Stirring the Nest
“As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings; so the Lord alone did lead him.’’ — DEUT. 52: 11, 12.
To understand this text, we must study the context. The preceding verse gives us a description of the wilderness-wandering state.
It is the state of Jacob before he becomes Israel — Jacob the intriguer, rather than Israel, the prince of God. But Jacob is as much in God’s care as Israel, and belongs to Him as thoroughly. Jacob is protected: God “compasses him about” and keeps him as the “apple of His eye.”
In the verse following our text we have a
description of the Canaan state. There is
plenty and stability, with conflict, to be sure;
but the land is marked off, the boundaries are defined, and the people are fixed in their purpose.
God’s purpose is to lead us out of the unstable, wandering experience to one of more fixedness and definiteness of hope and aim; and the method by which He leads us is compared to the eagle stirring her nest, fluttering over her young, spreading abroad her wings, taking them and carrying them on her wings.
I. God leads us into Higher Experiences
BY MAKING US UNCOMFORTABLE.
“As an eagle stirreth up her nest,” Men are not apt to seek wealth until they become dissatisfied with poverty. We will not seek knowledge until we are dissatisfied with ignorance; and we are not apt to seek larger attainments in religion unless we are dissatisfied with our present condition. God takes away from us gold, that He may lead us to seek grace; He takes away our bonds, that He may supply us with His bounty; He takes our lands, that He may give us larger liberty. Many a prosperous business man has been brought to God by having his financial nest stirred; by being made to realize that the comforts which money can bring will not sustain one when money departs, and that there is in his soul a deeper depth than any that money can fill.
He may stir our social nest. Surrounded by pleasant companions, we are not so anxious for the companionship of God. We stay at home for the social party on prayer-meeting evening — we have such delightful, congenial company that the absence of God is scarcely missed. In love to us, God may compel us to move out of these surroundings, or, by a change of fortune, let the surroundings move off from us; and when we begin to feel lonely we will seek the best of company in communion with Him.
On a tablet in a church of Algiers is the name of “Devereux Spratt, 1641.” The traveller naturally inquires what that means, and he is told that Devereux Spratt, an Englishman, was captured with one hundred and twenty others in 1641 by the Algerian pirates. He was put to work with his fellow - slaves on the fortifications around Algiers. Cut off from
Stirring the Nest. 1 i 5
congenial company, he looked to God for sympathy and strength, and God’s grace proved, as always, sufficient.
Finding his fellow-captives full of despair, he began to cheer them with words of faith and hope; and soon he had gathered about him, through his faithful testimony, a little band of praying and worshipping Christians. Through the influence of his brother in England, after several years, Devereux Spratt was ransomed, and the order for his release was brought to the fortifications.
His fellow-captives rejoiced with tears at his good fortune, but expressed regret that their leader was to leave them. Devereux Spratt, however, refused to accept the ransom, and remained until he died, a slave among slaves, that he might continue to comfort those whom God had brought to Christ through him. What self-sacrifice! What heroism! And yet such a character was not made in the drawing-rooms of London.
Before his capture Devereux Spratt was an indifferent Christian. It took the stirring of his social nest, the removing of his pleasant surroundings, the driving him to the heart of i id Milk and Meat.
God. to make out of him the hero that he was.
An English rector tells of two women who were daughters of a nobleman. One of them married a very wealthy man, and gave herself up to the pleasures of society. She had all that money and position could give. The other married a poor man, and through his loss of health was driven to work for his support. The rector, who knew the sisters in their childhood, paid them a friendly visit. He found the woman of wealth and fashion sad, melancholy, irritable, complaining, and unhappy, tired of life. He found the poor sister at her wash-tub, cheerful, hopeful, trustful, grateful, and joyful. She spoke with a smile of the goodness of God in giving her health, that she might support her husband and two children.
Why the difference in the character of these two women? ‘Tis plain enough that the discomforts of the one had made her comfortable, while the comforts of the other had made her uncomfortable.
II. That He may lead us on to this
Higher Experience, God reveals to
us His Tenderness and Power in the
Midst of these Discomforts.
The eagle not only stirs up her nest, giving the eaglets discomfort; but she flutters over them and “spreadeth abroad her wings.” Here is the manifestation of maternal tenderness and strength. In the very act of stirring up the nest for their discomfort, she flutters over them for their comfort, and spreads abroad her wings, to show them that she has strength to bear them up.
Happy is that man who amid the discomforts of life, whether they be financial, social, domestic, or physical, gets clearer views of God’s tender love and great strength, so that he may be led to cast himself entirely upon Him for support.
Mrs. Varcroe met on a street in Melbourne three ragged boys. “Where do you live, boys?” she asked. “Nowhere,” replied the roughest-looking one. “Where do you sleep at night?” “Anywhere,” was the reply.
“Would you like to be my boys?” she continued. “The house of refuge,” whispered one to the other, as he got a little further from her. “No, boys,” she said kindly, “I don’t want to put you in the house of refuge, but I thought maybe you would like to let me be a mother to you. When you get in that notion, come around to my house.” And she gave her address. The next day about noon two boys with very ragged, dirty clothes and very clean faces rang the door-bell, and came in to say that they had decided to be her boys. Thus began the Australian Child Mission, which has done such a mighty work for God. Those ragged urchins in their discomforts were impressed with the tenderness and the ability of Mrs. Varcroe to help them, and, prompted by their very discomforts and the revelation of this tenderness, they cast themselves upon her strength.
And so every one, however weak, who will cast himself upon the strength of God, will be borne up amid uncomfortable surroundings into a higher comfort of soul experience.
God beareth us on His wings. We read in another scripture; “We shall mount up on wings as eagles,” But when we try to fly on wings of hope and love, we find that we have the bodies of eagles with the wings of sparrows. We are like penguins on the rock, heavy in flesh and no wings to speak of. But link that scripture with our text, and then we can fly sure enough, for we mount up on the wings of God.