EAGLES’ WINGS AND WINGS OF A DOVE
J. Wright
I would like to speak, with the Spirit’s help, as to these references to “eagles’ wings” and the “wings of a dove”. They are quite different birds. The eagle would speak of God’s power, what God has done. The dove would also speak of power, but power in the believer that God would give to rise above things here and rise into another realm, a spiritual and heavenly realm.
The first is a very touching reference I think as to God, it says here, “I have borne you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself”. God had taken these people out of the bondage of Egypt. It says, “Ye have seen what I have done to the Egyptians”. He had not only brought them out of Egypt but He destroyed the power of the Egyptians. He says, “Ye have seen what I have done to the Egyptians, and how I have borne you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself”. The great thing in the gospel, dear friend, is that you should know God, that you should be brought to God. The Lord Jesus has suffered, “Christ indeed has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”, 1 Peter 3: 18. In the scripture I have just read it is not exactly that you come to God, there is that side that you come to God, but that you are brought to God. God would do that Himself, bring you to Himself. These people He found in Egypt under taskmasters and in bondage; God took account of them in that condition. God takes account of persons who are away from Him.
He takes account of persons who are in bondage, the bondage of sin, persons who cannot help themselves. They could not free themselves from the power of Egypt. All they could do was to cry to God, and God heard them. Have you had an experience like that in your soul that you were in a condition that you could not get out of and you could not help yourself? You found you were a slave to sin, a slave to Satan, in bondage, and wanted to get free of it. It is a wonderful thing, to turn to God in your need, turn to God in your extremity, knowing that you cannot help yourself. There is power in God to help you, to deliver you. This was the power of God seen in these eagles’ wings, “I have borne you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself”. It is the power of God that delivered them from Egypt, the power of God that brought them to Himself. We need a power outside of ourselves, for we could not have effected our own deliverance.
How did God move to deliver them out of Egypt? There was first of all the passover lamb.
They were under judgment; they were as much under judgment as the Egyptians, they were under the judgment of God. Man is under judgment. Death is upon all, that is the judgment of God, “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”, Romans 3: 23. The children of Israel were no better than the Egyptians. They needed a Saviour, they needed One who would take their place. The passover lamb was really a substitute for the firstborn. The passover lamb had to be slain. They had the lamb in the house, each household was to have a lamb.
The Lord Jesus came near to men, came near to those He was to deliver. What a Saviour He is! They had the lamb near them in the house and it was a mature lamb. It shows the way the Lord Jesus came near. He came here to suffer and to die. There was no sin in Jesus. He never came under yoke or bondage to anyone, that perfect Lamb of God. But then the lamb had to be slain. The Lord Jesus was slain. It says in the scripture, “he was led as a lamb to the slaughter ... and he opened not his mouth”, Isaiah 53: 7. The Lord Jesus went into death, He died, and it was the death of the cross. The Lord Jesus had to be slain. And the blood of that lamb was put on the doorposts and the lintel of the house. God says, “when I see the blood, I will pass over you”, Exodus 12: 13. The Lord Jesus had to die. There would be no salvation, no deliverance from the bondage of sin unless the Lord Jesus died. He was victorious over the power of the enemy.
He was victorious over the world. The Lord Jesus was victorious over every other power and yet He died. He died for sinners, He died for you, He shed His precious blood that God might have a righteous basis to forgive sinners. God found in the blood of that lamb a righteous basis to bring His people out of Egypt, “when I see the blood, I will pass over you”.
But then that lamb had to be eaten by those in the house. How was it to be eaten? It was roast with fire. It shows how the Lord Jesus bore the unmitigated judgment of God against sin; He bore it in His body on the tree; He bore it in those three hours of darkness on the cross. The Lord Jesus bore the judgment of God, and exhausted the judgment of God in those three hours of darkness on the cross. Yet those persons who were to be delivered from Egypt were to partake of that lamb, they were to eat of it, and it was in bitterness that they did so. There would be self-judgment with them, they had come to a judgment of themselves. How do we come to a judgment of sin? We see sin in ourselves. But they came to a judgment of things as they saw what that lamb endured, typifying what Christ has endured at the cross. We get a deeper judgment of things, a right judgment of things, as we see what God has effected in the cross of Christ.
Well they came out of Egypt in haste; they did not remain there in the scene that was under judgment. Egypt was under judgment and they left the scene of judgment, as partaking of that passover lamb. They left Egypt, yet the Egyptians pursued them. Pharaoh
pursued them, he would not leave them alone. The enemy of your soul would not leave you alone. If you make a movement toward Christ, if you have an appreciation of what He has done for you, the enemy of your soul will not leave you alone, he will be after you. Have you not experienced that he comes after you? He came after those people. They could not proceed further because the Red Sea was before them and the Egyptians were behind them, yet God was protecting them. God came in between them and the Egyptians. God will preserve you.
God will protect you. The Lord Jesus will protect you. He is stronger than Satan. You are no match yourself for the foe, but the Lord Jesus will come in and protect you. What power He has! What power God has! The power that God has is greater than the power the enemy has.
The power the Lord Jesus has is greater than the power of Satan. These are things to be experienced in the soul. The confession of Jesus as Lord is for salvation, it is for salvation from this present evil world. We need righteousness to be right with God, and faith would give us that; faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, faith in His finished work, faith in His blood.
These things give believers a right standing before God so that we are counted by God as righteous, that is, there is no sin upon us. That precious Lamb, the Lord Jesus, has borne it, and we are clear of it. It says He “has been delivered for our offences and has been raised for our justification” (Romans 4: 25), so that we are clear before God. But then there is the power of the world, there is the power of the enemy that would seek to entrap us, seek to get us in some way. Salvation is in the confession of Jesus as Lord.
They cried again to Jehovah. They were in an extremity, the enemy was behind them and they cried, and Moses said, “stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah”, Exodus 14: 13.
They could not effect it themselves, they could not overthrow the power of Egypt, the power of the world. They had to stand still and see the salvation of Jehovah. What happened was
that they were commanded to go forward, a way was made through the Red Sea. God made a way through for them. God has made a way through for you. He has made a way out from the power of the enemy for you, He has made it in the death of Jesus. The death of Jesus is a way out of the bondage of the world; ‘Exodus’ means that, the going out. Those that believe and trust in the Lord Jesus know that their sins have been met in His death. No other sacrifice is to be made, the sacrifice has been made. But also in the death of the Lord Jesus all that was against us, all the power of the enemy has been met. The enemy has been overthrown in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the Red Sea, God was made known as a Saviour God. The power of God was operating for the salvation and deliverance of His people from the Egyptians. As a result of that experience they saw the Egyptians dead on the sea shore. What a victory it was in their souls, victory over the world, victory over the power of Satan. The Lord Jesus has accomplished it. In baptism we commit ourselves to the Lord Jesus, we are committed to His death, it is a way of salvation. Peter speaks of the import of baptism, in figure it saves you, typified in the way they went through the Red Sea. It says in Hebrews, “By faith they passed through the Red sea” (Hebrews 11: 29), it is what Christ has effected, His victory over the enemy, so that the enemy does not trouble you any more, he is dead on the sea shore. Think of the victory of Christ! That is the power of God to salvation.
They have been redeemed and they sing a song of victory, they are liberated.
Then they come into the wilderness and come to the waters of Marah and they find them bitter. You find that not only is the power of the world outside of you against you and the power of Satan against you, that has been overthrown, but you find things in yourself, you find sin in yourself. You find that you cannot go on with things that you went on with before, and it might be bitter. Moses brought wood and he cast it into the
waters and the waters became sweet. The Lord Jesus has been into death as subject to the will of God. His obedience to God led Him that way. It says so in Philippians, He became
“obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross” (Philippians 2: 8). Do you find obedience to God irksome? These people saw the wood being cast into the waters and the waters became sweet. After that they came to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees.
Then they came into the wilderness and they found nothing to eat, no food. You see God brings you into the wilderness. He brings you into circumstances where you feel you have no resource outside of Him. There is nothing in this world now to minister to you, nothing to minister to your tastes, nothing to minister to your satisfaction as a believer. The world has become a wilderness because God has delivered you out of the world, out of Egypt; God has done that so that the world becomes a wilderness. It is where Christ died. But then they were provided with food. God provided them with manna, typical of Christ once humbled here, daily food for your soul. They did not have to provide this themselves. God provided it for them. They had to gather the manna. You want food for your soul but not Egypt’s food, the leeks and the onions and garlic. They longed for it later, they despised the manna. Think of Christ once humbled here, what food for the soul, food that would strengthen you and build you up in your constitution so that you would be found here in subjection to God doing His will. You feed upon the Lord Jesus who did God’s will here in lowly circumstances. What limited circumstances He came into, such as His life in Nazareth in the carpenter’s shop, yet He was doing God’s will. There was the manna. The gospels speak largely of His public ministry, but most of His life was in obscurity; yet even in His public ministry He was here moving in lowliness in subjection to God doing His will. That is food for the soul, food of the mighty. Feed upon Christ daily, and it builds up your constitution so that you prove that the will of God is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12: 2). You no longer do your own will in your body, but you commit your body to God, you offer it to God a living sacrifice.
Another test came when they found no water, nothing to satisfy their thirst. God provided the water from the smitten rock, the water flowed from the smitten rock. The Holy Spirit is available. We know He has come from Christ glorified, but He has also come as a result of the sufferings of Christ. The smitten rock would speak of the sufferings of Christ, not from men but from God. He was stricken and smitten of God. What that must have meant to God that He was stricken and smitten of God as it says in Isaiah (Isaiah 53: 4). Christ was smitten, the rock was smitten that the water might flow. It says in Corinthians that the rock followed, the Rock was the Christ, the water was there (1 Corinthians 10: 4). He became, as it were, a Water-carrier for His people. Think of the grace of Christ, the lowliness of Christ, that you should have the gift of the Holy Spirit, that you should have that which would refresh and strengthen you. Then Amalek came up, yet God came in for His people and brought them to Himself.
It has been said that the gospel is preached to show the way that God would move to help persons who cannot help themselves. The people could not help themselves in these situations, their resource was in God; they cried to God and He came in and delivered them and brought them to Himself. He not only delivered them out of Egypt but brought them to Himself. Mr. Darby says—
‘In the desert God will teach thee
What the God that thou hast found—
Patient, gracious, powerful, holy;
All His grace shall there abound’. (Hymn 76)
They had found their resource in God. In Exodus 19 they made a committal to God. It is a great thing to make a committal. You say they broke down. They
did, but they made a committal to God. God had done all this for them. The gospel is preached that God might have His rightful place in our hearts and in our affections.
I just want to refer to Psalm 68 because it speaks, I believe, of power in the believer, the power of the Spirit in the believer. The writer of this psalm is David, a man who knew God, a man of experience with God. He is saying here, “Though ye have lain among the sheepfolds, ye shall be as wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with green gold”. Those who lay among the sheepfolds had no power to rise above things. I suppose they would be earth-dwellers, they had no power to rise above it. The Lord found persons like that. He found paralytics, persons who just lay there, lame persons who could not move, “Though ye have lain among the sheepfolds, ye shall be as wings of a dove”. The dove is a very sensitive bird, but I believe in the dove there is the suggestion that there is power in the believer to rise above things here. We remarked yesterday on what Mr. Stoney said, Have you got the heart for Christ? There is the power in the Spirit to rise above things here. Mr. Stoney says in his hymn: ‘Yon heaven is our home’ (Hymn 7). Do you know that? Your home is not here, yon heaven is our home, and we will be there. Think of the power of God that will take us up, take every believer up! There were men who were taken up in the Old Testament, Enoch and Elijah were taken up. There is one blessed Man, of course, who above all others has been taken up. He was taken up into heaven, the Lord Jesus was received up there. He was taken up, showing heaven’s pleasure in that Man. When the saints are taken it will indicate God’s pleasure in them as taken up to be there with Christ for ever. What a wonderful prospect that is for the believer.
But it is not only what we will enter into by and by, there is power in the Spirit to rise so that we can enjoy our heavenly portion, even now. It says, “as wings of a dove covered with silver”. This is not anything natural. I believe it shows that the believer is able to rise as being suited to that heavenly place. The work of redemption has removed everything that lay upon us, and through the work of redemption we are made suitable to that place. Luke tells us of the malefactor who was hanged at the side of Christ, rebuking his fellow saying, “we indeed justly, for we receive the just recompense of what we have done; but this man has done nothing amiss”. Then he said to Jesus,” Remember me, Lord, when thou comest in thy kingdom”. And Jesus said to him, “Verily I say to thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23: 41–43). He was suited to be there. Why was he suited to be there? He was made fit to be there through the work of Christ.
Then it says, “covered with silver, and her feathers with green gold”. It speaks in the scriptures of what is inside, what is inside the palaces. Psalm 45 speaks of the king’s daughter and her clothing of wrought gold (Psalm 45: 13). You see you are made suitable for the royal apartments through the Spirit’s work. There must be something wrought out in a person that is for the divine pleasure, and that is the Spirit’s work. You could not expect a believer going on in the world and the things of the world, who may in some sense be conformed to the world, to suddenly rise into heavenly things. It is a question of being controlled by the Spirit, of recognising the Spirit, as Romans 8 says, being led by the Spirit, “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Romans 8: 14). Sons of God would be persons who would be at home in the heavenly realm, at home in the Father’s presence. They would not be afraid to be there, they would be in liberty there. I believe this is all involved in what we see here, “as wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with green gold”. There is a beauty about it, there is an adornment about it; there is a dignity about a person who moves in the Spirit’s power. Such a person is pleasurable to heaven, and there is power in the Spirit to enter into our heavenly portion.
The Spirit of God is the best Friend we have here on earth. It is a wonderful thing to grow in our acquaintance with Him and know Him as a divine Person with us and in us. It is essential to make way for Him and sow to the Spirit, not sow to the flesh. If we sow to the Spirit we shall reap from the Spirit life eternal; we shall come into the enjoyment of life eternal. Life eternal is enjoyed in an out of the world condition of things, an environment that is outside of this world, but it can be enjoyed at the present time. If we sow to the Spirit we shall reap life eternal. In John 4 the Lord says to the woman, it shall become in you “a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life” (John 4: 14). “Springing up”, there is the Spirit in the believer, springing upwards so that he can come into the enjoyment of eternal life. God has eternal life in mind for man and it involves the end of moral need on our side. The power to enjoy it is in the Spirit of God, but we must sow to the Spirit. Sonship is for the pleasure of God and is therefore the greatest of the blessings. It says in Galatians, “for ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3: 26). That is, the status we have before God is sonship, but then to enter into the enjoyment of it we need the Spirit. So it says, “God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Galatians 4: 6).
I just thought of these two references, the one to the eagles’ wings, representing God’s power, power outside of ourselves, God bringing us to Himself that we might know His heart; then this power, the wings of a dove, power that God would give to the believer so that he can move and can rise and be in liberty in the presence of God in heavenly relationships. May we each one know these things, in the Lord’s name.
Preaching at Rotherham
6 March 1994