"On Eagles Wings"
The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament, 2nd edition
“You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Exodus 19:4)
You are looking at a Golden Eagle: A native of the Negev desert in the south of Israel. These “masters of the sky” grow to as tall as 3.5 ft, their wingspan can reach 7.5 feet, and they weigh in at 14 lbs. They can take out deer, calves, gazelle up to 100 lbs! Granted they can’t carry such a large animal off into the air, that max is 10 lbs, but they are completely unafraid of engaging animals four and five times their size in battle. These are in every sense the apex predators of the sky. And I’m sure that when their massive wings cast a shadow on those below, their piercing cries announcing that they were on the hunt, shepherds, like Moses, took notice. So we should not be at all surprised that this majestic creature found its way into Israel’s most prodigious tale of rescue and redemption, when the Master of the Universe himself swooped down into human history, to rescue a people and carry them out of bondage to Himself.
Now perhaps I’ve spent too much time reading the Lord of the Rings (is that even possible?) but I love this passage. How could anyone fail to be moved by this portrayal of Yahweh rescuing his people from the grip of Pharaoh and carrying them to safety on the wings of eagles? Hence, I was deeply disappointed when I engaged this passage for an essay several years back,[1] only to find that most commentators write this avian image off as artistic license or the hyperbole of poetic metaphor. This even though Deuteronomy 32:11 references the same behavior: “Like an eagle stirs up its nest on account of its young, and hovering, spreads its wings to catch them and carry them aloft”! They argued that the nešer (“eagle”) of the biblical text does not actually “carry” its young and this depiction has no grounding in actual eagle behavior. Well, as an avid bird watcher, a card-carrying member of Audubon, and someone who does not like the word, “no,” the game was afoot and my hunt for real data began.
So for those of you who are not bird watchers, you will be interested to learn that the Golden Eagle builds huge nests (known as “aeries,” the largest on record being 20 feet high), and they are notorious for building them in the highest and most inaccessible locations. As the objective is safety from predators and the ability to spot prey for miles, a Golden Eagle’s favorite nesting site is a cliff ledge—as much as 2,000 ft off the ground. And, yes, the Golden Eagle was once a frequent resident of Israel’s Negev desert.
So if you were a young eagle, perched precariously 2,000 ft in the air on the edge of a cliff … how might you muster up the courage to launch off that cliff in order to learn to fly? That question was answered for me when I finally found the data I was looking for: an edition of the Condor journal from 1918. A long-running ornithological journal (now named Ornithological Applications) recognized as the premier publication in its field. And in the 1918 edition, a certain Loye Miller related an account of a Golden Eagle teaching its fledglings to fly. Success! And when I learned that Loye Holmes Miller is so highly esteemed that the American Ornithological Society offers a lifetime achievement award annually in his name, I realized that I had located the expert I was looking for. What does Miller say about our Exodus image?
In recounting the field observations of one of his students (F. E. Schuman), Miller reports a firsthand account of a mother Golden Eagle doing what mother eagles do, teaching their young to fly.
“The mother started from the nest in the crags and, roughly handling the young one, she allowed him to drop, I should say, about ninety feet, then she would swoop down under him, wings spread, and he would alight on her back. She would soar to the top of the range with him and repeat the process. One time she waited perhaps fifteen minutes between flights. I should say the farthest she let him fall was 150 feet. My father and I watched this, spellbound, for over an hour.”[2]
What do I learn from this? One, yes eagles do carry their young on their wings and this stirring image of Yahweh rescuing his fledgling nation on the back of eagles’ wings is not artistic license.[3] That data alone resolved my exegetical crisis, assuring me that what is recounted in Exodus 19:4 and Deuteronomy 32:11 is indeed grounded in real eagle behavior. Better, I was reminded that often a well-executed shove is a necessary aspect of the journey.
Stay tuned for more material from the second edition of The Epic of Eden—coming to a bookstore near you, November 2026!
[1] “What Do I Know of Holy? On the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit in Scripture,” pp. 23–38 in Spirit of God: Christian Renewal in the Community of Faith, eds. Jeffrey Barbeau and Beth Felker Jones (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015).
[2] Loye Miller, Wilson C. Hanna, and Austin Paul Smith, “From Field and Study,” The Condor 20, no. 6 (1918): 212.
[3] This practice is also reported by famed American ornithologist, Arthur Cleveland Bent (1866–1954), known particularly for his 21-volume work, Life Histories of North American Birds (1919-1968). The story is related in “Aquila Chrysaëtos Canadensis: Golden Eagle,” United States National Museum Bulletin 167 (1937): 302. And by and Sir William Beach Thomas , The Yeoman’s England (London: Alexander Maclehose & Co., 1934), pp. 135-36.
Godspeed in the journey, Barbara. As Isaiah says: "he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people's disgrace from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. In that day they will say, "Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation" (25:7-9)
Yes, Sandra! This is such good imagery! In some of my formative years of learning to really study scripture, I learned from a woman who taught a weekly 2-hr lecture…like a seminary class. We spent an entire year doing a word study of every instance of the word eagle from Genesis to Revelation, coming upon this passage as well. She taught exactly as you have as well, finding similar scientific data to help the passage come alive for us, including how eagles will “rustle up the nest” to push out the young to begin “flying lessons.” We learned many other enlightening facts about eagles that would have been known in those days that cracked open passages. I’ve never forgotten it! It’s been helpful imagery in some of life’s rough seasons, to fuel the imagination of what God might be doing in the life of a believer, mine or another’s.
That word study was so formative as it was designed to teach us students HOW to study, how to work through the Word and mine out nuggets of gold for truth that builds and sustains faith in any season. And when I look around at nature ever since, I see the hand of God very differently for sure. What a joy that is!!
And it also was absolutely remarkable how much can be learned about God and His character, by searching through scripture like this. Seemingly minor points written off by commentators for years, when really examined, can reveal precious truth for us. And there’s so much more about eagles even!! (Makes me want to go back and reread my notes from all those years ago.) Thanks for doing the hard work of exegesis and research to bring a feast for us! Bravo!!