Eagles
Hugo McCord
How much do you know about eagles? Since the Bible makes mention of them 32 times, it would seem that God expects me to know something about them. Among four things that were too amazing for Agur, the son of Jakeh, things he did not understand, was "the way of a eagle in the sky" (Pr 30:18-19).
Encyclopedias speak of many species of eagles, all of which are large and strong. The golden eagle is three feet long with a wing spread between six and seven feet, while the wing spread of the bald eagle sometimes reaches eight feet. It is interesting that the parents alternate in incubation, which lasts up to 49 days, and that they both bring food for the downy eaglets up to 130 days before the fledglings leave the nest. The parents mate for life, practicing monogamy.
Eagles have been an inspiration for people in all nations. Nebuchadnezzar in ancient Babylonia had an eagle for a national emblem, as did Rome’s Caesars, Charlemagne, Napoleon, and the czars of Russia. In 1782 the US Congress made the bald eagle America’s emblem. The Great Seal of the US shows a flying eagle with thirteen stars clutching in one claw arrows of war and in the other an olive branch of peace. Also, the $10 gold piece has an eagle inscribed. The bald eagle is not bald; he only looks that way from a distance as one sees his blackish-brown body under the snow-white feathers on his head.
Through the ages eagles have been the symbols of power, courage, freedom, and even of immortality. However, the Americana Encyclopedia goes too far in asserting that "in Hebrew and Christian religions the eagle represents the flight of the soul to heaven."
Formerly it was thought that the eagle’s sense of smell led him to his prey. But the ancient book of Job said it was his telescopic vision: from "the point of the cliff" the eagle "spies out the prey" and his "eyes detect it from afar" (39:28-29). Collier’s Encyclopedia says an eagle’s "eyes are highly developed" and his "vision is binocular."
How did the eagle get such eyes? Man’s telescope was slow in being invented, the first one being made by a Dutch lens grinder, Hans Lippershey, in 1608 (American Encyclopedia). In the next year Galileo trained a telescope on the stars. But how did the eagle from time unknown get a built-in telescope? Did evolution without intelligence invent a telescope thousands of years before man with intelligence learned how to put one together?
It is against the law of Scotland to tamper with an eagle’s nest. Some people did so and got in trouble:
A golden eagle’s egg taken from an eyrie near Fort Augustus and returned 24 hours later hatched last weekend despite "overwhelming odds" against its survival.
The egg was one of a pair taken from two nests in late March but recovered by police soon after their removal. The eggs, about three times the size of hens’ eggs and dull-white in color, were taken to a nearby police station and photographed.
They were then delivered to Mr. Roy Dennis, the highland officer of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds-who kept them at his home overnight.
Mr. Dennis said yesterday that he realized that eagles are "very sensitive" about their eggs being touched but that he decided "as a long shot" to return them to the eyries the next day.
A hike of over five miles was required to reach the nests, which were situated in a characteristically remote and dangerous spot. There were no birds in sight when the eggs were returned and Mr. Dennis had little hope for their future.
But last Sunday it was discovered that one pair of eagles had returned and that an egg which had been taken had hatched.
Mr. Dennis described the discovery as "rather thrilling" and added: "This shows that all hope is not lost when someone takes an egg." The RSPB will continue to monitor the Chick’s progress, he said.
A number of people are expected to appear in court soon in connection with the removal of the eggs. (THE SCOTSMAN of Edinburgh, May 14, 1980.)
Not only do Scottish laws protect eagles’ eggs, but also federal law in the US forbids killing eagles or destroying eagles’ eggs: the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 50, Chapter I, Part II is entitled, "Protection of Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles." Why is it illegal to break an eagle’s egg but legal to break into a woman’s womb and kill her unborn child?
$2,900 reward offered
The Oregonian 5/16/91
Oregon State Police are offering a reward of nearly $3,000 for information leading to the arrest of someone who shot a bald eagle from a beach on the Columbia River near Rainer.
The adult eagle was seen falling from the air over a long stretch of beach on the Oregon side of the river below the Longview bridge May 10. A shot from a high-powered rifle also was heard by a passing tugboat crew.
The crew picked up the bird from a log in the water onto which it had crawled after the fall.
The eagle was hit in the upper back and also broke a leg in the fall, but it appears to be on the road to recovery in a Longview veterinary clinic, police said. Its wing and flight muscles appear to be in good condition.
Rewards for information totaling $2,900 are being offered by the Portland Audubon Society, the Oregon Hunters Association and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.
Police have a sketchy description of a vehicle in the area but little else to go on.
Informants who wish to remain anonymous - even to police - may do so and still collect reward money.
What should I learn from an eagle?
1. The eagle builds his nest in a safe place: "the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high:" "on the rock he dwells and makes his home in the fastness of the rocky crag" (Job 39:27-28). The only safe place for a sinner’s home is in Jesus (John 6:69; 14:6; Acts 4:12).
2. The eagle is always on the alert, and so are Christians: "Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary, the Devil, as a roaring lion, stalks about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8).
3. The eagle is prepared for long flights without getting weary. Oklahoma University Professor Blick, CORRELATION OF THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE, p. 3, writes that there is
a unique quality in the wings of an eagle of being able to fly without becoming weary. This is exactly what we have discovered in the wind tunnels of the University of Oklahoma while conducting aerodynamic research on birds during the spring of 1971. The eagle has six slotted feathers at the tip of each wing which curve upward in guiding flight. Our wind tunnel measurements indicated these upward-curved-slotted-tip feathers reduce the size of the vortex emanating from each wing-tip. This in turn reduces the drag on the winds, thus allowing the eagle to soar large distances in air currents without the need of beating his wings.
So, "those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not be weary, they will walk and not be faint" (Isaiah 40:31, NIV; cf. Galations 6:9; Hebrews 12:3).
4. The eagle stays young. How can it be said that the "youth" of a godly man is "renewed like the eagle’s" (Psalm 103:5)? Apparently the psalmist was thinking of the eagle’s mounting, that he changes his feathers once or twice a year. The eagle "lives upwards of 100 years and yet retains vitality" (Cohen, on Psalm 103:5). In like manner, "those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength" (Isaiah 40:31; 2 Corinthians 4:16).
5. The eagle turns adversity to advantage. Bill Thrasher, THE MEDIATOR, Tulsa, Ok., quotes from Isaiah that "those who hope in the LORD will … soar on wings like eagles" (40:31 NIV), and writes:
An eagle knows when the storm is approaching long before it breaks. It will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, it is soaring above it.
The eagle doesn’t escape the storm, it simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It rides on the winds that bring the storm.
Isaiah compares people to eagles. He says, in the words of God, that we are blessed with that gift from God that enables us to ride the winds of the storm that bring sickness, tragedy, war, failure and disappointment in our lives. We can soar above the storm. Remember, it’s not the burdens of life that weight us down, it’s how we handle them.
When the storms of life come upon us and all of us will experience them, we can rise above them by setting our minds and belief toward God. The storms do not have to overcome us. We can allow God’s power to lift us above them. …
It’s not that we won’t be affected by the storm. We will not only be affected, we will be in it. It is just that we will use the storm to grow spiritually. Job did, Joseph did, and so can we. So let’s be encouraged by Isaiah’s words. Let us never allow our hope to fade or our faith to weaken. Let’s use God’s power to "soar on wings like eagles."
6. The eagle mother cares for her young. After some four months of bringing food to the nest for a chick, the mother pushes the fledgling out to try his wings. As the young one falls toward the earth his mother darts underneath and catches the chick on top of her own wings, repeating the process as often as necessary. So, "as an eagle stirs up her nest and hovers over her young, and spreads her wings to catch them and carries them on her pinions" (Deuteronomy 32:11), so the good Lord "shields" and "cares for" his own (Deuteronomy 32:10). Indeed, as the mother eagle dives under and catches her falling chick, so, recounts the Lord, "I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself" (Exodus 19:4). As a result, a spiritual man is confident: "This I know, that God is for me" (Psalm 56:9), and "THE LORD is on my side" (Psalm 118:6).