Jim Elliot on Dueteronomy 32:11

Deuteronomy 32:11 says “Like and eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions.” Moses likens God to an eagle that stirs up its nest, which holds His children.  When the nest (or the Church) is stirred up, some of the eaglets (Christians) fall out.  When  they fall out, Moses says God catches them with His wings.  Read what Jim Elliot comments on this verse, it is right on!

“I must fall to exercise my delicate wings, I must realize how unable to stay aloft I am without the great wings beneath.”

Praise God that He is the not only the One who stirs us up and lets us fall, but also the One who catches us when we fall!

God’s Good Dealings

Deuteronomy 8 reveals to us that God sometimes deals with His people in ways that we would not normally like.

Deut. 8:2 – He may lead us into a wilderness to humble us and to see what is in our hearts.

Deut. 8:3 – He may let us be hungry so we know we need a different food than we normally partake, every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Deut. 8:5 – He may discipline us as a father does to a son, for our good.

Deut. 8:15 – He may lead us into seasons filled with fiery serpents and scorpions.

Deut. 8:16 – He may feed me in a way that I am not used to, to humble me and do good to me.

Among these dealings with His own, God gives two warnings in v6-14, and v17-20, and both are the same warning.  God warns that because of the richness, fatness, and prosperity of the land we may forget to obey Him (v11), thinking that we in our own power made this wealth (v17).  The thought that keeps Israel from committing such apostasy is their own salvation from Egypt under Pharaoh, which typifies our salvation from sin and Satan, that will keep us in His hands.

The KJV translation of 8:3 says, “He suffered thee to hunger that He might prove thee.”  We see the tender care of the Father here, caring for His own.  Behind a frowning providence lies God’s smiling face.  Could we ask for a more gracious God who deals with us in such a way where all things work to our best possible good, and also for His glory?  I say NO!

“Oh that they had such a heart in them…”

In my reading this morning I came to Deuteronomy 5.  Moses here is repeating the Law for Israel, who is just about to cross over into Canaan to possess what God has given them.  After repeating the ten commandments, God says the following in 5:29, “Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever!”  I have never previously in my reading heard God speak with such an intense passion. (Psalm 81:13 and Isaiah 48:19 show this as well)  It is a feast for my soul to hear Him speak in such a manner about His people’s obedience to His commands.  It also shows me how much God cares about my own obedience.

(This intense, passionate, zeal for obedience in God’s heart becomes a reality in the new covenant people of God.  See Deut. 30:6, and Eph. 6:6b)

Upon reading this statement, I almost instantly thought of an implication of this zeal for preaching.  In preaching, I yearn for my language to be like God’s language in Deut. 5:29.  I want it to be full of zeal, passion, and intensity, because it would then be a reflection of how God speaks to His people.  In preparing sermons I must labor for language that is worthy of my God!  Because if I enter the pulpit to preach, and sound disinterested, I convey to God’s people that what I am preaching does not grip me, and that I do not have a heart that treasures what I am saying!  As a pot of boiling water boils up and out over the pot, shooting steam here and there, so must the preacher’s mouth be who has tasted of Christ!

May our word’s echo God’s Words, and not be “lagging in zeal, but boil in the Spirit” (Romans 12:11)