''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 '' (Deut. 32:11,12)
The Lord' s mind for His
people is that they shall have wings, wings that can cope
with the elements and master them. He is altogether
averse to their remaining unduly in soft lined nests,
being fed, and dependent upon what comes from no exercise
of their own.
1. While it remains
fully true that ''in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing'', and ''apart from Me ye can do nothing'',
with all that is meant by such words as to the utter
inability of man by nature to produce or achieve anything
for God' s satisfaction, it is equally true that by new
birth we inherit a new set of spiritual faculties,
capacities, and potentialities. In that which is imparted
by this work of the Spirit of God, there are therefore
inherent, though at first, largely latent, powers and
possibilities, as in all infancy. These inherent
potentialities must be developed, and here begins the
discipline which involves us in all those struggles and
conflicts and perplexities of the soul which have marked
one side of the life of every one who has ever come to be
of real account to God. See Hebrews 5:12-14.
2. The development of
these faculties and powers will take place in a realm
which spells disaster and death, but for the Lord. That
expanse of emptiness, that abyss, into which the eaglets
are hurled or forced by the mother eagle is undoubtedly,
apart from her, the realm of their undoing and end. There
is no doubt about it, that leaving all foolhardiness
(sometimes misnamed faith) on our part aside, the ways of
Divine demand are often those which spell our complete
undoing if left to ourselves. Paul could speak of
''deaths oft'', and having ''the sentence that it was
death''. But as the eaglets, through many a so-to-speak
last minute intervention on the part of loving concern,
learned what that strange way of love was intended to
teach, they gradually turned that which in itself would
have been their destruction to be their servant. Their
wings mastered and used the air, the wind, the storm, and
made these serve their purpose.
''The things which
happened.......have fallen out....... unto
progress............''
So the Lord would teach
us, and bring us to a spiritual state, so that the very
works of evil and Satan are taken hold of and made to
serve spiritual ends. Paul says ''all things are yours'',
and in the catalogue he includes ''death''. ''Death
is yours''; by which, in keeping with the other things
mentioned, he can only mean that death is to be our
servant, not our tyrant. Nothing could be more an enemy
than death, but it can be made to serve very great
interests. It depends upon how we view and handle it.
3. In our training to
master the elements, we learn one lesson amongst many. It
is that here is Divine providence and love that
intervenes when things have got beyond a certain point.
The fact is that many times we thought that the end had
come; that now, at length, we were going out or under. We
saw nothing beyond and ''despaired of life''. But,
equally, the fact is that we have not yet gone under, and
are still going on. Resurrection has taken place many
times. We do not know just how it is, but here we are,
and that after many years in which not a few experiences
of imminent disaster have been ours. Well, He spread His
wings under us and bore us up again, and He ''Who
delivered us.... will deliver.... will also still deliver
us.''
4. What is it all
about? Yes, it is to develop capacity and ascendancy in
us and to make us spiritually responsible, competent, and
assured, but in that process the Lord is seeking to get
established in us faith in His Divine wisdom. The
terrifying experiences are really meant to issue in our
confession that the Lord knew what He was doing and did
the only thing by which, despite our questioning and
doubting, His end could be reached. Thus do we come to
know that wisdom lies within enshrouding mystery.
5. The last word is that
this education is progressive. The mother eagle knows
when wisdom dictates that a respite is called for. The
Lord is no less wise, and spreads our training over an
extended and graduated course. The beginners could not
stand what those further on are called upon to accept,
and it would be sacrificing value for the Lord to let us
go back to the easier conditions of earlier stages.
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Jan-Feb 1948, Vol 26-1