The use of the eagle as a symbol in the Bible begins with Moses, who would have had an acquaintance with a great many eagles, ranging from Africa, where he fought battles as an Egyptian general, to the vicinity of modern day Jordan and Saudi Arabia, where he ended his time on earth.

While in Egypt and during the wilderness journey of forty years, Moses would have been around the steppe eagle, the African black eagle, the imperial eagle and the golden eagle.

The golden eagle in particular has a habitat and life characteristics that would have made their interaction with Moses very likely.  The entire Sinai Peninsula is in their range, and they prefer nesting in rocky crags, similar to the place on Sinai where God placed Moses and had His glory pass before the man of God.  In fact eagles often make aerobatic displays of their glory in flight immediately in front of nests.  This is part of how they advertise their territory, and God may have been impressing upon Moses that he would protect him and Israel, as a mother and father eagle protect their nesting chicks.

When Israel came out of Egypt at Passover, they were traveling at the tail end of a migration of about 100,000 steppe eagles that migrate out of Africa, over the Red Sea, and through the Middle East to the Eastern Russian Steppes. This adds special meaning to Exodus 19:4, where the Lord meets Moses as he returns to Sinai from Egypt with Israel following, and says, “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (NIV).  Eagles indeed are known to fly before their young and manipulate air currents to keep them aloft more easily.

Actually, the Passover itself summons the figure of an eagle.  Pesach, the Hebrew word for Passover, has an etymology going back to the Egyptian word pesh, meaning “to spread wings over.”  We can readily see the image of the Holy Spirit, as a mighty eagle, passing over the Israelite houses marked with the blood of a lamb, protecting them from the destroying angel sent by God against Egypt (Exod. 12:23).

In many ways, Psalm 91, which many rabbinical sources attribute to Moses,

speaks of Passover.  The psalm mentions many things alluding to being under a protective covering like the homes marked with blood.  These include dwelling “in the shelter of the Most High” and resting “in the shadow of the Almighty” (verse 1), and God being the psalmist’s refuge and fortress (verse 2).  Aside from that though, there is mention of pestilence and plague three separate times in the King James Version, and ten separate calamities are mentioned in the psalm, mirroring the ten plagues of Egypt.

More than that, however, Psalm 91 incorporates many images specifically associated with an eagle.  The eagle is “the Most High” creature (verse 1).  Eagles spend much of their time shading their young (verse 1).  Eagles’ nests are fortress-sized (verse 2), sometimes exceeding two tons.  Eagles use their feathers to insulate chicks against cold and brood over eggs (verse 4).  Eagle eyes spy trouble miles off (verse 8).  Eagles soar on winds, and verse 11 speaks of angels (sometimes described as winds – Ps. 104:4) bearing one aloft.  Eagles trample snakes and fight off lions with their powerful feet and talons (verse 13).

The image of an eagle portraying the ways of the Holy Spirit is also made use of in the later writings of Moses in Deuteronomy.  In Deuteronomy 32:11, Moses speaks of Israel, noting, “Like an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft, the Lord alone led him” (NIV).

Until the early part of the twentieth century, ornithologists saw this verse as a poetic image of an eagle carrying its young, and declared that this word picture found no literal case in nature.  However, about that time, several experts made sightings of eagles flying under their young to catch them when they fell from steep precipices.  In other words, the analogy used by Moses was literally drawn from nature and used the figure of an eagle to illustrate God training Israel.  At least two of the sightings involved golden eagles bearing their young aloft on their backs.

The work of the Holy Spirit through Moses provides a powerful platform in Scripture for the image of an eagle to be used in later writings to illustrate the work and providence of the Holy Spirit.

(For more detailed information on eagles in the Bible, get a copy of my book, Heaven’s Eagle, from this website.)