(Duet. 32:9,10,11,12,) “For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance” (V10) “He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.” (V11) “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:” (V12) “So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him.”

I think in the beginning it is good for us to establish the fact that Jacob is representative of the Lord’s people. (Mal.3:6) “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” (Rom.11:26) “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”

The Lord deals, with His people as individuals and as Nations. For instance in (Duet.32:8) “When the most High divided to the Nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel,” He gave to the nations their inheritance based upon the number of the children of Israel when there was no children of Israel except in the mind and purpose of God. I personally think He was referring to the sons of Noah when He said the sons of Adam.

In (V11) He uses the nature of an eagle to get her young out of that secure and comfortable place to take their place in the world to describe how He alone did lead Jacob.

The Lord has led me in days gone by when I did not realize I was being led. (Gen.28:16) “And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.” I’m sure each of us can look back and recognize that the Lord led us by His Spirit and we didn’t realize it at the time, but we can now look back and see the Lord’s hand was in the matter. The Lord was there and we knew it not. (V11)

“As an eagle stirreth up her nest.” The young eagle was hatched in this nest and feels secure and safe, since it has never known anything else. Now that it has grown, the eagle begins to tear up this nest and flutter over her young to the point they no longer feel safe and secure and they will leave the nest to fly. If they are not strong enough to fly the eagle will fly under them and bear them on her wings. Remember, the Lord led Jacob in this way and Jacob represented the Lord’s portion. The young eagle was forced to leave that nest by its mother or it would stay there as long as it was comfortable in its nest.

There are at least two kinds of nest. (1.) The nest man is born in and (2.) the nest man makes for himself. (Ver.11) “says He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness.” This is where the Lord finds (comes to us) each one of us. God stirreth that nest up and we leaveth it. We hear that powerful still small voice and we live. You have a new nest.

I wish to bring to your attention to some instances of God dealing with man and with nations.  (Gen.11:4) “And they said, Go to, let us build a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” This nest man made for himself. God said, let us go down and confound their language. (V8) says, “So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.” The Lord stirreth the nest they had built.

(Gen.12:1) “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out from thy country (thy nest) and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.” We find Abram leaving all this behind, being led by the Lord to the land of Caanan. Isn’t it strange that very land that God led him to was settled by the Grandson of Noah, which had a curse upon him. I feel this could very well be tied to (Duet.32:8)

(Gen.27:43) Rebekah urged Jacob to flee to Laban, her brother’s house to escape the anger of Esau. Issac, his father instructed him to go to Padanaram. (Gen.28:2) “Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel, thy Mother’s brother; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban, thy Mother’s brother.” God kept Jacob as the apple of His eye, and led him about. Don’t forget who he represents. Jacob met with God at Bethel, went to Pandanaram, received Leah and Rachel as his wives, had sons and a daughter, prospered with livestock, had his name changed to Israel and returned to the land of Caanan to the land which was promised. How God led him and blessed him in all that he did. As that eagle tended to her nest so the Lord alone did lead Jacob.

(Gen.15:13) God told Abram that his seed (the children of Israel) would be strangers in a land that is not theirs and they shall afflict them four hundred years. Israel grew to a large number in the land of Egypt, that Egypt became fearful of their numbers. In the fullness of time God called Moses to lead His people out of Egypt. As a result, the taskmasters became very hard on Israel that they wanted to escape and they cried out to God and God heard His people. It is my belief that the children of Israel would still be in Egypt had not God stirred up the nest they were in, because they shortly were complaining of no water and missed the cucumbers of Egypt. They accused Moses of bringing them to the wilderness to die. God stirreth their nest and fluttereth over His people, and beareth them on His wings through the wilderness to the land of Caanan.

Jonah tried to resist God’s word when he was instructed to go to Nineveh. He was too comfortable in his nest, but God stirreth his nest. He went to Tarshish and paid his own fare. When God was through with Brother Jonah and that great fish delivered him up on that seashore, Jonah’s only question was which way is Nineveh?

One last illustration, there was one Saul of Tarsus who was satisfied with what he was doing. He was persecuting followers of Christ and had no visible reservations as to whether he was doing good and keeping the law. When Jesus appeared to him in the way to Damascus, Paul instantly had a different view of Jesus. If God had not seen fit to stirreth his nest he would still have the same mind to persecute all who followed the name of Jesus, now that which he once hated he now loves and that which he once loved he now hates.

Children of the Heavenly King, let us be so careful not to build our own personal little nests, and become comfortable in them lest God should stirreth our nest and flutter over His children.  Brethren, I pray these few words may be worth something to anyone who read them, thank God for any light they may shine upon the truth. May God bless you with the strength for the remainder of your journey.