113. The Preying Hawk and Eagle

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Hymns: RHC 331 The Haven of Rest, 491 Study to Show Thyself Approved Unto God, 306 Pass Me Not

Job 39:26-30

26 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south? 27 Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? 28 She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. 29 From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off. 30 Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.

The Preying Hawk and Eagle

OUTLINE

  • God Imparted Wisdom to the Hawk (v26)
  • The Eagle Under God (v27-30)

INTRODUCTION

We saw last week the picture of a war horse, the terror that it brings in the battlefield. Today, we see the predative birds like the hawk and eagle. Christopher Ash observed well, “Job is here given a picture of death and danger, violence, predation and terror. God permitted predators to kill their prey; He commands them to do it.”

We see God bringing Job through a tour of His creation to see the complexity and intricacy of it all, from the foundation of the earth, when the morning stars sang together to the sea and its chaotic power and the kies, the deep, the light, and the darkness and think also of the animals too, the life-giving power of birth to be mountain goats, the wild asses and the wild oxens. Come and see the wonder of them and enjoy them. You cannot control but they are under my command… [Swindoll] 

Birds of prey, some 400 species strong, divide all nature into parts: day and night. Two thirds of their number – the hawks, eagles, falcons and vultures – are diurnal, going about their business between sunrise and sunset. The other third, the owls, mainly night hunters.

Built for a world of air – Birds that fly from the tiniest hummingbird to the largest albatross – are fare more alike in teir make-up than other groups of animals are. This is because flight has demanded that they have skeletons that are light and strong, muscles that are powerful but not a burden, feathers that conserve heart while providing lift and propulsion and the sharpest eyes in the entire animal kingdom.

Soaring birds with a large sail surface in proportion to their weight, fall into two very different types: (1) those with broad wings and fanlike tails as exemplified by many of the hawks, eagles, and vultures and (2) those with extremely long but relatively narrow wings, ocean wanderers such as fulls, frigate birds and albatrosses.

Hawks, owls, parrots, herons, storks and a number of other large birds incubate from the day the first egg is laid, with the result that the youngsters hatch at intervals. Although the germ of life, the embryo, begins to develop even before the egg leaves the watmth of the bird’s body, its growth is arrested temporarily when the egg is laid, to be resumed when the bird starts the long – 11 to 80 days – chore of incubation. The embryo grows rapidly, absorbing the whites and most of the yolk, A day or two before hatching it actually starts breathing, taking its oxygen from the air chamber and through porous shell. Meanwhile the shell is getting weaker, for much of its lime has been absorbed by the bones of the growing skeleton.

[The Birds, Life Nature Library, Time-Life Books, 1975, 41-42, 145]

How amazing it is to witness in God’s Word, His affirmation of the unique design of these birds.

The birds of the air are proofs of the wonderful power and providences of God, as well as the beasts of the earth; God here refers particularly to two stately ones. [Matthew Henry]

  • God Imparted Wisdom to the Hawk (v26)

26 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?

The hawk, a noble bird of great strength and sagacity, and yet a bird of prey (v26). This bird is here taken notice of for her flight, which is swift and strong, and especially for the course she steers towards the south, whither she follows the sun in winter, out of the colder countries in the north, especially when she is to cast her plumes and renew them. This is her wisdom, and it was God that gave her this wisdom, not man. Perhaps the extraordinary wisdom of the hawk’s flight after her prey was not used then for men’s diversion and recreation, as it has been since. [Matthew Henry]

The method of preying used by a hawk or an owl is to plunge at its prey and to strike or clutch with hooked talons. The bird hawks called the accipiters are built for the hedge-hpping technique, the surprise attack. They have evolved a short-rounded wing, designed for dodging through the trees and for quick maneuvering. The biggoshawk specializes in grouse and small mammals, while the little sharp-shin takes warblers. For every successful try at a bird there are a number of misses. The bird caught, more often than not, is a marginal individual, sick, old or unwary. [The Birds, Life Nature Library, Time-Life Books, 1975, 62]

The American Goshawk is a skilful predator, built for quick maneuvering, takes grouse and rabbits. Like most Falconiformes, the hawks and eagles, it has strong wings, a hooked bill, sharp talons and keen eyesight. The business of huntering, while motivate by instincy, is also a craft. Young birds learn it only after long practice, and experience teaches them what they can safely handle in the way of prey. 

The read-tailed hawk is an immature bird whose judgment may have been impaired by several weeks spent incaptivity. Nevertheless, it belongs to a species that does kill possums, and when onis one saw a possum, instincy launched it to the attack. But where an experienced adult bird would have struck fast and hard, the youngster, not quite sure of itself, failed to press its dive all the way home. As a result, instead of hacving a dead or stunned animals in its talons, it found itself facing one that was very much alive. Thus threatened, it abandoned the attack completely and hurriedly backed away.

[The Birds, Life Nature Library, Time-Life Books, 1975, 62, 72-73]

It is a pity that the reclaimed hawk, which is taught to fly at man’s command and to make him sport, should at any time be abused to the dishonour of God, since it is from God that she receives that wisdom which makes her flight entertaining and serviceable. [Matthew Henry]

  • The Eagle Under God (v27-30)

27 Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? 28 She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. 29 From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off. 30 Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.

The eagle, a royal bird, and yet a bird of prey too, the permission of which, nay, the giving of power to which, may help to reconcile us to the prosperity of oppressors among men. The eagle is here taken notice of for the height of her flight. [Matthew Henry]

No bird soars so high, has so strong a wind, nor can so well bear the light of the sun. Now, “Doth she mount at thy command? (v27). 

Is it by any strength she has from thee? or dost thou direct her flight? No; it is by the natural power and instinct God has given her that she will soar out of thy sight, much more out of thy call.” 

For the strength of her nest. Her house is her castle and strong-hold; she makes it on high and on the rock, the crag of the rock (v28), which sets her and her young out of the reach of danger.

Secure sinners think themselves as safe in their sins as the eagle in her nest on high, in the clefts of the rock; but I will bring thee down thence, saith the Lord. 

Jeremiah 49:16 (KJV) Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD.

The higher bad men sit above the resentments of the earth the nearer they ought to think themselves to the vengeance of Heaven. [Matthew Henry]

For her quicksightedness (v29): Her eyes behold afar off, not upwards, but downwards, in quest of her prey. In this she is an emblem of a hypocrite, who, while, in the profession of religion, he seems to rise towards heaven, keeps his eye and heart upon the prey on earth, some temporal advantage, some widow’s house or other that he hopes to devour, under pretence of devotion. 

For the way she has of maintaining herself and her young. She preys upon living animals, which she seizes and tears to pieces, and thence carries to her young ones, which are taught to suck up blood; they do it by instinct, and know no better; but for men that have reason and conscience to thirst after blood is what could scarcely be believed if there had not been in every age wretched instances of it. She also preys upon the dead bodies of men: Where the slain are, there is she, These birds of prey (in another sense than the horse (v25) smell the battle afar off.

Warning cries may distinguish whether the menace is a hawk in the air or a dog, a cat or a man on the ground. A hen, spotting a hawk, has a harsh scream that sends her chicks into hiding, but when a dog or a man approaches the alarm is a crackle. 

A bird of prey means sudden death to many less birds, but there has been some evidence that even young birds that have had no experience with arial predators scurry to cover at the sight of one. Geese, whose only masters are large eagles, are sometimes put to flight by distant planes, which, like eagles seen to move slowly for their size. 

African hawk eagles have long toes for catching birds on the wing, while owls have a short, powerful clutching small mammals and reptiles. All birds of prey have compact, hooked beaks. 

[The Birds, Life Nature Library, Time-Life Books, 1975, 123]

Therefore, when a great slaughter is to be made among the enemies of the church, the fowls are invited to the supper of the great God, to eat the flesh of kings and captains. 

Revelation 9:17-18 (KJV) And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

Our Saviour refers to this instinct of the eagle (Matthew 24:28). Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Every creature will make towards that which is its proper food; for he that provides the creatures their food has implanted in them that inclination. These and many such instances of natural power and sagacity in the inferior creatures, which we cannot account for, oblige us to confess our own weakness and ignorance and to give glory to God as the fountain of all being, power, wisdom, and perfection. [Matthew Henry]

CONCLUSION

When we find out our place in God’s creation, we find rest to our souls. We are wonderfully and fearfully made in the image of God for His honour and glory to enjoy and appreciate God’s great care for us. Let us realize it and humbling follow give Him all honour and glory. God is in charge of this universe made by His design and He created every function in the world around us. He only is God. Let us acknowledge Him and serve Him and His purpose for our creation for His glory. Amen.