The name of this blog is Psalm 91 Today.  Here we examine how the Holy Spirit is training believers in this hour.  We compare this training to the way an eagle trains its young, for that is what Psalm 91 is about – an eagle training its young, just the way the Holy Spirit trained Moses, the author of the psalm.

Psalm 91 tells us so much about eagles, that the psalm is a key that opens understanding for many other images in the Bible that involve eagles.  Studying it reveals how Moses dwelt in the Secret Place of the Most High — none other than the Holy of Holies.  It opens understanding to the image of Moses in the cleft of the rock, the place where Golden Eagles nest in the Sinai.  The Psalm tells us, “They will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” (verse 12 NIV), speaking of ways the Holy Spirit and God’s angels sustain the believer in the spiritual realm, much the way the winds sustain an eagle in the air and allow soft landings on the rocky crags where it nests.  In the natural many times parent eagles fly before their young, manipulating the winds that flow off their wings to create an updraft before the fledglings that follow them.  Interestingly, nearly 100,000 eagles preceded Moses and the children of Israel as they came out of Egypt and over the Red Sea (for more information, order a copy of my book, Heaven’s Eagle, from this website).

Today we want to examine the figure of an eagle as it relates to the end times.  Jesus told two parables involving eagles, one in Matthew 24:26-28, and another in Luke 17:30-37.  The key portions of the two parables compare as follows:

“For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together” (Matt. 24:28 KJV).

“Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together” (Luke 17:37).

The parable in Matthew discusses eagles being gathered to a body.  The Greek word used here is ptoma (pronounced pto’-ma), which means a ruin, something fallen, a corpse or carcass.  The Greek employs the word aetoi (pronounced ah-et-oy’), which is most literally translated eagle.  However, some scholars believe that Matthew may have used the word aetoi because it became customary for Jewish scholars to employ this word when translating the Hebrew word nesher (pronounced nesh-ar’), which can refer to a large bird of prey, including both eagles and vultures.  Here, there is a good case for saying that a vulture is meant, since we are talking about the birds in question being gathered to a corpse.

The similar parable in Luke talks about eagles being gathered to a body, but this time the Greek word used for body is soma (pronounced so’-mah), and not the word ptoma.  Soma designates a living body in most usages.

In the Luke parable, then, we have the image of eagles being gathered to a living body, as opposed to the Matthew parable, which seems to describe vultures being drawn to a carcass.  Why the ambiguity?

I believe the answer is this.  In both passages, Jesus is describing the taking away of believers that we commonly call the Rapture of the Church.  When Jesus returns, believers will be caught up to meet Him in the air, and escape the wrath of God that is to be poured out upon earth.  In Matthew, he is actually telling how many people who seem to align themselves with the true Church of Jesus Christ will gather to a figure of death, someone likened to a corpse lying dead.  This figure will be the Antichrist, or a similar and subordinate false Messiah.  Throughout Scripture Antichrist is shown to be deathly (Rev. 13:3-7), to love destruction and death (John 8:44; Rev. 14:8-10), and to be unclean and defiling (Dan. 9:27).  Those who prefigure him are similarly murderous and filthy: Cain, Nimrod, Pharaoh, King Saul, Judas and Saul of Tarsus, to name a few.

By contrast the eagle parable in Luke portrays true Christians being gathered to a figure of life, actually meeting Christ in the air (I Thess. 4:17).  Thus, true Christians meet Christ, the author of life (John 1:3), rather than Antichrist, the agent of he who comes only to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10).

Today we in the visible church have the option to behave either as eagles or vultures.  Are we eagles, who are majestic, have wings designed and proportioned for graceful flight, necks and heads covered with glorious feathers, and which are symbolic of bravery and perseverance?  Or are we vultures, who are gruesome in appearance, have wings that are broad and flap awkwardly like a sheet flopping and blowing in the wind, possess bare heads and necks that appear skeleton-like, and which are symbols of death and decay, even carrying a putrid smell and spitting and excreting caustic saliva and fecal matter?

Consider this: I believe the way we treat the Body of Christ – the Church, will give clues as to whether we are eagles or vultures.  Do we bring death into the body by disrespecting authority, being critical of our own church or ones of different theological backgrounds, by living a double life in and out of church, or by causing weak brothers and sisters to sin?

The last part of Psalm 91 heralds the rapture:

Verse 14 – “Therefore will I deliver him” (KJV) – that’s the rapture!

Verse 15 – “I will be with him in trouble” (KJV) – that’s the rapture!

Verse 16 – “ I will show him my salvation” (KJV) – salvation is the Hebrew word for Jesus, Yeshua – seeing Jesus – that’s the rapture!

If we want to be rapture-ready, we cannot abuse the body of Christ, God’s temple.  1 Corinthians tells us, “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred” (1 Cor. 3:17 NIV).

Remember, friends  — soar like an eagle!