Birds in the Bible......
This is a different one topic....I just wanted to see how many times the subject of birds was mentioned, hope you don't mind......I have several birds in my yard and around, as well, as we saw a variety of birds in Australia and New Zealand...
Some are fun to watch others, I wish weren't in my yard. Yesterday morning I looked out my kitchen widow. And there were about a dozen quail in my bird bath and on the ground eating. They trooped over to the fence, hopped up and through, marching toward the empty land and disappeared. The starlings arrived, victimizing the finches, hungrily taking over the whole area and the food provided. The doves arrived a little later, cooing the fluttering away as a car drove by.
Anyway, having red through the Bible several times, I knew that there are birds mentioned in a variety of places.
1. There are birds that are considered unclean for eating....
Leviticus14: 13 “‘These are the birds you are to regard as unclean and not eat because they are unclean: the eagle,[a] the vulture, the black vulture, 14 the red kite, any kind of black kite, 15 any kind of raven, 16 the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, 17 the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, 18 the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, 19 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.
2. There are several times when a place will be abandoned , destroyed...and owls are mentioned as the inhabiters........
Isaiah 34:11
New International Version (NIV)
11 The desert owl[a] and screech owl[b] will possess it;
the great owl[c] and the raven will nest there.
God will stretch out over Edom
the measuring line of chaos
and the plumb line of desolation.
3. Several comparisons...
Job 39:13-18
13 “The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,
though they cannot compare
with the wings and feathers of the stork.
14 She lays her eggs on the ground
and lets them warm in the sand,
15 unmindful that a foot may crush them,
that some wild animal may trample them.
16 She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers;
she cares not that her labor was in vain,
17 for God did not endow her with wisdom
or give her a share of good sense.
18 Yet when she spreads her feathers to run,
she laughs at horse and rider.
Lamentations 4:3
3 Even jackals offer their breasts
to nurse their young,
but my people have become heartless
like ostriches in the desert.
Micah 1:8. Weeping and Mourning
8 Because of this I will weep and wail;
I will go about barefoot and naked.
I will howl like a jackal
and moan like an owl.
Matthew 23:37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.
And the most memorable ....
Matthew 3:16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.
4. Sacrifice
Leviticus 5:7
7 “‘Anyone who cannot afford a lamb is to bring two doves or two young pigeons to the Lord as a penalty for their sin—one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering.
5. Provision , care....
Numbers 11:32 All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers.[a] Then they spread them out all around the camp.
Psalm 105:40 They asked, and he brought them quail;
he fed them well with the bread of heaven.
Luke 12:24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!
Luke 12:6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.
6. Songs
Psalm 104:12 The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
they sing among the branches.
Ecclesiastes 12:4 when the doors to the street are closed
and the sound of grinding fades;
when people rise up at the sound of birds,
but all their songs grow faint;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
This is by no means an exhaustive study, but interesting....as God cares for, provides for the birds....so are we...He gives us new songs....He teaches us through so much...even the birds which He created.....thank you....for Your care of even the smallest ......You saw that is was good...You gave us life..through your breath ...Jesus....your Holy Spirit......yourself...
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