Nests
[Author's note: I paused for a long time before deciding to include "nests" in this ABC analysis of God's creation. Firstly, many nests do come pre-made by God's hand in the form of hollows in old and dying trees; such nests are favorites of owls and other birds. So how about nests made by eagles and robins and doves? How about if God's birds use God's sticks and God's grasses to make their nests using their God-given intelligence (instincts)---then did God create their nests? I think that one could answer, Yes. If God made His canyons using His Flood and His pyroclastic flows coming from His volcanoes, and if He made Adam from the dust of the earth and Eve from Adam's rib, then couldn't He make nests using the God-given motions of His birdies?]
Learning Mercy from a Bird’s-Nest Saying
In Deuteronomy 22:6-7, we learn that “If a bird’s nest chance to be before thee in the way, in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young: But thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days.” (KJV) This beautiful verse would seem to bespeak God’s compassion for the birds, so that when man uses birds for his purposes (whether for eating or breeding, for example), the wild bird population would still be left with the female so that the wild birds can regenerate their population too. Interestingly, while we learned in Genesis 9:3 that man could then (after the Flood) eat meat and fish in addition to the green diet that was allowed in the pre-Flood period, nevertheless their were certain protocols such as not eating meat with the blood still in it (Genesis 9:4) and here, not taking a mother bird when one could do better to just take her young.
Buoyed by Eagle’s Wings
In Deuteronomy 32:11-12, there is a picture of the Most High—who “set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel” (verse 8), and who took Jacob as the lot of His inheritance and kept Jacob as the apple of His eye (verses 9 and 10)—leading Jacob as an eagle would take her young from her nest and bear them on her wings. We see in Deuteronomy 32 that even though the Most High made Jacob ride on the earth’s high places, that he would eat the bounty of the fields, and made him suck honey and oil out of rock, nevertheless Jeshurun rebelled and forsook the very God who made him, “lightly esteeming” the Rock of his salvation! Could you imagine a robin that ignored the God-given instincts given it by the God who made it, who then ignored its family duties and nest-building and nest-tending duties and just flew around enjoying the view, eschewing other robins and preferring the company of sea lions? What kind of robin would that be? And yet Jeshurun rebelled and forsook the God who made him, “lightly esteeming” the Rock of his salvation!
Best to Have One’s Nest, or Dwelling, in the Lord Jesus Christ
In Job 29:18, Job was missing his younger days when God had preserved him, and in this context he recounted, “Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.” (KJV) It would be worthwhile to understand that during the days in which Job enjoyed his nest, he was as a chief; a king in the army; a counselor among men, so much so that the princes refrained from talking and laid their hands on their mouths; AND during those days in which Job enjoyed his nest he was also a comforter to the mourners; a rescuer of the poor that cried and the fatherless and the helpless; a father to the poor; a jaw-breaker to the wicked; eyes to the blind; and feet to the lame. In other words, not only was Job powerful and greatly esteemed, but he was also clothed in righteousness. That is the key. His power was God-given because he had walked in God’s ways, and I believe that his comfort in his nest in his heyday, so to speak, was so profound that he wanted to live a long life and die in that state. In other words, he wanted to continue on in righteousness and power. Many of us have known people who found just the spot and just the house, and they declare that they want to die there. Unfortunately, some of them do not have Job’s righteousness, and they don’t know that their house is built on sand. Better to have one’s nest, or dwelling, founded on the Rock of Salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ!
Watch the Eagles, and Keep Your Nest with the Most High
In Job 39, God indicates that it is He that has made the “goodly wings” of the peacock (verse 13), that gave the hawk the wisdom to fly and to stretch its wings toward the south, and that gave the command to the eagle to mount up and to make its nest on high. Job doesn’t command the eagles to fly as they do or to nest on high. It is God that has made it so that His eagles will nest on high. That’s just the way the eagles have been made. They nest up high, and that’s that. “Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off. Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.” (Job 39:27-30, KJV) Therefore, eagles make their nests in the craggy rocks, much as owls make nests in the hollows of trees; though they may line their nests with sticks and soft materials, eagles and owls nevertheless make their nests in rocks and trees. Of course, from observation, we also know that eagles often nest in the tops of great trees. I would view the blood-sucking habit of the eagle as a possible result of the curse, although the birds certainly do perform a great function by cleaning up carcasses that otherwise would muck up the landscape. When one contemplates the eagle’s ways—its lofty perch, its powerful soaring, its awesome vision with which to mark, and kill, its prey—doesn’t one then have to pause and realize that the eagle’s Maker has a much higher perch, has much greater vision, and has a much stronger grip (with which to keep his own and with which to throw out his enemies)? After all, as we know from Romans 1:20, the created things give manifestation to some aspect of God’s invisible attributes—that is to say, His eternal power and divine nature. It is in God’s divine nature that He can look down on us all, even searching out the hairs on our heads from His lofty place, and it is in the God-given nature of an eagle to be able to well see a whole valley from its perch and to zoom in on what it will at speed and with power.
Where to Build? Choose the Tent of God’s Goodness.
In Psalms 84, we have a beautiful comparison—comparing the sparrow and the swallow that find (or make) their houses (or nests), on the one hand, and believers who dwell in the house of the LORD, on the other hand:
How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee. . . . O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah. Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee. (Psalms 84:1-5a, 8-12, KJV)
The writer of this psalm moved seamlessly between the houses of sparrows, the nests of swallows, and the dwelling of those who trust in the God of Jacob—such was the profound degree to which he understood that God’s creation is giving evidence of God’s eternal power and divine nature, and thereby pointing people to God, if they would only have eyes to see. Just as the sparrows and swallows of the Creator have places where they live, and they regularly show people how to make a good habitation, people must decide for themselves if they will follow the clues of the sparrows and swallows—choosing to live in the tent of the living God rather than in the tent of wickedness. Everyone should check to see what kind of tent they’re living in. Is it a tent that has the approval stamp of the LORD God of Israel, or is it a tent made by the wicked and for the wicked? If the righteous man is in the tent of the goodness of the LORD, and the wicked man is in the tent of wickedness, then (in a paraphrase of Proverbs 27:8) the man that wanders from his place is like a bird that wanders away from its nest. A man who wanders away from his place—that is, away from the kind of tent he was designed for—could risk finding the wrong tent over his head. The father of lies—who loves to steal, kill, and destroy—would just love to provide a tent of wickedness for the aimless and undirected soul.
I recently encountered a bold swallow family that made a . . . you guessed it! . . . swallow’s nest right close to my eye level in a breezeway where I walked. The nest started at about 6′5″ above the ground and went up to 6′9″, and it was ruggedly made of mud. Basically, the swallows used their nest as a place of safety, and it was there that they reared their young. I bring it up to say that they would watch me closely if I got anywhere near their nest, and they would carry out courageous flying missions to ward me off if I got too close for their comfort.
I believe their courage and determination had a lot to do with the fact that they were on a good mission—they had built the nest, had the offspring, and reared their offspring in accordance with their swallow charter, if you will. Similarly, if people keep in mind the principles given them by their Maker, and derive their strength from Him, then they too can “fly courageously” and find themselves in the tent of God’s goodness and protection.
Find the Right Dwelling
“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests,” we learn from Luke 9:58 (KJV). So it is apparent that there is a plan of God for His creatures. And what is God’s plan for men? In Jesus’s words, “For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” (KJV) If the Lord Jesus Christ came to save men’s lives, then people made in the image of God had better rest in His purposes.