Divine Discipline
E. L. Hull. Deuteronomy 32:11-12 As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them, bears them on her wings:… Without attaching any mystic meaning to this figure of the eagle, we may readily discover the great principles of God's action that it was intended to illustrate. I. THE DIVINE DISCIPLINE OF LIFE IS DESIGNED TO AWAKEN MAN TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIS OWN POWERS. The instinct of the eagle in breaking up her nest is to arouse the native energies of her young. The power of flight is in them, but unknown, because it has never been called into play; it is a slumbering faculty, and must be awakened into action. Man's soul is formed into God's image by the right action of his spiritual powers, and these powers are only awakened by the activity of God. 1. The great purpose of all spiritual discipline is to render men Divine. By the very constitution of the soul, the Godlike image must be formed by awakening the energies that lie smouldering within. The soul contains in itself the germinal forces of the life it may possess in the future ages. 2. The image of the text suggests two methods of Divine action: the stimulating and the exemplary. The eagle breaks up her nest, and is not the voice of life's experience God's summons to man to rise and live to Him? God sends a shock of change through our circumstances, and rouses us from repose. II. DISCIPLINE ATTAINS ITS END ONLY WHEN REGARDED AS UNDER THE CONTROL OF A FATHER. It is obvious that the instinct of the eagle is that of parental affection. 1. Believe in the Father, and you submissively accept the mysterious in life. 2. Believe in the Father, and you shall strive to realise the purpose of this discipline. We have no impulse to any spiritual aspiration, to any true self-sacrifice, to the exertion of any spiritual energy, which is not awakened by the touch of the Eternal Spirit. Let us, then, awake out of sleep. God is breaking up our material resting places in order that we may aspire towards the imperishable and the immortal. (E. L. Hull.) Parallel Verses KJV: As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: WEB: As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, he spread abroad his wings, he took them, he bore them on his feathers.