DOES God care for birds’ nests? He does indeed. To His people of ancient time, He gave instructions how to deal with them.
A NEST BY THE WAY. (Deut. 22:6.) They were not to steal the eggs nor remove the mother bird, while sitting on her young. Thus He tells His loving care for the helpless, who can neither provide for, nor defend themselves. How much greater is His care for “little ones,” for whom the Saviour died, and of whom He says, “I will turn Mine hand upon the little ones.” (Zech. 13:7).
A NEST IN THE ROCK. (Jer. 48:28.) Snug and safe in the cleft of a rock (Song of Sol. 2:14), the timid dove builds her nest “on high,” upon the crag in “the strong place” (Job 39:28). So the one who hides in the Rock of Ages (Isa. 26:4, marg.) is secure from robbers.
A BIRD LEAVING HER NEST. (Prov. 27:8.) A mother bird has been known to leave her nest and forsake her young, either “cast out” (Isa. 16:2) by an intruder, or frightened by a foe. But the living Lord never leaves and never forsakes His own (Heb. 13:5). As a bird flutters over her young (Deut. 32:11) and flying over defends them, so the Lord defends and protects His own (Isa. 31:5) who are under His care.
FOOD AND WARMTH. (Psa. 91:4.) The mother bird finds food and brings it for her young, and under her feathers they are kept safe and warm. This lovely emblem, the Lord Jesus uses to describe how safely guarded and warmly protected all the saved are, “under the feathers of the Almighty,” where no flying arrow by day can reach them, and no pestilence by night, can harm them. How good it is, therefore, to respond to the Lord’s invitation to come and hide (Psa. 17:8) under the shadow of His sheltering wings.
J.R.
ML-03/11/1962