4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
Figures of speech are present in our language every day. We talk about feeling the squeeze at work. We blow a gasket with our kids. We feel bowled over by the events of the day. Our schedules are so full we feel swamped. We get a buzz from an energy drink. Our tails are dragging at the end of the day. Each of these and hundreds more are part of our everyday vocabulary. To us they make sense. To someone from another country and culture, they are often a mystery. They understand the individual words, but the concept behind the words gets lost. In our text for the day we read about the Lord carrying the Israelites on eagles’ wings. I don’t remember any story of giant eagles swooping down and the Israelites hopping on their backs and being carried away to safety. Something in us knows that this language is a figure of speech. And I think the meaning is fairly clear from the context. The Lord brought a great deliverance to the Israelites. They were spared so many difficulties. It was as if they had traveled by airplane rather than having to make the cross country journey by covered wagon. The context, the words around it, in the previous and following verses help us understand the meaning. As you read the Scriptures and you don’t understand a particular verse, take time to study the context. So often the meaning is made plain in the surrounding verses. Take time to read verses in context. They are connected to chapters and to the books as a whole. They make sense in their place. If we don’t understand what they mean, it could be we are missing that context. Some of that context is the culture out of which they grew, but don’t overemphasize the culture. My guess is that 95% can be understood without reference to the culture if we pay careful attention to the more immediate context. In our passage we don’t need to know if the eagle represented something in their culture to understand the meaning of the passage. God delivered them. That is the main message.
The Arnold Journey 