The Birds of the Air – Part One
One lovely morning back in
mid-
I was amazed how fast they
were moving and I thought to myself, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen clouds
moving so fast.”
But as I concentrated my gaze
on them, I realized that they were not
clouds at all; but two huge flocks of small sea-birds flying in close
formation.
What a sight! Especially as they changed course and the
morning sunlight caught their white undersides!
I began to wonder that
morning, as I have often done before when seeing other sea-birds or V-shaped
flights of geese flying together, how they manage to keep a constant distance
from one another; how they maintain exactly the same direction and changes of
direction so perfectly, without mass confusion; how they know that they should
follow their leader, and how they know who their leader is!
Is the leader of the flock
somehow programmed by his Creator to know where the best food is – and where
the best place is to rest for the night?
Or are all of them so
programmed?
The answer is “Instinct”! God has created instinct into them. Somehow, through their God-given instinct,
they know which bird is the leader, and that leader somehow knows where the
food is, and where a good resting place might be.
Why can’t we be like those
birds? Wouldn’t it make our Christian
lives so much simpler? God would give
His spiritual food – His plain truth – to one
leader, and His little flock would follow that leader without question.
To some limited extent,
ancient
Again I ask the question: Why
can’t we be like those birds? The answer
is that birds have brains – small but excellent ones,
superbly fashioned for their needs – but they don’t have minds like we humans
do – minds with which to reason, and sometimes to differ and disagree.
But that’s enough of my own
symbolism! Let’s go on with God’s
symbolism – God’s ornithological symbolism.
A few months ago, I received an
e-mail letter from a man in
May I ask how you view 'the birds of the
air' as in Matthew 6:26?
The man asked how we view “the birds of the air.” But more to the point is the question, “How
does God view the birds of the air?” What
do birds symbolize in God’s Word? This
is the question I would like to ask and answer in this article.
This is one of those subjects
that could take many articles to cover, so this one can only really scratch the
surface of a huge topic.
I do hope that your view of Biblical birds is not
limited to the horrific prophecy of “the supper of the great God” in Revelation
19. There are so very many symbolic
mentions of birds in the scriptures. Yes
some certainly are warning messages,
but many others are positive, comforting and encouraging messages from our
loving God – including references to specific types of birds and their various
qualities: eagles, ostriches, owls, doves, pelicans, storks and ravens; even roosters,
hens and chickens.
Symbols of God’s
Let us go back to the South
African man’s question. Here is what I
told him in my reply – first of all quoting the verse he mentioned in its
context.
Therefore I say to you, do not worry about
your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor
about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more
than clothing? Look at the birds of the
air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly
Father feeds them. Are you not of more
value than they? Which of you by
worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they
grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all
his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and
tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of
little faith? Therefore do not worry,
saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these
things the Gentiles seek. For your
heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the
The bottom line here, literally,
is that we must seek God’s Kingdom and righteousness first; and if we make
these two things our priorities, then He promises to provide all of our other secondary
needs.
But specifically, what does
Nevertheless, we must be careful
not to read inaccurate messages into what
Although birds do not farm, they
still do put effort into finding the food that God provides for them. Is this not what they do with most of their
time and energy each and every day?
Now God’s people are not all
farmers or even avid vegetable gardeners; but we, like the birds, must work
hard to provide food and shelter, etc. for our families; but without neglecting
the spiritual priorities of our lives: communication with God in daily prayer,
Bible study, meditation and occasional fasting.
With minds unencumbered by
the modern mechanistic view of nature, the biblical authors repeatedly mention the
instinctive “trust” of birds in the daily bread supplied by God as an example
of faith.
For example, the Eternal asked
Who provides food for the raven, when
its young ones cry to God, and wander about for lack of food? (
He answered His own question,
of course, but His answer is repeated in Psalm 147:7-9:
Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; sing
praises on the harp to our God, who covers the heavens with clouds, who
prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow on the mountains. He gives to the beast its food, and to the
young ravens that cry.
Our great God, who can make
the impossible possible, He who regularly provides birds with food, in an
ironic twist, once used birds to provide food for one of His human servants:
And Elijah the Tishbite, of the
inhabitants of
(I Kings 17:1-6)
So here we see
that birds can symbolize God’s providence and can serve as examples of the
difference between His parental care and the relative callousness of human
beings, even His own peoples:
Even the jackals present their breasts
to nurse their young; but the daughter of my people is cruel, like ostriches in
the wilderness. The tongue of the infant
clings to the roof of its mouth for thirst; the young children ask for bread,
but no one breaks it for them.
(Lamentations 4:3-4)
In other contexts, His Word uses
birds as symbols in many other ways.
Here is a brief and only partially complete grouping; acknowledging the
help from Ryken’s “Dictionary of Biblical Imagery.”
Symbols of Shelter, Escape
and Safety
The enviable flying ability
of birds and the constancy of their day-to-day foraging (as already discussed) have
long suggested an idyllic, worry-free existence. Have you never envied a bird soaring or
hovering on the wind, and then looked forward so much more to the World
Tomorrow when we will likely be able to do the same? I have!
The ability of birds to fly and to escape shows itself in the many
references in Bible symbolism.
Saul and
But those who wait on the LORD shall
renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall
run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)
You have seen what I did to the
Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. (Exodus 19:4)
While wings suggest swiftness
or soaring strength, as suggested in these verses, they also will compare the
protective parenting habits of birds with that of our great God:
For the LORD’S portion is His people;
Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide
me under the shadow of your wings
(Psalms 17:8)
How precious is your lovingkindness, O
God! Therefore the children of men put
their trust under the shadow of your wings.
(Psalms 36:7)
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to
me! For my soul trusts in you; and in
the shadow of your wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities have
passed by. (Psalms 57:1)
I will abide in your tabernacle forever;
I will trust in the shelter of your wings.
Selah. (Psalms 61:4)
Because you have been my help, therefore
in the shadow of your wings I will rejoice.
(Psalms 63:7)
O
Yes, the wings of God, offer
divine protection:
He who dwells in the secret place of the
Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and
my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”
Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler {the trapper of birds} and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, and
under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and
buckler. (Psalms 91:1-4)
The LORD repay your work,
and a full reward be given you by the LORD God of
Not only do they give
protection, God’s wings even offer healing to those who fear His holy name:
But to you who fear my name The Sun of
Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and
grow fat like stall-fed calves. (Malachi 4:2)
The obvious parallels between
birds’ nests and humans’ houses suggest still more analogies to God's provision
and protection. Virtually all birds have
nests but, as
Now it happened as they journeyed on the
road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.” And
Sparrows and swallows, with the
wisdom of their instinct, built their nests in the Eternal’s house and sought
the protection of His altar:
How lovely is your tabernacle, O LORD of
hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints
for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow
a nest for herself, where she may lay her young—even your altars, O LORD of
hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are
those who dwell in your house; they will still be praising you. Selah (Psalms 84:1-4)
Although it is doubtful that the
priests and Levites would have allowed birds to nest in the holiness of God’s Tent
Tabernacle, they may not have been able to trap them in the courtyards, or in
the higher ceilings of the later stone temples.
The analogy here, of course, is of the benefit of being close to God in
His house. His spiritual temple in the
New Covenant era is none other than God Himself.
Other birds, such as the
stork – which God’s Word speaks most favourably of – find safety high in evergreen
trees:
He sends the springs into the valleys, they
flow among the hills. They give drink to
every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. By them the birds of the heavens have their
home; they sing among the branches. He
waters the hills from His upper chambers; the earth is satisfied with the fruit
of your works. He causes the grass to
grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the service of man, that he may bring
forth food from the earth, and wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to
make his face shine, and bread which strengthens man’s heart. The trees of the LORD are full of sap, the
cedars of Lebanon which He planted, where the birds make their nests; the stork
has her home in the fir trees. (Psalms 104:10-17)
Their conspicuous, yet relatively
inaccessible, nests stand as symbols of heaven-ordained security. Different birds have different nesting
places:
O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in
the secret places of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for
your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely. (Song of Solomon 2:14)
You who dwell
in
God is Inescapable
At one low point in his life,
David wished that he had the bird’s ability to fly away:
So I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a
dove! I would fly away and be at rest. Indeed, I would wander far off, and remain in
the wilderness. Selah. I would hasten my escape from the windy
storm and tempest.” (Psalms 55:6-8)
David knew, of course, that
it was impossible for him to fly away from his troubles, and therefore that he
must put all his trust in God:
In the LORD I put my trust; how can you
say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain”? (Psalms 11:1)
David asserts that God is
inescapable; and that this fact is for our good:
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I
make my bed in hell, behold, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of
the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. (Psalms 139:7-10)
Nations trust in their
mountain strongholds, just as nesting eagles do, but their aerie is not
inaccessible to the Eternal God:
The vision
of Obadiah. Thus says the
Lord GOD concerning
Symbols of Faithfulness and Trust
In Bible times, birds served
as an obvious indicator of the seasonal cycles – rhythms to which the ancients
tuned their lives. The geography of the
In response to this wonder of
bird migration, the eighteenth century American poet, William Cullen Bryant,
penned the words, "There is a Power, whose care teaches thy way along that
pathless coast."
Referring to His miracles of
birds’ migration and nesting habits, the Eternal asks
Does the hawk fly by your wisdom, and
spread its wings toward the south? Does
the eagle mount up at your command, and make its nest on high? On the rocks it dwells and resides, on the
crag of the rock and the stronghold. From
there it spies out the prey; its eyes observe from afar. Its young ones suck up blood; and where the
slain are, there it is." (
May I strongly recommend a
brief side-study on the truly astounding topic of bird migration? A good starting point would be: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_migration
In addition to seasonal
activity, the daily habits of birds
governed those of people.
Watch therefore, for you do not know
when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at
(Matthew 26:34)
Solomon observes that more
mature human beings tend to wake early, accompanied by the predawn twittering
of birds:
When the doors are shut in the streets, and the sound of grinding is low; when one rises up
at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of music are brought low. (Ecclesiastes 12:4)
Moral Examples
The universal tendency toward
anthropomorphic interpretations of bird behaviour generates many images.
(Anthropomorphism is the applying of human tendencies to animals or other
non-human things).
The dove earns its amorous
reputation from its soft voice and its habit of continually renewing its pair
bond. No wonder it is mentioned, six
times in Song of Solomon! The supposed
exemplary family life of the stork earned it the designation "pious"
or even “devout”:
Even the stork in the heavens knows her
appointed times; and the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow observe the
time of their coming. But my people do
not know the judgment of the LORD. (
The Hebrew word for “stork”
– “haciydah” – means good, kind, devoted… i.e. like a devout, God-fearing,
religiously-observant, righteous, pious and kind woman.
The care of storks for
their young, in their highly-visible nests, has made the stork a widespread
emblem of parental care. It was widely
noted in ancient natural history that a pair of storks would be consumed with
the nest in a fire, rather than fly away and abandon it.
In the Aesop's fable, “The Stork, and the Farmer,” the
stork argues that he should be set free, because he needs to care for his
parents in their old age.
Symbols of Beauty
The huge variety of bird life in our area of
Vancouver Island never ceases to amaze me: bald eagles, chickadees, robins, and
many different species of herons, finches, gulls, ducks, geese, and so many
others that I do not know by name. What
a magnificent and stunningly colourful segment of God’s fabulous creation! The beauty of birds has been a universal
source of their attraction. Solomon
undoubtedly collected exotic birds for their striking beauty:
For the king’s ships went to Tarshish
with the servants of Huram: every three years once came the ships of Tarshish
bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.
(II Chronicles
The NK
The notoriously amorous
Solomon pictures the Shulamite woman admiring the hair and eyes of her beloved
and comparing them to the beautiful features of ravens and doves:
His head is like the finest gold; his
locks are wavy, and black as a raven. His
eyes are like doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set. (Song of Solomon 5:11-12)
Solomon’s father, David,
evokes the delicate, shimmering beauty of a bird’s wing in:
Though you lie down among the
sheepfolds, you will be like the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her
feathers with yellow gold. (Psalms
68:13)
Symbols of Cleansing
The impurity of a leprous
house is cleansed by the death of one bird, and carried away symbolically by the
release of a second:
And he shall take, to cleanse the house,
two birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop.
Then he shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running
water; and he shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet, and the
living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird and in the running
water, and sprinkle the house seven times.
And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and the
running water and the living bird, with the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the
scarlet. Then he shall let the living
bird loose outside the city in the open field, and make atonement for the
house, and it shall be clean.
(Leviticus 14:49-53)
Symbols of Spirit
The metaphor of spirit as a
bird was common in ancient literature and art and, of course, in the
scriptures. This symbolism finds its
culmination in the Holy Spirit descending as a dove, as recorded by all four
gospel writers. Here is Luke’s version:
And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily
form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You
are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.
(Luke 3:22)
Symbols of Wisdom
In the comparison between the
built-in wisdom of birds and
Why has this people
slidden back,
Some Negative Symbols
In conclusion, all is not
rosy for our feathered friends. They too
have their trials. And in their trials,
they too are used in God’s Word as symbols of trials endured by mankind.
My fist example in this group
is the lowly sparrow, which is known for its sociable habits, and is said to be
unnatural and out of place when alone – a symbol of isolation and loneliness:
I lie awake, and am like a sparrow alone
on the housetop.
(Psalms 102:7)
In the previous verse, other
solitary birds are used to evoke barren, desolate, and forsaken pictures:
I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I
am like an owl of the desert. (Verse 6)
The cries of several birds
strike the human ear as mournful:
Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing
like the jackals and a mourning like the ostriches {K
Like a crane or a swallow, so I
chattered; I mourned like a dove; my eyes fail from looking upward. O LORD, I am oppressed; Undertake for me! (Isaiah 38:14)
The Hebrew word for “dove,” is
“yownah” – the same as the name of the prophet
Some bird behaviours lend
themselves directly to moral lessons or even warnings. The ceaseless, unresting flight of sparrows
or swallows is likened to a curse that cannot alight on its undeserving target:
Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying
swallow, so a curse without cause shall not alight. (Proverbs 26:2)
The tribe of Ephraim – both
ancient and modern – is likened to a silly dove – senseless, easily deceived and
entrapped:
Ephraim also is like a silly dove,
without sense—they call to
Earlier we mentioned God’s
favouritism for the noble stork. At the
other end of the spectrum of family care, and in comparison with the stork, we
have the ostrich. The seeming
indifference of the ostrich to its young, although ordained by God and
compensated with speed is not an acceptable model for human parenting:
The wings of the ostrich wave proudly,
but are her wings and pinions like the kindly stork’s? For she leaves her eggs on the ground, and
warms them in the dust; she forgets that a foot may crush them, or that a wild
beast may break them. She treats her
young harshly, as though they were not hers; her labor is in vain, without
concern, because God deprived her of wisdom, and did not endow her with
understanding. When she lifts herself on
high, she scorns the horse and its rider.
(
One who unlawfully collects
possessions and wealth is likened in God’s Word to the partridge, which is said
to raise chicks that she did not hatch.
In the end, they will be gone:
As a partridge that broods but does not
hatch, so is he who gets riches, but not by right; it will leave him in the
midst of his days, and at his end he will be a fool. (
The idea that partridges
raised the chicks of others probably stems from the occasional practice of some
pairs, which lay a second clutch before the first has hatched and combine them
after hatching. The older chicks, which
became independent sooner, were not believed to be the pair’s own.
There are so many lessons we can
learn from birds: inspiring and encouraging lessons as well as dire warnings.
Let us rejoice in the creation and
symbolisms of our wonderful and great God and of His inspiring and colourful
Word!
Qualicum Beach