‘The Song of Moses’ in our reading today has a brief history of Israel, reminding the people of their mistakes, warning not to make them again and offering the hope that comes in trusting God.  Moses being familiar with wilderness, probably watched eagles many times.  He used “an eagle” to illustrate God's providential care for Israel during the forty years of wilderness wandering. In our key verse, Moses describes two mysterious things the mother eagle does to prepare her young eaglets.

THE EAGLE STIRS UP ITS NEST (Deu 32:11a)

When the mother eagle “stirs up the nest” she removes all the soft animal fur, feathers and the soft leaves she used to construct her nest so that all that's left are the prickly sticks.  The once soft, cozy nest has now become a bed of discomfort and restlessness.  Though it breaks the heart of that mother eagle to listen to her young eaglets “whining and complaining” about how uncomfortable they are, but in her wisdom, the Mama Eagle knows what is best for her children. She knows if she doesn't “stir up the nest” and allow her eaglets to experience discomfort they will never leave the nest and become the beautiful, majestic birds God created them to be.  Lamentations 3:32 says, “Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies.”

THE STRUGGLE OF THE FLIGHT (Deu 32:11b) 

When the mother eagle “hovers over her young” it means she is refusing to feed them any longer but she settles down in the nest with her wings spread over them to protect them. At first this may seem very cruel and unfair, but the mother eagle knows that for her young eaglets to mature and survive on their own, she has to create a hunger within them to leave the nest, go out and hunt for themselves. Then Moses describes the mother eagle “carrying her young on her wings.”  The mother eagle will mount the young eaglet on her wings, leaving the nest and soar thousands of feet into the air. When she gets to a certain altitude, she will flap her wings causing the eaglet to go into a “free fall.” As that eaglet tumbles downward it will start flapping its wings trying to learn how to fly. And just when it looks like the young eaglet is going to crash to the earth below, the mother eagle will swoop down and catch her young eaglet on her back and start climbing back into the sky again. Imagine that little eaglet crying “Mama, what are you trying to do, don't you love me?”  This painful process is repeated until the eaglet learns to fly.  Just as a mother eagle allows her young eaglets to struggle, to increase our FAITH and TRUST, God has to stir us from our comfort zones and our places of familiarity. As long as we remain in “the nest of our comfort zone” we become complacent and indifferent and we stay stagnant spiritually.  So, God in His wisdom brings changes into our lives and removes some of the comforts so that we may rely on Him completely.

How do we respond to the trials and troubles of life?  If you give up or quit or if you feel sorry for yourself and throw “pity parties”, going around telling everybody your “poor me” stories, you'll never learn to fly by faith.  Instead start flapping your wings of faith, and trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, God will help you to “soar like an eagle” to new levels of faith you’ve never been to before. It is God’s way of  “stirring up the nest.”

Thought: “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”  (James 1:2-4 )