On Eagles’ Wings
By Justin L. Snyder
If you will before I begin take your Bible and turn with me to Exodus Chapter 20 Verses 3-17, there are ten things that we need to take to heart tonight, and keep them there for the rest of our lives, take a moment to look over them, and keep in your mind what you hear in these verses when you read them, because tonight my hope, and my prayer is that we will all have a new understanding, and a new realization about the Ten Commandments.
Ever tried to read between the lines on anything, ever read a letter that was sent by someone and you tried so hard to make it into what you wanted it to say?
Ever try to change the wording of something to make it be what you want it to be. Like wishing that your paycheck had one more digit on the end of it. Or maybe that your taxes had one digit less.
That’s what Satan did, he not only wished to change it he succeeded with changing the Ten Commandments into what he wanted it to say, he has made some Christians and Non-Christians think of it as handcuffs and leg shackles, they are just some old rules, made up by some old guy, and none of them apply today, they just want to keep us from doing what is fun.
Have you ever heard the Ten Commandments described as a love letter…. A tender, heartfelt message from the very heart of God? Probably not. Yet, I’m convinced it is one of the most powerful expressions of God’s love in all of Scripture. And you don’t need to read between the lines. You don’t need to add or take anything out. It’s all there. God doesn’t leave anything out. These ten statements are all encompassing touching virtually every part of our lives. They are the parameters to live by – the truths He knows are going to provide blessing and strength, a future and a hope.
These Commandments, are so filled with love, and hope in our lives, they are what we need to live by, not just on Sunday, but every day of our lives, because God knows that if we follow these commandments, our lives will be soooooo much easier.
God’s love was so strong that he wrote these commandments with his own finger, he personally delivered it to his people on top of Mount Sinai. God’s love was written all over Ten things carved into stone.
There are several books out today on both the secular and the Christian bestseller lists that purport to reveal a “secret code” embedded in the text of the Hebrew scriptures. These books talk about how computer technology has revealed an intricate pattern embedded in the texts-- a code that supposedly names contemporary political leaders and spells out future events.
Today I’m not arguing that this “hidden code” is there or not. All I’m saying is that I don’t need any secret code. I don’t need to read between the lines. I don’t need to count all the letters and spaces, multiply them by seven, and divide them by twenty-two. I don’t need to borrow a supercomputer from the defense department and an analyst from MIT. All I need to know is what God is plainly saying to me on the pages of my Bible. And if you miss the real message of these Ten Commandments, you’ve missed a great deal.
“In fact, you’ve missed the very heart of God.”
Some people, of course, imagine it to be the exact opposite. They don’t hear love in these statements at all. What do they hear. They hear the clank of chains and the rattle of padlocks. They hear God saying,
“You mess with me, you step out of bounds, and I’ll fry you like a insect landing in a Bug Zapper.”
All of this, of course, plays right into Satan’s master plan—the one he’s had from the beginning. (Why change it if it still works.) Satan says, “God is prude. God is a killjoy. God is a harsh old grandfather with a long gray beard and brushy eyebrows who doesn’t wont anyone to have any fun—ever.”
No, it’s not a very original line of reasoning. The enemy began it with Eve back at the dawn of creation when he said. “Has God really forbidden you to eat this lovely fruit? Oh my. What a pity, what a shame.. He knows that if you ever tasted from this tree, you would be like God. Nothing could hold you back. God wants to keep you from the tang and sweetness of life. True freedom means freedom from confining restrictions such as these. It’s what Satan did to Jesus in the wilderness; He took God’s words out of context. And that’s what he’s doing today with the Ten Commandments.
But, could Satan be right? Are the Ten Commandments harsh and negative… narrow and legalistic…cold and confining? Could there be a brighter, warmer, more passionate side to this familiar portion of Scripture we may have missed through the years? Is it possible we’ve misunderstood the first few pages of God’s love letter. The very words that set the Ten Commandments in context.
Did you know that there was prior conversation between the Lord and Moses before he gave Moses these Commandments that are carved in stone.
God had given Moses specific instructions about what to say to the people BEFORE, and that the crucial word BEFORE presenting the Ten Commandments are to be given to the children of Israel to the people of God.
Of course Satan would rather we never learned these prior instructions. Why? Because it suits his purpose to quote God’s words out of context. It always has. If Satan can’t pursuade you to stay away from the Bible, he’ll try to wrench God’s words out of their rightful settings. And the rightful setting of the Ten Commandments is the boundless, faithful, Father-love of the living God. Can you hear God’s heart beating in these words?
(Exodus 19:3-6)
“Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: `You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you now you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."
The Lord was saying, Moses, before you give the people these commandments, before anything else, will you please remind them that I bore them on eagles’ wings?
Why in the world would the Lord say that? It’s a very endearing term. But when did God do that? When did the Lord bear them on eagles’ wings? The people who originally heard these words knew very well what the Lord was talking about, because the memory was still fresh in their minds. The Lord was saying something like this.
Do you remember when you were trapped in Egypt, and there was no place for you to go, and you were in bondage and in trouble? Do you remember when you groaned in your captivity because of the oppression and terrible cruelty of your taskmaster’s? Do you remember looking at your precious children and realizing there was no hope, or future at all for them, beyond chains, a lash, and an early death?
“I heard your cries, I saw your tears. And I came down to buy you back out of slavery. Do you remember my children? Says the Lord.
Do you remember standing on the shore with the Red Sea lapping at your feet, and Pharaoh’s troops massing at your back? Do you remember the despair you felt because you couldn’t go forward or backwards and death was riding on chariots, like a storm out of the west?
“I made a way for you where there was no way. Do you remember, my people.” Can you remember the days in the wilderness where there was nothing to drink and your throats were dry and your little ones cried for water? I opened up a spring for you… a stream of fresh, sweet water that came gushing over the parched desert floor. Do you remember Israel? I stepped into your lives to save you.
“I swooped down and bore you on eagles’ wings; do you remember?”
God’s love was posted everywhere from the manna sweet as honey that they collected and ate, from the cool water coming out of the desert sand. From the soldier’s helmets that washed up on the shore.
Deliverance, Release, Protection, Provision!
“I bore you on eagles’ wings,” says the Lord.
What does that mean anyway? “I bore you on eagles wings.” A mama eagle will make a nest eight feet by eight feet. She will fill it up with sticks, leaves, and animal fur, making a cozy nest for her chicks. When the time comes however they will become a little less comfortable. The mother eagle will take them to a great height, and drop them.
The eaglet begins to flutter, he’s never done this before, and he’s not sure what to do, so he continues to flap his wings. And he’s heading down fast. As the little fellow plummets to the earth, mama eagle watches, and what does she do, she swoops down and picks the little bird up right before he hits the ground.
But what does she do when she regains her originally altitude? She drops it again, and again and as he almost hits the ground she swoops down to save him and bears him up… on eagles’ wings.
And that’s exactly what the Lord is saying to Moses. “Please tell them—make sure that you remind them—before you give them these commandments, how much I loved them in the past, remind them how I’ve watched over their lives every day and concerned Myself with their future.”
The Lord is saying, “Because I know what is best for you, and I have proven it to you through your deliverance from Egypt, I know what I’m talking about in these Ten Commandments, they are there so that you may live a long, easy, life filled with joy and happiness.
They are there because God knows what is best for you, and God wants to bare you on eagles’ wings, it’s okay if you fall because like the mama eagle God will catch you when you fall, but God will no matter what it takes teach you to fly.
If you disobey God’s commandments, God knows that you will fall, God know this, and there will be consequences to your actions if you disobey his commandments. God is saying, “Oh my people how I love you, and want the best for you, want you only trust in me.
That’s what God is saying to us today, if we only listen and trust and obey these Ten Commandments everything will fall into place, everything in our lives will be right, the way God wants them to be, and the way that they should be.
You might be sitting there thinking that sure God did that for them, he saved them from bondage, and oppression. He feed them manna in the desert, he gave them water every day, but God never parted the Red Sea for me.
I have to say to you, that I’m sorry you feel that way because God does part Seas in our lives, maybe not literally.
But you did wake up this morning with food to eat, you did wake up to a warm home, and a family that loves you, you do live in a country where you can worship freely, You did wake up with a God who loves you more than you can ever know. And you did wake up with a Savior this morning who gave you everything you need 2,000 years ago when He died for your sin, and mine.
Everything that we have and everything that we enjoy happened because of God’s love, count your blessings because God HAS parted seas in you life.
