In this blog we have often investigated how Psalm 91 tells the story of an eagle, figuratively the Holy Spirit, raises its young. Psalm 91 is thus a story of the Holy Spirit training believers.
Today we resume a series of articles on how the Holy Spirit causes believers to triumph over forces of death and destruction. Specifically we look at how Moses, the most likely author of Psalm 91, escaped mass murders on several occasions.
Psalm 91:5-7 tells us, “You shall not be afraid of … the destruction that lays waste at noon. A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not approach you.”
The historian Josephus tells us of Moses as general of the Egyptian army during war with Ethiopia.1 Moses’ participation in war and his survival is another testimony to the extraordinary grace upon his life. Quite often men and women touched by God are circumstantially kept from the danger of war. I believe this is because Satan can see the grace of God on their lives and wants desperately to eliminate them from the earth. However, there are numerous tales of godly people being used heroically in war and having a supernatural protection about them, and Moses is one of them.
Covering a portion of Moses’ life not mentioned in Scripture, Josephus relates how Egypt suffered greatly in a war with Ethiopia, the country being overrun and the army of Egypt suffering great casualties. His recounting of the history tells that the Egyptians consulted prophetic writings and oracles and deduced from these that Moses, who had been raised by the daughter of Pharaoh, was the person divinely called to rescue the nation. Moses, newly placed in leadership of the army, then chose an unusual and risky strategy for attacking Egypt’s enemies. Rather than traveling by the Nile, he went an overland route, which normally would have prohibited passage owing to the multitude of snakes. If you know anyone from Africa, you know that snakes are a major concern in many places, and I’ve known people who chose the church they go to by how well the construction guards against intrusion by snakes.
Moses’ method of dealing with the threat of attack by snakes was to have baskets made of sedge, formed like arks. These would carry Ibises, which are large predatory birds very well suited to hunting and eating snakes. The birds, according to Josephus, were released at times when there were threats of snakes. The Ibis was revered in Egyptian culture for being a killer of snakes and was even venerated in religious ceremonies in connection with the god Thoth.2 In the war with Ethiopia, they reportedly functioned very well to Egypt’s advantage, allowing them to muster a surprise attack and eventually win the war.
Details in Josephus’ report have a bearing on when Moses and Israel would have a future encounter with similar snakes recorded in Numbers 21. According to Josephus, some of the snakes being dealt with in the Ethiopian campaign ascended out of the ground or flew. They resemble the creatures described as plaguing Israel in Numbers 21 because the words used there are saraphim nachashim (Num. 21:6). Nachashim (pronounced na-kwash’-im) designates snakes.3 Saraphim (pronounced saw-rawf’-im) is a word used for fiery ones or burning ones.4 In Isaiah 6 saraph is used to describe beings with six wings each, which attended God’s throne:
“I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were saraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two hey covered their feet, and with two they were flying” (Isa. 6:1-2).
That these seraphs may have had serpentine bodies is attested to by the fact that Satan, who also once attended the throne of God, being designated “the anointed cherub who covers” (Ezek. 28:14 NASB), is also referred to as a snake or serpent (Gen. 3:1; Rev. 20:2). In Ezekiel’s vision of God’s throne (Ezek. 1), the living creatures at the base of God’s throne (later called cherubim in Ezekiel 10:1) and what appear to be seraphim , designated only as fire going back and forth between the living creatures (Ezek. 1:13), dwell in close proximity. It is quite possible that Satan, being a different kind of cherub and one designated to cover God’s throne as a canopy (Ezek. 28:14; Is. 14:13-14), dwelt very close to the seraphim who dwelt above God’s throne (Isa. 6:1).
Testimony is also born by Biblical text that fiery flying serpents existed in Palestine at the time of Isaiah:
“Into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and the fiery flying serpent” (Isa. 30:6 KJV).
“For out of the serpent’s root will come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent” (Isa. 14:29 KJV).
Some scientists who embrace a creation view of zoology rather than an evolutionary one have made an excellent case that the above translations from Isaiah should be taken completely literally.5
Further evidence that the serpents or snakes faced by Moses in the Ethiopian campaign were horrible, fiery and dreadfully mobile with flight comes from accounts of ancient historians besides Josephus. Herodotus wrote of them, indicating that they had wings of a bat, and that they frequented frankincense trees.6 King Esarhaddon of Assyria mentions flying yellow serpents when Esarhaddon of Assyria marched on Egypt,7 and mention of such creatures is made by Aelian, Ammianus, Mela, and Matthew of Edessa as well.8
While these creatures appear to be extinct in the Middle East, evidence exists that they still exist in other parts of the world. Recent reports from Papua New Guinea describe snake-like creatures that can fly, having wings like a bat, and which are a terror to the natives of that region. They measure three feet in length, or in some places considerably longer. These are definitely not one of the large bats, who can grow as much as a six-foot wingspan, for these animals are welcomed by the natives for knocking fruit out of trees, helping them in their foraging for food. Furthermore, these flying snakes exhibit an ability for bio-luminescence. Similar to fireflies, they can flash on and off their lights. The Papua New Guinea reports include eye-witness testimony of missionaries.9 Scientists and researchers liken them to pterosaurs, prehistoric creatures found in the fossil record and resembling winged serpents. Many researchers with a Biblical background feel there is ample evidence that these pterosaurs and other dinosaurs co-existed with man.10
All of the above documents the horrible and fearsome nature of these fiery flying serpents. Was the situation just as Josephus reported it? We cannot say. But if Moses did indeed use Ibises to control the dreaded fiery flying serpents, it bears testimony to God’s hand of providence on his life. First of all he survived in the midst of a costly war. Secondly the arks fashioned of plant materials speak of the same providence that spared his life as an infant, cradling him in an ark of papyrus reeds. Thirdly, the fiery flying serpents speak of Moses’ true adversary, Satan. Next, it was the power of the ibis, emerging from the ark, just as God by His Holy Spirit is pictured in Scripture as emerging from the Ark and the Holy Place in defense of Israel (Ps. 20:2), that saved his army from the serpents, and this bird, a natural predator of snakes, definitely speaks to us of the eagle. Twenty of the approximately seventy species of eagles are designated snake or serpent eagles, for they are noted to prey upon snakes. 11 A great many other eagles, and perhaps a majority of eagle species, also devour snakes, at least occasionally, including golden eagles 12 and bald eagles.13
In this story we seem to have at the very least a thought-provoking tale that shines some light on things to come in Moses’ life, and perhaps it is evidence of Moses learning to deal with the destruction and death of Satan, not with his own prowess, but with the power of God.
(For more information on how Psalm 91 tells the story of an eagle raising its young, or the Holy Spirit training believers, buy a copy of my book, Heaven’s Eagle, from this website.)
1. Whitson, William, Ed. 1987. The Works of Josephus: New Updated Edition. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers. Antiquities of the Jews. pp. 69-70, Book 2, Chapter 10.1.
2. Wikpedia. Ibis. http//en.wikpedia.org/wiki/Ibis.(accessed. January 25, 2012.
3. Strong, James 2001. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible; Hebrew and Aramaic Dictionary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. p. 185.
4. Ibid. p. 292.
5. Genesis Park, The Fiery Flying Serpent, http://www.genesispark.com/essays/fiery-serpent/ (accessed January 10, 2012).
6. Herodotus, Historiae, Translated by Godley, Histories 2. 75.1-4 and Histories 3.107.1-110.1 Viewed at Theoi.com, Ophis Pteretos http://www.theoi.com/Thaumasios/OphiesPteretoi (accessed February 1, 2012)./1850. pp. 75-76.
7. Verreth, Herbert The Egyptian Eastern Border Region in Assyrian Sources ; The Journal of the American Oriental Society, April 1, 1999. Accessed at High Beam Research http://www.highbeam.com/doc/161-57590410.html on 1/25/12 – Quoting Inscription of King Esarhaddon of Assyria. (accessed February 2, 2012).
8. Goertzen, John. 1998. The Bible and Pterosaurs: Archaeologiccaland Linguistic Studies of Jurassic Animals that Lived Recently – An Article for the 1998 Midwestern Evangelical Theological Society Conference Held at GRGS, Grand Rapids, MI – viewed at http://www.rae.org/pteroets.html (accessed January 25, 2012.
9. Op. cit. Gemesis Park. The Fiery Flying Serpent.
10. Op. cit. Goertzen, 1998.
11. Rutledge, Hope. Eagles of the World. http://www.baldeagleinfo.com/eagle/eagle6.html (accessed February 6, 2011).
12. Watson, Jeff 1987. The Golden Eagle. London: T. & A. D. Poyser pp. 26, 30, 51, 63, 316.
13. Stalmaster, Mark V. 1987. The Bald Eagle. New York: Universe Books. pp. 95-96.
