This study was prompted by trying to understand several references to
"where the body is the eagles are gathered." This is a collection of scriptures referring to eagles.
A few instances of eagle symbology in the Bible specifically refer to
eagles as carrion (flesh-eating) birds, but there are also some
intriguing other symbologies used.
Matthew 24:28 - The context of this reference is the coming of
the Son of man and doesn’t seem to reference one being taken and the
other left as Luke does.
This uses the Greek word
ptōma. This is definitely used in terms of a dead body in
the three other passages it appears in scripture. It refers to
John the Baptist’s dead body and the dead bodies of the
two witnesses.
Luke 17:37 - The context of this reference is three references
to one being taken and the other left after the revealing of the Son
of man. The disciples ask where they are taken and the response is
that wherever the body is, the eagles will be gathered together.
This uses the Greek word
sōma. The other places used in scripture are primarily
referring to the body as a whole. It can mean a human or animal
body living or dead, a planetary body, a social body, like the
body of Christ or the church.
Gathering God’s people to Himself:
Exodus 19:4 Ye have seen what
I did unto the Egyptians, and
how I bare you on eagles’ wings,
and brought you unto myself.
Woman taken to wilderness and saved from the dragon:
Who is the woman?
Revelation 12:14 And
to the woman were given two wings of a great
eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place,
where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from
the face of the serpent.
Young being borne on wings of eagles:
Deuteronomy 32:11 As an eagle
stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her
wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:
Flying toward heaven/nesting in heights:
Proverbs 23:5 Wilt thou set
thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves
wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.
Jeremiah 49:16 Thy terribleness
hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest
in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill:
though thou shouldest make thy nest as high
as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD.
Job 39:27 Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and
make her nest on high?
Obadiah 1:4 Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and
though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring
thee down, saith the LORD.
Symbolizing swiftness in scripture:
Deuteronomy 28:49 The LORD
shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth,
as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation
whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
2 Samuel 1:23 Saul and Jonathan
were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were
not divided: they were swifter than eagles,
they were stronger than lions.
Jeremiah 4:13 Behold, he shall
come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind:
his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe
unto us! for we are spoiled.
Lamentations 4:19 Our persecutors
are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the
mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
Habakkuk 1:8 Their horses also
are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening
wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen
shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle
that hasteth to eat.
Job 9:25-26 Now
my days are swifter than a post: they
flee away, they see no good. 26 They are passed
away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth
to the prey.
Prophetic Symbology:
Daniel 7:4 The first was like a lion,
and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof
were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon
the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.
Link
Parable:
Ezekiel 17:1-4 And the word
of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, put forth a riddle, and
speak a parable unto the house of Israel; And say,
Thus saith the Lord GOD; A great eagle with
great wings, longwinged, full of feathers, which had divers colours,
came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar:
He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land
of traffick; he set it in a city of merchants.
Renewed youth:
Psalms 103:5 Who satisfieth
thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth
is renewed like the eagle’s.
Feasting on carcasses:
Job 39:28-30 She
[eagle] dwelleth and abideth on the rock,
upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place.
From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes
behold afar off. Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain
are, there is she.
Proverbs 30:17 The eye that
mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens
of the valley shall pick it out, and the young
eagles shall eat it.
Matthew 24:27-28
For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto
the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For
wheresoever
the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Luke 17:34-37 I tell you, in
that night there shall be two in one bed; the one shall be taken,
and the other shall be left. Two shall be grinding together; the one
shall be taken, and the other left. Two shall be in the field; the
one shall be taken, and the other left. And they answered and said
unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them,
Wheresoever the body is,
thither will the eagles be gathered together.
LORD bringing destruction/judgment:
Jeremiah 48:40-42 For thus
saith the LORD; Behold, He shall fly as an eagle,
and shall spread his wings over Moab. Kerioth is taken, and the
strong holds are surprised, and the mighty men’s hearts in Moab
at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. And
Moab shall be destroyed from being a people,
because he hath magnified himself against the LORD.
Jeremiah 49:22-26 Behold,
he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread
his wings over Bozrah: and at that day shall the heart of the
mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. Concerning
Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil
tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot
be quiet. Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and
fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman
in travail. How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets,
and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD
of hosts.
Hosea 8:1 Set the trumpet to
thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against
the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant,
and trespassed against my law.
LORD renewing strength:
Isaiah 40:31 But they that
wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Non-symbolic passages about eagles:
Leviticus 11:13-20- Unclean birds
Deuteronomy 14:12-21- Unclean birds
Daniel 4:33 - Metaphor
Micah 1:16 - Metaphor
Creatures with four faces:
Ezekiel 1:10 As for the likeness
of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion,
on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side;
they four also had the face of an eagle.
Ezekiel 10:14 And every one
had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second
face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and
the fourth the face of an eagle.
Beasts in heaven at the throne:
Revelation 4:7 And the first
beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third
beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast
was like a flying eagle.
“Be not overcome
of evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21
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