Man Was Meant For God

Preacher:
Date: November 22, 2016

Bible Text: Isaiah 40:31 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31, NKJV.

James Aggrey tells the story of a man who was walking through the forest and found a young eagle. Feeling sorry for the young bird, which apparently had fallen out of its nest, and fearing that one of the wild animals of the forest would certainly pounce upon the eagle and kill it, he decided to take it home and put it in his barnyard, and that he did. Within a few days the young eagle adapted to his environment and began to eat chicken feed, and soon behaved much the same as the rest of the chickens.

One day, however, a naturalist was passing by, and saw the eagle in the midst of the chickens. Thinking it rather strange, he inquired of the owner as to why it was that an eagle, the king of all birds, should be confined to live in the barnyard as a common chicken. “Since I have given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken,” replied the farmer, “it has never learned to fly. It behaves as chickens behave, so it is no longer an eagle.”

“Still,” insisted the naturalist, “it has the heart of an eagle and can surely be taught to fly.”

After talking it over the two men agreed to find out whether this was possible.

Gently, the naturalist took the eagle in his arms and said, “You belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly.” The eagle, however, was confused; he did not know who he was, and seeing the chickens eat their food, he jumped down to be with them again. Undismayed, on the following day, the naturalist took the eagle up on the roof of the house and urged him again, saying, “You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly.” But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and world, and jumped down once more for the chicken food.

On the third day the naturalist rose early and took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain. There, he held the king of birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, “You are an eagle. You belong to the sky as well as to the earth. Stretch forth your wings now, and fly.” The eagle looked around, back towards the barnyard and up to the sky. Still he did not fly.

Then the naturalist lifted him straight towards the sun, and it happened that the eagle began to tremble, and slowly he stretched his wings. At last, with a triumphant cry, he soared away into the heavens. It may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with nostalgia; it may even be that he occasionally revisits the barnyard. But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to lead the life of a chicken. Though he had been kept and tamed as a chicken, he was, nonetheless, an eagle. And nothing could change that.

As I think of the parable of the eagle raised as a chicken, I think of the words of St. Augustine, who wrote, “Thou has made us for Thyself, O God, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.” In a real sense the parable of the eagle is every man’s story. You were made to have fellowship with God, to soar with the wings of an eagle far above the barnyard, but you became separated from God through sin that came into the human race.

Instead of fellowshipping with God, we became separated and estranged from our Heavenly Father. As the naturalist lifted the eagle towards the heavens, Jesus was lifted on the cross; and through His death He made it possible for you to be at peace with God, and on the wings of faith to rise above the barnyard filth that defiles and destroys.

Resource reading: 2 Peter 1.