Sparrows, Eagles and Storks: Birdwatching in the Bible

Transcript

so so bird watching in the Bible the the x idea this this week will be to survey a x collection of scriptures that that x invoke bird life um now I x imagine just saying this there are x several scriptures that that pop into x your mind already um others will be more x obscure hopefully and we'll we'll pause x to have some meditation on each um but x this was actually inspired by uh brother x Steve hotton of the Cranston Ecclesia x who joined us in January uh he he x provided an entire exert on Deuteronomy x uh 32 the verse that's on the screen x there which describes God as guiding x Israel like an eagle that stirs up its x nest that flutters over its young x spreading its its wings catching them x bearing them on its pinions um so we x won't dwell on that that scripture but x uh brother Steve's talk it definitely x showed an example of of how um language x of bird life uh can be a source of x inspiration and F For x Thought So before we get into all that I x wonder if anybody on the call knows who x these folks x are anybody at x all maybe x not well this is uh brother Leonard x sister Pearl Hines uh their their x brother and sister from the South Ozone x Park Ecclesia uh you can see their x brother Paul on the left and there x circled in yellow is is Paul's brother x Phil Philip who married my sister x Linette um on October 10th x 2021 uh so so nearly four years ago so x you may wonder why I'm showing you this x photo if the wedding was two years ago x or four years ago really um why May x second through fourth well I couldn't uh x speak tonight without doing a plug for x the brothers weekend uh my dear x brother-in-law Phil is going to be our x speaker at the brothers weekend this x year uh it's May 2nd to 4th I would x encourage any of the men who are online x tonight to come and join us at this x wonderful event uh Phil is a very x thoughtful brother x um Phil exudes sort of a warmth and x quiet confidence um and calmness that x you wouldn't know until you met him uh x so I I'd encourage everybody to get out x and and meet Phil uh it's there's always x Great Fellowship um so so send me an x email later tonight let me know if your x intentions to come if you need a pickup x from the airport or anything at all like x that uh we'll make it happen so x apologies for the plug I do promise x there's a connection because during Phil x and Linette's wedding uh this photo of x my parents Bill and Carol link was also x taken the same day so so my dad many of x you will know uh he he spent over 30 x years working at The tuin Wildlife x Research Center um and his experience x working with ornithologists uh those are x scientists that study birds uh really x instilled a lifelong passion for for x bird watching I can remember countless x hikes in the woods with my mom and dad x and the kids would be pressing forward x you know ready to stay active and keep x moving and and they're out there looking x with their fuel glasses at at these x birds up in the Treetops and I didn't x really understand it when I was a kid um x at some point my dad stopped taking out x the binoculars and he started taking out x uh one of those cameras with the huge x telephoto x lenses and he uh he's a real shutter bug x he takes a lot pictures um over the x years he's amassed I think 2500 or more x images on his his flicker page which is x sort of a website for sharing photos uh x if you're not on Facebook if you want x something professional so he's got a x flicker page um I know those 2500 x probably represents less than 1% of the x total number he takes and a lot of them x are of birds right um coming from his x passion for for x Ornithology um and and my mom's no x slouch either in fact she's very good x like she can hear the calls and identify x the birds uh just by their x sound x um so I'm going to show you a second x picture x here x um if you take a look at at this photo x what you should be seeing at this moment x is the same image but now it's become a x little more pixelated it's a little x fuzzier than before and on closer x examination you'll see that the image x has actually become a composite of x thousands of those pictures my dad took x um I was able to do like a bulk download x and create this Mosaic that that color x matches and organizes um the individual x images to make up uh sort of the x original image um and just to illustrate x this point if people are having a hard x time following what I'm describing um x here's a closeup and if you kind of x squint put your eyes out of focus a x little bit you can see the area denoted x by the yellow box in the bottom x left um and and just how that original x photo has now been recreated as a mosaic x of the uh thousands thousands of of bird x photos my dad takes so put this together x as a little tribute to my parents um but x but I guess the question why am i x showing this to you um each of these x pictures kind of captures a moment in x time where these living creatures that x are healthy and flourishing and they're x often splendidly beautiful to behold and x they exist in the world apart from human x beings without us needing to care for x them or doing they just live in the wild x and countless generations of these Birds x um they live they have young uh they die x and the Next Generation comes up after x them they have ways of avoiding x Predators uh they survive bad weather x they navigate perilous Journeys they're x just really incredible um just to think x of of of these Birds um and all living x creatures really x um they don't need us um so so I x mentioned that that some of these birds x uh you know they they navigate perilous x Journeys there's no better example of x this than the Arctic x turn uh so this species of of seabird is x is particularly remarkable example of x traveling um Arctic turns have the x longest known migration in the animal x kingdom um by a significant measure they x travel over 50,000 x miles every year and that's just a x mindboggling number 50,000 miles in a x year uh just to put put that in x perspective that's twice the x circumference of the globe and you may x Wonder well you know if they're if x they're flying from the Arctic to the x Antarctic and back well how do how do x you get two circumferences out of that x well it's it's not a direct route you x can kind of see from this GPS data x that's that's shown here they sort of x meander their way um basically as the x winds um allow they they are taking x advantage of a x Tailwind um so this is really incredible x thing the fact that these creatures x exist is just phenomenal and and I x believe that that for some a person of x Faith like like us when we read about x these things when we see these things x when we study x biology the science of living creatures x we we can actually study God's glory in x creation and I think think this can x bring us to x worship um and there's there's all sorts x of sort of naturalistic worship sort of x uh new age ecospirituality that worships x the creature rather than the Creator x that's not what I'm talking about at all x because we don't worship these Arctic x turns we don't worship animals this is x all sort of pagan ideas x um what we see when we examine these x these wonderful creatures is the x handiwork of our our Lord x these are creatures that he has created x and who he sustains um apart from any x intervention on it and really despite x humankind's uh worst x efforts um so that brings us to Psalm x 104 oh Lord how manifold are your Works x in wisdom you have made them the Earth x is full of your x creatures the these all look to you to x give them their food in due season when x you give it to them they gather it up x when you open your hand they are filled x with good things when you hide your face x they are dismayed and when you take away x their breath they die and return to x their x dust last week brother Steve stoin spoke x about the the Golem of of Jewish x folklore and how it's become a metaphor x for artificial x intelligence um and I was thinking about x this as I Was preparing the class just x the way that we find ourselves immersed x in a world of our own making a a x metaverse of technological systems that x really are inseparable from our daily x lives we're constantly navigating these x digital Landscapes we're Tethered to x screens networks and conveniences that x demand our constant attention uh but x sometimes the best thing for us is just x to step away from it all a step x outside uh we can go out and breathe in x fresh air we can walk walk amongst the x trees uh and just be reminded that x there's there's a world beyond the x artificial one that man's builts a world x that God has created um Untouched by the x algorithms and and x notifications so in that world if you're x paying attention you might even spot a x Scarlet x tager now these striking birds are x fairly common in the summer months of x New England you can see them in the x Treetops splitting about going after x caterpillars and insects and other x and and God has designed them to thrive x in this environment U every every one of x their needs is provided now Scarlet x Tanger doesn't need an iPhone doesn't x need online banking or Netflix or x Minecraft it already has everything it x needs and I'm not trying to put down x anything that man's created uh x specifically there's there's many things x that are benign or even beneficial to x our lives that man has created x but we do need to reenter our focus on x God from time to time I think the x outdoors and the study of God's x wonderful x creation can help us refocus on the Lord x and away from sort of the the inventions x of mankind that uh distract and and x often bewilder us x so um we don't have to go far in our x Bibles uh in verse 16 of the same Psalm x uh that is Psalm x 104 we read the Trees of the Lord are x watered abundantly The Cedars of Lebanon x that he x planted in them the birds build their x nests the stor has her home in the fur x trees so here's a reference to bird life x in the Bible um I I was actually having x some difficulty imag Imaging uh a stor x in a fur tree there something seems in x congruous with those two species for for x whatever reason I I just was having a x hard time imagining it so I did a little x bit of research um and it turns out that x there is in fact a a species of stor x that would have been known to ancient x Israelites and does in fact nest in x coniferous x trees um here's a picture of a black x stor and and two nestlings and a large x Nest arched on some pioner fur trees x um black STS today are often seen x migrating through Lebanon and it's x possible that in the time of the pist x their breeding range also included this x region so this might be a a match here x this might be the species that the the x psalmist was thinking of um I think it's x worth a bit of a disclaimer at this x point to say that it's very difficult to x translate taxonomical terms um we don't x know if the the species that the the x ancient biblical authors were referring x to always the species that we think of x um so it's it's difficult to translate x those x terms um but I I thought it was x interesting that there are in fact STS x that are in the area and do build their x nests in fur trees go x figure um now the real significance of x this passage probably doesn't doesn't x depend on exactly what the species is uh x the message of this verse this passage x is that the ecosystem that God provides x for these WI creatur x um if you just notice look at verse 16 x it talks about the Cedars of Lebanon x they're described as being planted by x God the Trees of the Lord are are x watered abundantly they flourish they x came become available as suitable Nest x sites so this this place that the stor x builds their nest has been in x preparation uh by the Lord before they x even think to to set down and Nest there x uh you can imagine a particularly x Godless stor perhaps saying well what x has God ever done for me and not x realizing God has gone to the trouble of x preparing this tree uh there was a x scientific study um cited on the slide x there that found that these black STS x typically choose trees that are over 90 x years old um so what that suggest to me x is that God is involved in the x preparations from the the Divine point x of view he's getting things in motion x almost a century in advance so that this x bird can have a home for their x nestlings um and just understanding how x these ecological systems with their x complex interdependencies and x relationships it's all so finally tuned x this all points us to the Creator this x all points us us to worship x god um I x remember yeah I remember sister Jan x Dixon um she used this expression to x Blossom where you're x planted and it it makes me think that x you know we often complain about x environmental factors you know we we x wish things that were different in our x lives we were in different situations x but For Better or Worse we're in the x environment we are and we've all been x exposed to God's word we've all been x given the opportunity to know God and x that's a heck of a lot more than a lot x of folks can say and so God has create x before we ever became aware of it God x has created environments for each of us x um where we could come to know him and x to have a hope and so uh blossom where x you you are planted I I like x that I think that's the lesson of the x black x St so let's let's move x along the next scripture comes from the x book of Deuteronomy excuse me x Deuteronomy um chapter 22 and we x read if you come across a bird's nest in x any tree or on the ground with young x ones or eggs and the mother sitting on x the young or on the eggs you shall not x take the mother with the young you shall x let the mother go but the young you may x take for yourself that it may go well x with you and that you may live x long this is another one that puzzled me x you know finding a bird's nest in a tree x seemed pretty logical to me always x struck me as odd that the law talks x about finding nests on the ground the x only bird's nest I ever found on the x ground had very obviously fallen from a x tree I didn't know that there were birds x that that nested on the ground and it x turns out there's actually a species of x of quail in Israel that makes its nest x on the ground um this is the the x European Quail x um you can see an example here of a a x quail nesting in this Tusk of long x grasses um so likely this is a creature x the Israelites would have stumbled x across from from time to time um you can x see that their range uh does indeed x extend into the holy x land so a little bit on the reproductive x cycle of qu they're quick to reach x maturity and begin laying eggs at an age x of s to eight weeks they typically lay 8 x to 13 eggs per clutch which hatch 19 to x 20 days later so they're they're very x productive little birds they can produce x uh two or three Broods per year um so so x there's there's a lot of Offspring and x in God's wisdom he's instructed the x Israelites to manage the population x judiciously they can take the young x because the Israelites need to eat too x right x um they were permitted to hunt but they x they weren't to take the mother with the x young um that would allow the mother to x reproduce and we have the same concept x today with with catch limits to manage x fisheries and bag limits to limit the x amount of of wild game that's caught or x hunted the whole idea is to manage x populations in a sustainable way so we x don't overly deplete a natural resource x and this is a great example of Godly x wisdom um being demonstrated very x ancient x times so I think there's like a pra x there's practical wisdom in the law of x Moses x here um but but that's not everything x right um you recall how Paul the Apostle x Paul interprets the law in 1 Corinthians x 9 uh he says it it is written in the law x of Moses you shall not muzzle an ox when x it Treads out the x Grain and Paul quotes and and and he he x asks well is it because of the oxin that x God is concerned does he not certainly x speak for our sake and then he says yes x it was it was written for our sake x because the plowman should PL plow in x hope the thresher thresh in Hope of x sharing in the crop the ox involved in x this productive activity don't limit its x access to the the fruits of its labor in x a way um so we have musling the ox x really becomes a metaphor for uh for for x human beings being vented from from x benefiting from their their work from x working without x compensation uh so there's a spiritual x lesson in a natural x prohibition so kind of taking that x principle and applying it to the nesting x bird I think this this passage we have x on our screen here it it's a parable x against wantan and destruction and x plunder unfortunately there's a a spirit x in mankind that that takes and takes and x wants more and x more and if you get an inch they'll take x a mile that sort of x thinking um and I believe that the the x lesson we we're meant to take from this x is to to suppress that urge to take x everything um to to not take more than x we need to leave some for others to x leave some for the future so great godly x wisdom uh coming from the law of x Moses all right this is a a free x response can anybody identify this x common bird x species I'm sure many of you recognize x it anybody want to name x it x Sparrow Y what kind of sparrow house x sparrow the house sparrow yes richon x thank you you're very welcome Ben so x this is one of the the most common birds x in the world um you see the the map x there the green indicates locations x where it resides x natively um it was introduced in many x places and and has thrived in North and x South America and other places um and x it's called a house spare because x they're so sort of ubiquitous among x human settlements and dwellings um x they're very bold gregarious Little x Creatures um they're I always thought of x them as being kind of City Birds you x just see them on the sidewalk you see x them flying around on power lines um x they're not afraid to visit feeders or x scavenge from garbage pales or outdoor x diners um x and you've probably heard their Simple x Song it sounds something like x this enough for x that x um and so these are these are birds that x would have been familiar to the uh x scripture x authors um even the sons of Kora would x have observed these sparrows making x their nests in the temple um in the x cluts of the altar um see in Psalm x 84 how lovely is your dwelling place oh x lord of hosts my soul Longs yes faints x for the courts of the Lord my heart and x flesh Sing For Joy to the Living x God even the sparrow finds a home and x the swallow a nest for herself where she x may lay her young at your altars oh lord x of hosts my king and my God x blessed are those who dwell in your x house ever singing your praise x seea so what I'm imagining here is the x sons of Kora and they're working in in x the house of the Lord in the Tabernacle x and they see The Spar is kind of x shooting around the way they do making x their nests in the cfts of the Altar and x instead of Shing them away they call x them x blessed uh he's saying that they're x blessed because they find a home in the x alt they dwell in God's house right and x they're singing his x praise uh so these simple creatures x teach us a lesson like like Paul asking x about the is is it for the oxin that x God's concerned it's it's similar here x in that yes God is is famously concerned x about sparas and we'll we'll look at x that famous passage in a moment but but x the real blessing is for creatures who x are made in God's image and chose to x dwell in his home and sing his praises x and I love the thought of God spiling at x The Sparrows uh flitting about the x temple courts x and and hearing their songs as if they x were praises to Him and maybe in some x sense they really are praises to x him but kind of thinking about that it x makes me uh so much happier to think x about the The Joy it must give our x heavenly father when we're all singing x your hearts out in the meeting Hall on a x Sunday morning I mean it's it's really x beautiful so our next passage is x probably the most famous bible verse x about x sparrows um coming from the teachings of x the master Matthew 10 are not Two x Sparrows sold for a penny not one of x them will fall to the ground apart from x your father even the hairs of your head x are all numbered fear not therefore you x are of more value than many x sparrows and I think for human beings x this is very difficult for us drra our x heads about um our capacity to care x about anything is essentially a zero so x game there's only so much caring that x we're able to do but God In His Infinite x capacity as as as as x God um he cares about every Sparrow he x he he knows the number of hairs on her x head you know why is that information x important God just knows he is able to x know all of these things he he cares x about us because we're made in His image x of course we're comparatively of greater x value Than The Sparrows but God has this x enormous capacity to care for all of his x creation such that it doesn't matter he x just knows and cares for all of x us and so God is able to provide for his x Creation in in The Sermon on the Mount x Jesus says I tell you do not be anxious x about your life what you'll eat what you x will drink or about your body what you x will put on is not life more than food x and the body more than clothing look at x the birds of the air they neither sorrow x so excuse me they neither sew nor reap x nor gather into Barns and yet your x heavenly father feeds them are you not x of more value than x they the same idea comes from the x psalmist ASA who was a keen Observer of x birds uh as we'll see from a late later x in another Psalm in Psalm 50 Asaf speaks x on God's behalf saying I know all the x birds of the hills and all that moves in x the field is mine God knows them all he x has an enormous capacity to care for his x creation x so while we're on the sparrow I just x thought you'd be interested to know x there there's another species within the x same genus as the house sparrow um it x takes its name from the geography of the x Holy Land it's the the Dead Sea x Sparrow um the spe species was initially x recorded um only in the restricted range x around the Dead Sea they later x discovered it inhabits the corridor of x the Jordan um and also the Euphrates x rivers and some points farther east um x but they have very limited range I think x this is a a bird that any any B would be x happy to see on a visit to the Holy Land x but possibly another species that that x Jesus might have been thinking about um x in his x teachings no no verses to go with this x one just thought it was x interesting one of the bird related x themes we'll find in Scripture um quite x often relates to the snares that would x be rigged to hunt wild birds Proverbs x 7:23 describes a man trapped by x adultery describes him as a bird rushes x into a snare he does not know that it x will cost him his x life so you can imagine a bird if it x doesn't see the net it's it's flying x full speed and then in a moment it's x caught right and it can't get out I x think this is an app description for a x man who isn't using his head to think he x just mindlessly pursues x destruction know in an instant the x adulterer is in snared he blunders past x the point of getting away and now he's x trapped in the x net very vivid imagery now I mentioned x that my dad worked with x ornithologists and one of the things x they were interested in doing was x studying bird populations and and it's x it's very difficult to estimate you x can't go out and count all the birds x right x it's just an impossible task so what x they would do is they would catch the x birds and these these great big Nets x they'd set up nuts that would basically x go the span across the field um they'd x catch the birds they'd put these little x bands they call them bird banding they' x put bands on the legs and then they'd x release x them um the idea being if they could x catch the same bird with a band multiple x times they can tell how many times it's x been caught compared to the number of x birds that were being caught for the x first time and then they could make x estimates about how many birds were not x being caught based on on those numbers x it's a lot of statistics and math that x my dad would love to to explain uh but x he's not here so I'm not going to get x into that part but the part that stuck x with me was going uh with him to work as x a little kid and catching these birds x watching the scientists with their x calipers taking the measurements putting x the bands on and then getting this bird x that was that was rolled up in a cloth x having it on my palm and unrolling it x and then at some point it was free to go x and it's just sitting there on your on x your x palm and eventually it realizes itself x and just flies away um but that was that x was a really neat x experience um they they're such gentle x and delicate creatures and under normal x circumstances You' never have that kind x of encounter with these x Birds um that being said in scripture x times I I don't think they were letting x the Birds Go x um and the snare is it's it's once again x used as a metaphor for for sudden x disaster in Ecclesiastes x 9 for man does not know his time like x fish that are taken in an evil net and x like birds that are caught in a snare so x the children of man are snared at an x evil time when it suddenly falls upon x them so definitely a warning to uh to x keep our wits about us x to uh be mindful of the Trap of x sin our next scripture bird is the x turtle dove and these are one of the x most famous birds in all scripture right x they're not unusual Birds they're quite x common they're they're well known on x account of their their distinctive cing x sound uh that they're very gentle Birds x um I often watch the birds in the x backyard uh kind of vying for position x at the theater and the house spars are x are some of the worst the junos are very x aggressive uh they're sort of fighting x each other off to get to the the bird x feed and the doves will sort of stay at x the periphery they're not asserting x themselves they're getting Falls they're x uh a little bit marginalized in a way x because they're not as aggressive x um they're about the same size as a blue x jay but you think about anybody that's x watched a blue jay kind of maneuver uh x knows that they don't behave at all the x same and so this this gentleness that x characterizes the dove that that may be x why Asaf uses the dove to contrast God's x people to the wicked who who are x characterized as wild beasts in Psalm 74 x I mentioned Asaf was a bird watcher he x invokes the birds in Psalm 50 and now x again in 74 do not deliver the soul of x your Dove to the wild x beasts um now the doves I see on my back x porch are mourning doves they're not uh x European turtle x doves um but both species are are x members of the family uh x colid um the morning doves are naed to x North America so it's it's the European x turtle dove that would have been x familiar to x ASF um because its range extends into x the mle x East their name is a source of enduring x infusion and to be clear Turtle does x have nothing to do with the the reptile x um one etymologist describes it so uh x the world word turtle has nothing to do x with turtles in the slightest comes from x Middle English um I'm not going to try x to pronounce all these things but x basically it's composed out of tur the x name of the genus and the Middle English x word for dove that word traces back to x Latin and is in fact anomic for the x bird's x call um so so interestingly uh so he's x he's giving us the atmology of the x English word Turtle do and tracing it x back to Latin if you look at your x Strong's Concordance the the um x transliteration for the Hebrew word is x is tor something that sounds like T and x and maybe there's a little roll to the r x and and maybe if you hear the uh the x sound of the turtle dove and this x recording is actually I couldn't find x one from Israel but this is from the x island of Cyprus x so you can hear there there's some x similarity to the morning dove um but x you can imagine before they had a name x for the bird they' simply refer to as as x the bird that sounds x like and and so that became its x name um so if you're ever confused about x why Turtles has nothing to do with x Turtles um more significant from a x spiritual perspective one of the most x well-known traits of turtle doves are x that they're um known for for being x monogamous they mate for life and are x loyal to to their mate they work x together to build nests and they take x turns incubating the eggs um and as such x they're they're symbols of romantic love x in scripture and they're used that way x in Song of x Solomon PSAL 2:12 the flowers appear on x the earth the time of singing has come x and the voice of the turtle dove is x heard in our land x the voice of the turle dove is used in x conjunction with symbols for x fruitfulness and fertility big tree x ripening the vins are blossoming they x give forth their x fragrance all these things suggest um x reproduction basically uh Arise My Love x My Beautiful One and come away oh my x dove in the cffs of the Rock in the x crannies of the cliff let me see your x face let me hear your voice for your x voice is sweet and your face is lovely x so the the smitten poet here is x describing taking his lover to to secret x hideaways on the cliffs side um much the x way you can imagine the rock pigeons of x ancient Israel would have made their x homes up on the cliff side nasted away x from x predators um so that there's definitely x a connotation of love and affection and x and kindliness with the turtle x do what else do we know about Turtle x does in the Bible x uh perhaps most famously the account of x baby Jesus being presented at the temple x includes Mary and Joseph offering a pair x of turtle does or pigeons uh this was to x fulfill the law of purification after a x woman gave x birth um now customarily a lamb and a x dove would be offered but a second bird x to be substituted for the lamb if the x family was x poor uh this comes from Leviticus 12 x where we see the the law describing the x purification x rituals um says if she cannot afford a x lamb then she shall take two Turtle does x or two x pigeons uh one for a burnt offering and x the other for a sin offering now the x there was always one turtle dove or x pigeon for the sin offering it's the x lamb that gets substituted for a second x um that for a second um thr x sorry so this gives us a little bit of x insight into the economic environment x that that Jesus was brought up into that x they were poor they could afford the x lamb um so Turtle does and pigeons were x evidently considered to be clean x Birds um we can contrast that to the x laundry list of unclean Birds found in x Leviticus x 11 uh these you shall detest among the x birds they shall not be eaten they are x detestable the eagle the bearded vulture x the black vulture the kite the falcon of x any kind every Raven of any x kind ostrich the Nighthawk the seagull x the hawk of any kind The Little Owl the x corant the short-eared owl the barn owl x the tonny owl the caran vulture the stor x the Heron of any kind the hoop and the x bat well bats aren't Birds but maybe x this is the uh challenge of uh of x translating taxonomical terms showing up x again um my question was okay we've got x this extensive list and why were these x particular species considered to be x unclean whereas the the turtle dove and x the pigeon x weren't um if you look at the unclean x mammals you've got the detailed x regulations about does it have a Clen x hoof or not uh does it chew the cut or x not but there aren't really parameters x to Define which of the birds are clean x and which are unclean it just gives you x this this extensive x list um I I don't think the selection x was arbitrary x uh many of these species feed on the x carcasses of dead animals and eating x these birds could have exposed people to x disease or x parasites um or or toxins that were x accumulated in their x bodies x um and so the Israelites without the the x knowledge of modern food safety they x would have benefited from avoiding these x species so again there's there's sort of x a practical reason not to eat these x animals consider them x unclean I think from sort of a spiritual x perspective there there's even in our x modern culture uh there's stigma x associated with caring Birds right the x vultures are hovering right um other x birds in this list are nocturnal right x so there's an aspect which Lings these x birds to to Darkness and mystery uh x perhaps somewhat suggestive the maab the x occult um you could think of Edgar Allen x Po's famous poem The x Raven where the cry in Shakespeare's MC x Beth it's the herald it's sort of an x omen of death in that x play um some of you may have heard uh x that a group of crows is called a murder x and I don't know why that is but it's x it's a little bit x ominous uh so there's sort of these x these overtones of of spiritual x wickedness and darkness associated with x some of these birds as well um get this x from The Book of Proverbs the I that x mocks a father and scorns to obey a x mother will be picked out by the Ravens x of the valley and eaten by the x vultures that's pretty x dark it just goes to show how important x um respecting one's parents was in x Jewish culture and certainly should be x under any x culture all this to say these birds x carried overtones of spiritual x wickedness um certainly in in today x in today's language but I I imagine also x in the time of of Moses uh through their x association with Darkness with dead x animals these sorts of x things and I've highlighted the word x Ravens here because Ravens make several x notable appearances in x scripture um and we're just kind of x drawing to the end here so I if if x people have had comments or questions um x we're going to have plenty of time to x discuss x afterwards um and I'd appreciate to hear x your thoughts as well so so Ravens are x unclean Birds x um but it's it's quite interesting to me x that Elijah is fed by Ravens in First x Kings x 17 so in this chapter Elijah tells Ahab x it won't rain God directly sends him to x the Wilderness he says go to the brook x of x kth verse five he went and lived by the x Brook carth that is east of the Jordan x and the Ravens brought him bread and x meat in the morning and bread and meat x in the evening and he drank from the x brook so the Book of James gives us that x extra detail that the drought was x lasting actually three years and six x months uh we don't we don't get that x detail in the Old Testament but James go x to us and we're not sure how long Elijah x stayed at the the brook of cherith you x can see in this painting um painted by x early 19th century American Artist x Washington Alon uh who who lived in New x England I think died in Boston actually x um in this painting the water is still x running you can see a little waterfall x on the back it's kind of set of right um x and there appears to be a pool um but at x some point there you can see an x enlargement of the The Raven feeding x Elijah um at some point the water x stopped flowing and Elijah relocated to x zapat but for those early days of the x famine it was Ravens that provided his x bread he depended on these clean x creatures to give him his food every x morning and every x night so why would God command an x unclean bird to bring him x bread I mean there's there's a lesson x here about trusting in God's provision x right we touched on that at the x beginning of the class that God provides x for all of our needs gives us an x environment where we can be x sustained but surely God could have x provided for Elijah without using an x unclean animal x and I imagine this would have challenged x Elijah's sensibilities much the way the x command to rise Peter kill and eat right x in in Acts chapter 10 that would have x been very challenging for the x Apostle in the New Testament times it x would have been challenging for Elijah x to accept food from an unclean x Raven and I wonder if that's part of the x point remember how just a few chapters x later x when Elijah flees for his life and he x goes down to to the Mount uh of the Lord x he hears the earthquake Wind Fire and x the still Small x Voice he's x instructed to go and anoint juu king of x Israel and he might have been inclined x to think what have I got to do with x those Godless Northerners I I've had x enough of Ahab and Jezebel and and and x one more isn't going to solve the x situation they're they're unclean birds x and not only J right who nominally could x be considered you know a descendant of x Abraham of the seed of Jacob right but x he's also asked to anoint haziel king of x Syria and the syrians are are their x enemy they're oppressors haziel was an x assassin he was an idolator he was a x foreigner he was definitely a dirty bird x right so Elijah is going to be given x these tasks to undertake that involved x him relating to people that he might x consider to be x unsavory so I think I think there's some x concept of unclean things being redeemed x for God's purpose uh that's Illustrated x in this account of the x Ravens um you can think in in Isaiah um x remember how how how Isaiah refers to x King Cyrus the me Cyrus the me is x described in Isaiah 46 as a bird of prey x from the East x these birds of prey were unclean and yet x he's also called God's anointed in x Isaiah x 45:1 we even get a bit of a glimpse of x this in Jesus right Galatians 4 tells us x that he was born of a woman born under x the law to redeem those who were under x the law like x him we noted earlier the two dogs that x were offered as part of the purification x ritual now Mary didn't sin in x childbearing x and Jesus didn't sin and being born and x yet the law stipulated that there had to x be a sin offering on the occasion of a x birth and what I take from this is that x that God's son was born into this broken x system that he came to save and it x almost sounds sacrilegious to say so but x by his human nature he was unclean the x way every one of us are and still God x could use him for his purpose God didn't x need to Incarnate himself as something x separate from the unclean broken world x to say he he used his x creation he redeemed The x Raven just the way that he redeemed them x to feed x Elijah so that's that's one possible x explanation of the significance of of x the Ravens the brook carth perhaps there x are others um the Ravens certainly had a x important role we could explore the role x of the The Raven and the dove in the x time of Noah but I I didn't get to that x so we'll just wrap here in conclusion x we've got um the study of the natural x word world which leads us to worship God x is the x Creator God prepares everything need we x need and so he sustains his x creation um we can't lose sight of that x uh because we're surrounded by the x inventions of mankind um that the real x world is the one that God has x created uh he cra pass the environment x in which we x exist and because of that we should be x content with the things that we have and x we should suppress this this Instinct x that we have to take more than we need x um don't take the bird with her x young the the sparrow teaches that that x God knows that each of us individually x cares for x us um and we can become trapped when we x go through life heedless of of his x presence we should be thinking about him x before we fly into a x net um the turtle do teaches us that his x creatures are gentle and loving that x they're loyal and faithful to one x another and to their x creator and finally the raven that God x can use even the unclean creatures for x his x purpose and we have just scratched the x surface there were many scriptures many x references to birds throughout script x rure that we could have gone to um you x know this has been fascinating for me I x I love looking at the intersection of of x the created World things that we can x observe directly and the things we read x about in scripture and the spiritual x lessons we can drive from them I think x that uh bird watching um which is is not x a great hobby of mine it's one that I I x would like to be more attentive to um x and honestly yeah I I've gotten into the x habit of taking the B populars when we x go out on trips and going for nature x walks and things like that um and it can x be quite fun to you know spot new birds x that you haven't seen before and things x like that uh and there's a lot of appeal x just in in seeing and seeing God's x creation and and worshipping him through x that but bird watching and gardening I x think these are are qualities at um I x should say Hobbies really that lend x ourselves to spiritual x contemplation um x so you don't have to be a master x gardener or expert ornithologist just x get out there and and glorify and x worship our lord for the wonderful x things he's created