allow them to be hurt. The spreading of the wings of the eagle is the promise of protection of the young birds. The eagle flies above them and watches over them. When they start to fall, it supports them on the tip of its wings. Although God tries us, he never tries us beyond our strength.

Because of God’s care of his people, he gave them temporal success and blessing. God assured Israel victory over her enemies. He said that they would live on the high places of the earth.

III. The Purpose

“Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young …”

Eagles are so strong that they can fly into storms. It is our nature to avoid storms, but we gain strength from every storm we experience. God is trying to bring us to the point of discovering our inner powers.

When eaglets are old enough to fly, the nest is broken up to force them to use their wings to fly. The eagle knows that the power to fly is in the eaglets, but they do not know it. So he stirs the nest to bring out the potential in them.

When the eaglets struggle in flight, the eagle spreads its wings and bears them upwards in the air. Once they are in the air, the eagle shakes them off and forces them to use their own strength. This is a picture of God walking with us in the rough places in life. He will never allow us to have greater struggles than we can handle. But he will allow us to have enough to make us strong.

The word “hovers” (rachaph) means to grow soft, to relax, to brood, to flutter, move or shake. This word speaks of the eagle flapping its wings rapidly to show the young eaglets how to fly. This is what God did in Jesus. Jesus came into the world to show us little eaglets how to fly.