On Eagles’ Wings of Deliverance
“On eagles’ wings of deliverance” tells of the way Israel achieved freedom all the way from slavery in Egypt, to security in the land of promise, from death to life, from helplessness to the heart of God. It was not the fearless fighting and brilliant military manoeuvring that startled the nations of the world. It was not by their own efforts at all. It was by what God did for them, God carried them on eagles’ wings. “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself” (Exodus 19:4).
The eagle is one of the birds specifically labelled in scripture as unclean and was not to be used for food (Leviticus 11:13). It is also referred to as a bird of prey. Our Lord gave a verse that is in many ways the most difficult statement He ever uttered, “For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together” (Matthew 24:28). For this reason the eagle is not used in the scripture as a symbol of God. Yet the eagle is admired and applauded for its exploits. It is the jet plane of the bird family. It soars the highest, goes the fastest and is superior to all other birds in this respect. These features are noted on the pages of the word of God. David, in giving a eulogy of Saul and Jonathan after they were slain, likens them to the eagle in the panegyric of praise, “Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, they were swifter than eagles” (2 Samuel 1:23). The eagle, though in and of itself is rejected as a symbol of God, is admired for its ability to fly. Therefore its wings are given as a symbol of our God. By the strength of its wings it is able to soar to the heights and perform unusual feats.
Another remarkable characteristic of the eagle is its tenderness towards its young. No member of the bird family is more gentle and attentive watching over its young. It builds its nest high up on a mountain crag. Both parents bring food to the little eaglets and when they teach them to fly, both parents are involved in the training program. As the little one takes off from the dizzy height and attempts to follow its parents in flight, the eagle swoops beneath it and bears the little fellow on its wings when it seems exhausted. Thus the eagle is set before us as being a symbol of God’s dealing with His people, as He bore them “on eagles’ wings”.
“Eagles wings of deliverance” are set before us as the salvation that God, by grace, wrought for us. This is given in Exodus 19:4. At this point God had brought Israel out of Egyptian bondage to mount Sinai and gave them an opportunity to make a choice. As He did this, He said to them “Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to myself”. In this verse God reviews their deliverance out of Egypt. He goes back over their passage through the Red Sea and how they were brought up to Mount Sinai.
‘In Slavery’
This is a nation that was born in slavery and reared in the backyard in Egypt (Genises 2:23). They had gone down to Egypt as one family of seventy souls under their father Jacob (Exodus 46:26-27). There they had become a great nation but in the course of time there arose a Pharaoh who “knew not Joseph” (Exodus 1:8). Since it was evident that God was blessing them, Pharaoh felt it was necessary, for the welfare of Egypt, to hold them down and as a result the Pharaoh put them under hard slavery.
‘In hopelessness’
The people did slave labour in the backyard of Egypt, but in spite of that they prospered. There they became a great nation, great in size, great in ability but yet they had no power to extricate themselves from the awful slavery. There was no hope, no human possibility that they could get deliverance until the Pharaoh upon the throne was destroyed. Then the chances were that whoever came to the throne would not change their awful slave status but leave them to continue in their plight. Such was the condition of the people, and it was in that situation that God looked down upon them, and God remembered.
‘When God Remembers’
The book of Exodus opens with God looking down upon these people. As He looked down, He did not see their wonderful ability, because any ability they had was God-given. God never saw any goodness in them, because they had no goodness in them. And it is of no value to say that they were the only people on the earth at that time that had the knowledge of God, for they did not, they were in idolatry. During the time of Joseph, Pharaoh gave them the best of the land and they enjoyed the fat of the land, and they forgot the God of their fathers, and became familiar with the gods of the Egyptians and started worshipping them. They were just about as bad as any people could be. God did not see in them anything that called for movement on His part because of meritorious works or any character within them. The thing that God said when He called Moses to be their deliverer was: “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt, I have heard them crying out because of their slavery and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come to deliver/ rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 2:23-25; 3:7-10).
When God remembers, He will not come down from Heaven Himself to deliver. He needs a man to stand in the gap between Him and the people (Ezekiel 22:30). Moses, a child born in Egyptian bondage was called and chosen by God to deliver the people of God from slavery and sin. The Bible says, “By faith Moses, when he had grown, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; he chose to be mistreated with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time” (Hebrews 11:24-25). Moses became the human agent for God to use in the deliverance of the groaning Israelites in Egypt. God chose this man from the Midian desert where He had trained him and schooled him. After forty years God brought him back to Egypt and said, “Now I am ready to deliver my people”.
‘The battle of the Gods’
Then a battle ensured, a battle literally of the gods. For God pitted Himself against the idolatry of Egypt and struck against that awful system that shackled the minds and spirit of the people and was holding them in spiritual bondage. Each of the plagues was directed against a particular god of Egypt. The sacred Nile was turned into blood. Frogs, lice and then files swamped over the land, and the livestock died. Boils broke out on both man and beast, locusts devastated their crops, and darkness enveloped them for three days. When God finally came to the tenth plague it was awesome in its severity, but it took this to release the hold over His people in slavery – it turned the key in the lock and let them go free. The last plague was the death of the firstborn. Now the God of the Israelites was ready to show His people that He was redeeming them, not because of any merit pf their own, but by the sovereign grace of God.
‘An unforgettable night’
God said it would be a night they would never forget. Today if you go to the house of any Orthodox Jew, you will find the Passover marked on their calendar. After all these years it is still being remembered, it is one of the oldest holy days on any man’s calendar on the earth. This is a day they remember, this is a day they shall never forget. It is the day that God brought deliverance to His people. These people were to select a lamb and slay it. The blood of that lamb was to be sprinkled on the door posts and on the lintel that went across the top of the door, and that night the angel of death passed them over. It was judgment from the Almighty God upon a sinful nation. The firstborn who lived that night knew that they were redeemed by the blood. The only thing that wrought redemption was the blood. That night the people ate the Passover with loins girded and lights ablaze, they marched out a redeemed people redeemed by blood.
This was only the beginning of their experience with the grace of God. When the people came down to the Red Sea they were trapped, Pharaoh was behind them with his chariots of war, beside them were mountains, and before them was the Red Sea. These people had no weapons to protect themselves they were easy prey for the Egyptians. Realizing their plight, these people were ready to go back to the backyard of Egypt. “And they said unto Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt; Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness” (Exodus 14:11,12). However it was not God’s intention to let them go back to Egyptian bondage. When God redeems He does a complete job of it. He never starts a work of redemption unless He finishes the work. And so God was prepared to deliver them again, but this time in an altogether different manner. The Bible says, “And Moses said unto the people, Fear you not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will show to you today, for the Egyptians you see, you shall see them no more forever. The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace” (Exodus 14:13,14). Now it was time for God to fight for the Israelites. The Bible says that the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them and the pillar of cloud went from before their face and stood behind them. The cloud that brought light to the Israelites brought darkness to the Egyptians so that one could not come near the other all the night (Exodus 14:19-20 compare 2 Corinthians 6:14.
Moses went down to the Red Sea and took with him the rod that had been potent when it was dedicated to God, the rod that had brought the plagues, the rod that had been used back in Egypt for the deliverance of Israel out of slavery. “Moses took the rod and smote the waters and the Lord caused the Sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry ground, and the waters were divided and the children of Israel went on dry ground into the midst of the sea” (Exodus 14:21,22). The same route that brought deliverance to the Israelites brought death to the Egyptians. The Israelites were people redeemed by blood and redemption by blood leads to resurrection. They passed through the waters of death and they came out on the other side to a new life. The writer of Hebrews says that “By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, which the Egyptians, attempting to do, were drowned” (Hebrews 11:29).
Two other scriptures consider the events of the Red Sea. The first is in Psalm 106:8-11 “Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake, that He might make His mighty power to be known. He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up: so He led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. And He saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. And the waters covered their enemies: there was not one of them left”. This passage shows us that:
1. God saved them because of His name
2. That the Red Sea dried up
3. Not one of the enemy was left
In every complete deliverance not only will God save us, He will also destroy our enemies and those that hate us in order to complete the work.
The second scripture is Psalm 114:1-5 “When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; Judah was his sanctuary and Israel his dominion. The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?” This gives us greater insight:
4. That Egypt had a strange language
5. That when the Israelites were in Egypt God had no dwelling
sanctuary in them and God was dwelling in Israel
6. That the Red Sea saw it (ie God dwelling or God coming with
a host of Israel) and actually fled.
All this happened because God was there dwelling with Israel, His chosen people. In the same way He is with the faithful. Consider the case of Daniel when he was thrown into the lions’ den (Daniel 6:16-23) and Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego in the blazing furnace (Daniel 3:20-25) and Joshua entering Jericho (Joshua 5:13-15). God said in Psalm 50:15, “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you and you will glorify me”. He kept His word before and He is still keeping it today. He will never change because of the changing world, He is faithful.
When the Israelites crossed the Red Sea on dry ground and got to the other side they looked back and saw the Egyptians coming, they saw something else, the walls of water were breaking and the Egyptians were being engulfed and destroyed. Safely on the other side they sang the song of Moses, they were now prepared to sing the song of redemption. They had been redeemed by blood, by power, by death and by resurrection. That is what it means to travel on eagles’ wings.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:28-31)
Bro George Ewi (Limbe, Cameroon)
