"The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach."
Revelation 12:14 (NIV)
The year I became the pastor at Parkdale, two good friends of mine gave me a picture to hang in my study. The picture is of an eagle soaring above the forest with the verse from Isaiah 40: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles” stenciled over the picture. I don’t know how they knew, but the verse is one of my absolute favorite verses and it has always been a source of hope and encouragement to me.
SO when I read Revelation 12, verse 14 attracts my attention and I wonder what is meant by eagle wings that carry the woman into the wilderness. It is clear from the context that these wings carry her to safety; that they help her escape from Satan that ancient serpent. It appears from Revelation 12 that if God had not given her these two wings of an eagle, then she would have been destroyed, for it was God’s act of grace that saved the woman, not her own strength. I wonder what those eagle wings looked like.
In Exodus 19, the LORD tells His people that He carried them out of Egypt on eagle’s wings and it has tremendous parallels to the story of the woman, for God took the descendants of Jacob out of a lush land and put them squarely into the wilderness. Now we are told in the book of Exodus what those eagle wings looked like for the people of Israel:
those wings involved redemption (having your house covered with the blood of the Passover lamb)
those wings involved leaving the known for the unknown - as they left the only land they knew
those wings involved terror – as they realized that Pharaoh and his men had them trapped
those wings involved faith - as they had to walk through two walls of water in obedience
But over top of redemption, and departure, and terror, and faith - those eagle wings required WAITING on the LORD to act.
Oh friend, as a youngster I imagined that being given the wings of an eagle meant that I would soar above the fray, and not be touched by the pain and sorrow, and yet the Bible teaches in Exodus 19, Isaiah 40 and Revelation 12, that the wings of eagles come to us by realizing you can’t help yourself. Crying out to God and WAITING in an expectant HOPE for Him to move in power and grace, while experiencing pain and sorrow. No human journey better describes the eagle wing experience then the journey of a Christian through death. As we WAIT and HOPE and LOOK, as we go through that final valley and the evil one has us in his grip of death, oh friend, we are given the wings of an eagle and we soar above death’s grip into the Presence of the Lord.
May His precious Name be praised!
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