Eagles in the Bible

There are over 8,000 kinds of birds. Approximately 400 varieties live in Israel, and Scripture mentions about 40. Modern scientists classify animals on the basis of what they look like inside and out. However, the biblical writers generally classified animals according to where the animals lived. Thus, in the Bible, bats are listed with birds as creatures of the air (Leviticus 11:19; Deuteronomy 14:18)(Visual Bible Alive).

The American English word "eagle" appears about 30 times (depending on the translation) in most English Bibles. The Hebrew word, "nešer," appears 26 times in the Old Testament. It is described as a large, carnivorous bird of prey known for its long feathers, wings, speed, power in flight, and keen eyesight (2 Sam. 1:23; Ps. 103:5; Isa. 40:31)(Baker & Carpenter, 2003).

It has been described as a “great vulture” in Lev 11:13 and “vulture” in Prov 30:17 and Mic 1:16, RSV “vulture” in the text once only, for the Heb expression “sons of the eagle” (Prov 30:17). Many translators have been satisfied with the term “eagle” because of the finer traits of strength, swiftness, and care of the young are cited, but where the eating of carrion or “baldness” (see Mic 1:16) is involved, a lesser breed of bird seems to be in order. Actually, not only did the Semitic languages tend to lump the large soaring birds into one family but the Encyclopedia Britannica defines “eagle” as inclusive of several day-flying birds of prey comprising, along with hawks, harriers and old world vultures, the family Acciptridae (Fisher, 1999).

This idea of renewal and strength in eagles is especially popularized by Is. 40: 31: Yet those who 1wait for the LORD Will again new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.
And Ps. 103:5: [God] satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

I have been really curious lately about Eagles in the Bible. I have always wondered if the Biblical authors actually saw birds similar to eagles that you and I are familiar with. Ultimately it is near impossible to prove one way or the other but many sources that I have been reading recently have made some good points.
1. There is a myth out there that says that supposes that this bird (eagle or not) was a bird that had some extreme renewal habits: -going off and plucking its feathers and not being able to fly for about five months. The image has even been added that the beak and claws are knocked off and then grow back during that time, giving them another 10 or so more years to their life. I have been trying to find proof of that, and am not finding it. Most Eagle authorities state that that would not happen, because the bird would die during that time with no flight feathers or beak or claws (Lee, 2009).
A second source along with the American Bald Eagle Organization also makes the point that Eagles do not undergo the process of rebirth described in the myth/legend commonly used as a biblical metaphor (Christensen, 2012). Although there are some alternatives that still make the Bible true: It is NOT an eagle but a different bird. Or it is an eagle (see below) that goes through a different kind of renewal than the one described in the myth (see: Lee, 2009).
2.A reasonable suggestion that it is not actually an eagle but an Old World Vulture: a Griffon Vulture(The Wonder of Birds).

(Photo from Cortijada Los Gazquez).











3. In any case the eagle is known for catching its young on its wings after pushing them out of the nest....this is a great strategy to teach the young ones how to fly. So this bird, eagle or not could have demonstrated a similar process.

Other interesting eagle/vulture related discussions from the Bible: The Bible mentions the eagle’s strength and invincibility often with reference to powerful nations attacking Israel. The prophet Ezekiel described Nebuchadnezzar as an eagle (Ezekiel 17:3). The eagle builds its nest on inaccessible mountain peaks or at the top of the tallest trees, a fact noted by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 49:16; compare to Job 39:27-28; Obadiah 1:4). Eagles are devoted to their offspring and train them with great care in the art of flying. Some commentators interpret Exodus 19:4 and Deuteronomy 32:11 as evidence of the eagle’s practice of catching its young on its wings. Confronted by its impressive qualities, biblical authors observed the eagle with awe and wonder (Job 39:27-30; Proverbs 30:18-19). Since the vulture, like the eagle, was a symbol of sovereignty and domination in the ancient Near East, some gods were represented as vultures (Visual Bible Alive).
Here is a good site that mentions all of the verses where "Eagle" is used in the Bible: http://www.watchmanbiblestudy.com/biblestudies/Definitions/Eagles.htm


Baker, W., & Carpenter, E. E. (2003). The complete word study dictionary: Old Testament (760). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.

Christensen, B. M., (2012). "Rebirth Of The Eagle Hoax." From Hoax-Slayer. Accessed Sept. 8th 2012 from http://www.hoax-slayer.com/rebirth-of-the-eagle-hoax.shtml.

Cortijada Los Gazquez. http://www.losgazquez.com/blog/?p=37

Fisher, M. C. (1999). 1437 נֶשֶׁר. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (606–607). Chicago: Moody Press.

"History of The Griffon Vulture in the Bible." The Wonder of Birds http://www.thewonderofbirds.com/griffon-vulture/nests.htm

Lee. (2009). "Birds of the Bible – Eagle’s Renewal" from Lee's Birdwatching Adventures Plus assessed on Sept. 8th 2012 from http://leesbird.com/2009/09/25/b-o-b-eagle-renewal/

New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. 1995 (Ps 103:5). LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

"Birds." Visual Bible Alive. Accessed on Sept. 8th 2012 from http://www.visualbiblealive.com/resources.php?encyc_id=19&img_id=58130&action=encyclopedia&frame=divEncyc

Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen.

What is Kairos?

Kairos Inside Prison Ministry (KI) is a volunteer, lay-led Christian ministry which conducts a highly-structured program designed for use in male and female medium-to-maximum security correctional institutions. The program is structured very similar to an Emmaus Walk, KI is a 3 1/2 day event. For the participants, this is a break from the ordinary prison life and is an opportunity to experience a religious renewal weekend retreat. It is an opportunity for finding and accepting God's call to Christian witness and service to one another. This is designed also to encourage the participants to establish and stay in a strong Christian community even within their lives within the institution. Kairos is not simply a one time spiritual high and then that is it. Kairos comes back every week and offers a "prayer and share" service wit hall of the participants of Kairos. Kairos also continues holding these weekend retreats for new participants every 6 months. Through-out the year, graduates of the weekend hold several reunion fellowship events.
The weekend starts with creating a safe and secure place, where volunteers fellowship and get to know the participants. Volunteers offer cookies and other refreshments. They sit down and talk with the participants. Trying to listen, listen and to love, love. Friday is talk heavy, but the theme is "encountering self." The participants and volunteers become a family...talk about choices and the basic needs of all men.
This leads up to Saturday. Saturday is more activity driven. On Saturday the talks and message is all about the Gospel, "encountering Christ." The participants are flooded with "agape love" through letters, posters, prayer, and fellowship. The main theme of many activities is forgiveness.
Then Sunday the theme is "encountering others." The talks center on application and beginning the process of growing faith and community with other believers.
Through-out the weekend, these participants are also given a lot of home-made cookies and food. They LOVE the food. This is not something they ever get.
This weekend is an amazing event with the potential for true life change. Even within the walls of prison, these men find hope in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The truth of the matter is, God loves these men too! We all make bad choices and are all sinners. These men got caught making some bad choices, they too need to hear the Gospel. Kairos provides many opportunities for this.
Kairos programs have gained the respect of the correctional system, too. In a recent study, the recidivism rate was 15.7% among those who had participated in one Kairos session, and 10% among those who had participated in two or more Kairos sessions. The recidivism rate amongst the normal prison population varies between 30% – 50+%. Recidivism means the percentage of inmates that return to the prison system once they have been released from their initial term. Check out more about Kairos and my experience on my Kairos Pin Board.

America

Ok, so do not get me wrong....I do love America. I am so grateful for the sacrifices made for me to be living in this country. I am so blessed to be a citizen of the USA and to have all of the rights and freedoms I do have. It is truly wonderful. In fact, it seems unfair even, at times, when I think about me...I could have been born anywhere, but God wanted me here, in America. He wants me to but all of these blessings, privileges, rights and responsibilities to use for His glory.

On all of these holidays, especially July 4th, Americans get a little high on themselves. I do not care so much for all the celebrating and pride. I see people posting things about how America is the greatest country ever, if you are not an American than you are somehow less human or less important and I hear preachers say that America is going to be revolutionized and redeemed. They say how America is undeniably the world's stronghold.....and this is where I start getting upset with holidays like today.These statements cross the line for me


 Maybe I am not Patriotic enough or American enough....but America is not some special country that God loves more....if anything it is just the opposite. There is no mention of America in eschatology. In fact, this is the wrong side of the world. The real action is in the middle east. And Americans 'hate' the middle east.....
Do not get me wrong, I will not dispute that God can save, revolutionize and redeem America, if He wants to. I desire to be a part of that. I am attempting to live my life in that way. But there is no guarantee that this is going to happen. Christ may come back today. That would be wonderful too.

And guess what? God loves ALL human beings on planet earth. Non-Americans are humans too. They are not any less loved by God. They are not any less important. The truth of the Gospel is just as true for them as it is for the American Patriot. One thing that we so easily neglect is our understanding of world history. Yeah, we know our own American history well. We are proud of it in America, too proud. Studying world history and other country's history offers an amazing perspective.

Other countries have amazing stories and perspectives from their own history too. There is a lot of amazing and miraculous things happening around the World, not just in America. God is so good and doing so many amazing things. God loves them too. I think Americans have narrowed their eyes and vision on themselves so much, that they miss   everything else. God is moving and working around the world. God loves the nations, America is just one.

Albeit, America has been and still is a major country economically, socially, and even spiritually...we have a lot of freedom. But with that comes a lot of responsibility.

Faith is like a golf swing

Last week, I played my first round on the par three for the year. It was ugly, challenging and golf.

The first time I picked up a club, I thought the goal was to clobber the golf ball. I figured the harder I hit the thing, the straighter and further it would go, but this is far from the truth.

My stepdad, is always encouraging, critiquing and guiding my golf swing. If it was not for my stepdad, I probably would not spend any time golfing at all. Anyways, he reminded me that clobbering the ball actually is not the goal. He said "focus on the swing and let the swing take care of the ball." This is amazing advice.

Another golf challenge is of self-thought and reflection. In order to focus on your golf swing there is a need to think. It is important to remember what a good swing looks and feels like. It is good to practice a good swing. How is my stance? How is my posture? How is my grip? Are my wrists bent? Can I keep my elbows straight? Will my back swing be slow and deliberate? Will my head stay straight? Will my forearm motion be smooth? It certainly is not about merely smashing the ball hard.

On the other hand, it is also easy to over think it. While I am standing in front of the ball, thinking about my swing, I need to actually hit the ball. Thinking about it will not do any good without the action. Also while I am contemplating all the details of my swing, my body gets more tense and tight.   The more uptight my body becomes, the less successful my swing actually is.

The faith life of a Christian is not unlike the golf swing:

My heavenly Father is always encouraging, critiquing and guiding my faith. If it was not for the Heavenly Father and His grace, I could not have such faith. The Father is always reminding me "have faith and in faith trust me to take care of everything thing else (Mt. 6:33)." This is amazing advice!

There is a need to think about our personal faith life. There is a need for personal reflection and outward strategy for faith in the church. We should think about our actions beforehand and do some planning. We should also do some praying and preparing (with God's Word). Are we sinning? Are we living righteous? Are we surrendering to God?

On the other hand, we can easily over think and over plan. While we are sitting in our churches (or in our reading rooms) over thinking, we can become too comfortable. We can think about and talk about our faith all we want to be there also needs to be action (James 2:17).

So let us make deliberate good moves in our faith life, let us pray, worship and study His Word together, but let us also go out and in action in the real word and get on par about our faith by sharing the love of Christ.

The Pleasures and Challenges of Substitute teaching so far

So this school year I have been a substitute teacher in all of the Fairfield County Schools (FYI, Lancaster City is not a County school). So I have been to Amanda Clearcreek, Fairfield Union, Pickerington schools, Bloom Carol Walnut Township and Liberty Union Schools. (Berne Union is also a Fairfiled County school, but I have not been assigned there this year).

 I have taught all school age groups (K-12) and just about every subject (from the basics- like math  and science to languages Spanish and French to specialties like cooking and industrial arts). It has been a neat experiences, some days easier than others.

There have been a lot of fun and good things about being a substitute teacher. Naturally, I like teaching and it comes easy for me. Although where I am used to teaching is in setting where the people are motivated to be there on their own power: (church, young adult, youth groups, extra-curricular hobbies/instruments or second languages). This is not always the disposition of the students. Obviously, in school the kids are required to be there and many do not desire to be there. So, with that said, I have  had to learn to keep students in line. I have been stretched this year in many ways:

I can be a very easy going, relaxed kind-of-guy. In high schools, this is fine. The students are glad to see me working in the their high schools. They know that I respect them to obey they rules and they respect me and there is no reason to cause any trouble. Working high schools is one of the easiest jobs. The downside is it can be boring, especially when the permanent teacher leaves boring worksheets or assignments.

I middle schools and elementary schools, my relaxed temperament is not always a good thing. I can be too nice and let the students do whatever they want. The good part about teaching middle schools and elementary schools is that I have to be more hands on and the teachers expect me to actually teach something, which is fun for me. The problem is that once students get out of line, I am not quick enough to punish. I will give a few verbal warnings and hope that they do not act up again and when they do I used to just ignore it or give another warning. But this aspect of my teaching temperament has been changing and stretching over the school year. Now I am more likely to follow through with the proper discipline measures after giving a verbal warning. Now the students are respecting my authority a little more. They know that they cannot walk all over me just because I am a sub.

Obviously, there are certain kids that have a more difficult time focusing and obeying than others, but yet these kids seem like they want to be social and develop a relationship with the teacher. They are probably hurting or lacking quality male role models in their lives. So I walk a strange line as duel roles come into play. One one hand, I am the authority of the class and disciplining them, but on the other hand, I am secretly praying for them. Also I am a low-key guy, so I let the kids be kids and socialize a little bit. As long as the kids respect me and do their work and obey the rules of the classroom, I do not see why we should be so uptight about certain behaviors, kids are kids - they need to talk and socialize. They need to play and learn. Life should be a life of balance. For me as the teacher, the challenge has been finding the line, drawling that line so the kids know where it is at and enforcing it. I am still learning the lines.

Some of the more challenging but also more rewarding days as a sub, have been working as a "intervention specialist," "special education" teacher and in the MD and DH classes. These classes I actually get to have one-on-one time with students and actually have to teach. These kids need a lot of patience, grace and persistence but once they actually make progress, even really small progress, it is very rewarding. I have intentionally taken a lot of these assignments because I feel like I am actually making a difference in these classes and have developed some relationships with the students since I have gotten these jobs on a pretty regular basis. I admit that these days can be draining and I would not want to do these classes every day, but these kids need the love.

Wait what just happened?

Ok so at dinner, my 55year old mother gets a phone call from her 70 year old mother, in-which  my Nana (in my mom's words) made her (mom) feel guilty about not replying to a text message she had recently sent to my mom! The phone call lasted all of 10 seconds, mom said she was sorry and said she was busy and the phone call ended.

I was sitting there taking it all in, wondering why the two did not just have a real life phone conversation about the topic of the text message. Instead mom replied to the text message and then Nana texted back merely saying "call me." So mom called her back and they talked.....oh technology and irony.

Skyrim and Rom 3

 ¹⁰ As it is written:

   “There is no one righteous, not even one;
 ¹¹ there is no one who understands;
   there is no one who seeks God.
¹² All have turned away,
   they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
   not even one. (Ps 14:1–3, 53:1-3)”
¹³ “Their throats are open graves (Ps. 5:9);
   their tongues practice deceit .”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips (Ps. 140:3).” 

 ¹⁴ “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness (Ps. 10:7).”
¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
 ¹⁶ ruin and misery mark their ways,
¹⁷ and the way of peace they do not know (Is. 59:7).”
 ¹⁸ “There is no fear of God before their eyes (Ps. 36:1).”

This sounds like one really bad dude. Terrible dude. It reminds me of my character on Skyrim. He is one bad dude. He steals, kicks and destroys anything that gets in his way. Not nice. He is bad.

But the reality is that all men, you and myself included, before salvation are all equally bad. We are all sinners. There is nothing good man can do on their own that can save themselves! No one can even seek out God on there own! 

How awesome it is that God comes down to man and saves us, even in our unworthy state. This truth is one that NO OTHER religion believes in. In other religions man has to work to earn something for God, but not with the Christianity of the Bible.