We have in this blog, week after week, been making allusion to how the Scripture likens the Holy Spirit to an eagle.  However, are there false eagles?  In the spiritual realm are there entities that try to mimic the way that the Holy Spirit resembles a mighty eagle?

Of course, much of our discussion to this point has centered on the way that Psalm 91 tells the story of an eagle raising its young.  The psalm mentions the eaglets in their earliest stages, in the secret place of the Most High.  What is higher than an eagle’s nest, and what is more secret than an egg?  Then it proceeds to speaking of being under the shadow of the Almighty (Eagles spend much of their time shading their young.)  It speaks of being covered with “his feathers” (verse 4).

After speaking of the experience in the nest, the story of Psalm 91 progresses to the young being airborne, and the angels (he makes his angels winds in Psalm 104) bear the young eagle fledglings “up … so that you will not strike your foot against a stone” ( Ps. 91:12 NIV).  Then the young eagle becomes a hunter, and begins to “tread on the lion and the cobra” (Ps. 91:13).  If the young eagle falls from the sky in rough winds, parent eagles have been known to swoop under them, and “set them on high” (vs 14 KJV).

If passages like Psalm 91, Exodus 19:4 and Deuteronomy 32:11 analogize the Holy Spirit to a mighty eagle, are there portions of Scripture that liken the spirit of antichrist to a counterfeit eagle?

Psalm 91:5 tells us, “You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day” (NIV).  In the midst of telling a story about an eagle raising its young, the psalm alludes to an arrow: a projectile that seems to fly through the air because it is launched from a bow, which has feather fletchings that imitate the function of a bird’s retrices, and predatory power because of its pointed tip.  Overall, an arrow is a synthetic bird, and one that can oppose an eagle – much as the spirit of antichrist seeks to oppose the Holy Spirit.

The Bible makes a number of references to the spirit of antichrist portrayed as an eagle.

Deuteronomy 28:49 warns Israel that she would be attacked by hostile forces if she strayed from God’s covenant at Sinai: “The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down.”

In Jeremiah 48:40 God calls Babylon, a prominent symbol of antichrist’s kingdom, an eagle ready to attack Moab: “Look! An eagle is swooping down, spreading its wings over Moab.”

In Jeremiah 49:16, God speaks to Edom, famously an adversary of Israel, “Though you build your nest as high as the eagle’s, from there I will bring you down.”

Likewise, Ezekiel in chapter 17 speaks of Egypt and Babylon, two world powers seeking to dominate and unite the world under their antichristian banners, as two great eagles.   Hosea 8:1 speaks of the world-dominating attempts of Assyria as, “An eagle is over the house of the Lord.”  Habakkuk actually uncovers the Babylonian dragon myth, which tries to portray their own god, Marduk, as an eagle-like figure slaying the evil satanic dragon, Tiamat.  (Imagine that!  Satan is so aware that some people will bridle at embracing the dragon, Antichrist, that he fabricates a false Christ as its opponent, hoping people will turn to it instead!) For more information, order a copy of my book, Heaven’s Eagle, from this website.

All of this is evidence of how Satan tries to counterfeit Christ and the Holy Spirit.  However, true believers know there is only one who sends the true Holy Spirit!  There also is only one Spirit, who watches over us, as an eagle gently training its young.  Psalm 91 rightly likens his touch to the brush of a feather, saying, “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge” (Ps. 91:4).  How different he is from the eagle-like spirits that seek to dominate the world!