In a desert land he found him,
Deuteronomy 32:10-12
in a barren and howling waste.
He shielded him and cared for him;
he guarded him as the apple of his eye,
like an eagle that stirs up its nest
and hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them aloft.
The Lord alone led him;
no foreign god was with him.
I’ve written about Gamla before, which was a key city during the first Jewish revolt. Situated northeast of the Sea of Galilee, it tragically fell to the Romans early in the war. The remains today still attest to the battle that was fought nearly 2000 years ago.
There’s a second piece to see when you visit Gamla today. While the trail to the ancient city is the main attraction, the park is also a nature reserve. One doesn’t need to hike far to notice another great attraction: griffon vultures soaring over the valleys.
The griffin vulture is a massive bird with a wingspan of 7.5-9.2 feet! These birds don’t simply fly; they soar!
While we think of eagles as majestic and vultures as dirty scavengers, the ancient Hebrew culture saw them exactly the opposite. Interestingly, when our English translations say “eagle” like in the passage above, it is likely referring to a vulture, possibly even the griffin vulture specifically. When God uses the metaphor of being lifted by the wings of an “eagle”, he is comparing himself to a bird with some very large wings!
