We read the word of God first of all this morning in Exodus chapter 19. Exodus 19, verses one through eight, and then we'll also read a few verses from Deuteronomy chapter 32. Exodus 19, beginning at verse one. In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, The same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness. And there Israel camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagles' wings and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken we will do And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. Now let's also read a few verses from Deuteronomy chapter 32. There we will read verses seven through 14. Deuteronomy 32, verses seven through 14. Another passage in which the Lord compares himself to the eagle. Deuteronomy 32 verse 7, remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations, ask thy father and he will show thee thy elders and they will tell thee. 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. For the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. 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. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them beareth them on her wings. So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields. And he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock, butter of kind, and milk of sheep with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan and goats. the fat of kidneys of wheat, and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape." That's why we read God's Word, and now we turn to our text, which is Exodus chapter 19, verse 4. Exodus 19, verse 4. There we read, ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagles' wings and brought you unto myself. I'm thankful this morning, beloved, for a new year. I'm thankful especially for a new year as a new year indicates to us that Time marches on and brings us closer to the end of time and the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're thankful that we can begin the new year in faith, faith as the gift of God that He has given and worked in our hearts by His Spirit faith that enables us to be confident of the Lord's presence with us in the new year, and confident of the Lord's purpose to bless us in and through Jesus Christ our Savior. And we're also thankful this morning that we can begin the new year in God's house, here to worship God, as well as to pay attention to and to hear God speak to us. And the latter is the beauty and the power of the words of our text. They are the words of God himself. He spoke those words to Moses in order for Moses to speak them to the nation of Israel, the church in the Old Testament, and he, God himself, speaks those words still to us today. God speaks these words to us when he says, ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagles' wings and brought you unto myself. God speaks those words to us because God knows that his church and his people go through and have gone through difficult times. He knows that we have, in the past year, experienced, and some more than others, a very difficult year, great struggles, sicknesses and diseases, the flooding, children who have strayed, tragic and, as we would say, untimely deaths, things that have been experienced personally, things that we have observed others experience, things that have been experienced in our own families. And some are still feeling and dealing with the effects of that, too. You might be inclined to say that this past year was perhaps the most difficult year that you have had, at least for many, many, many years now. That was true for Israel. to whom God spoke the words of this text as well. Israel could say at this particular point in their history that they had experienced a very, very difficult year with many ups and downs. The past year for them began with bondage in Egypt and slavery And then came Moses, and there were the plagues that they had to experience, at least the first number of plagues. And then they were delivered from Egypt, but pursued immediately by the armies of the Egyptians to a point where it seemed that all was hopeless for them. They would be destroyed now. right after they had been delivered from bondage. God saved them through the Red Sea. But then even after being delivered by God from the Egyptians and saved from them through passing on dry ground at the Red Sea, the children of Israel experienced hardship yet again, the hardship of the desert The wilderness, wandering in that wilderness, wandering toward Mount Sinai, but experiencing no food and no water. And even the experience of the armies of the Amalekites coming against them and threatening to destroy them. It had been a difficult year for them. God said to them, after all that, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagle's wings, and brought you unto myself. And that's what God says to us. And in saying that to the nation of Israel, and in saying that to us, God is, as it were, saying to us, don't focus on what you have suffered, don't focus on the difficulties and the trials that you have been through, that's what he says to Israel, don't focus on that, but notice this, and remind yourself of this, that in all those things you have seen the hand of God. God reminds them and reminds us as well to focus on the fact that we have seen what God has done for us. And so may we do that. May we see God's hand in everything and may we see that what God was doing for us all along the way, also in 2024. And that will help us by the grace of God and by the spirit of God, which are also, don't miss that, God's grace and God's spirit are part of what we look back and see that God has done, that God has given us, that will help and enable us by God's grace to face a new year, a new year in which we have no idea what it will bring, but God will be the same. What He has done in the past and what He has been in the past, He will do and He will be in the future. And that is summarized in our theme as we consider this text, carried on the wings of an eagle. Carried on the wings of an eagle. We have been and we will continue to be carried on the wings of an eagle. Notice two things concerning that, God's remarkable care and God's wonderful purpose. In our text, God, who speaks these words, uses a striking and a powerful picture to impress upon us what he has done for us in the past. God compares himself to an eagle. Specifically, he directs our attention, especially to one aspect of what an eagle does, an adult eagle does for its young, namely the fact that that adult eagle bears or carries her young on her powerful wings. Repeated as we saw too in Deuteronomy 32, Verse 11, as an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord. Living here, we have the opportunity to see eagles, to see bold eagles to notice how large and majestic and impressive they are as a bird in God's creation. One cannot help but be fascinated by them and interested in them. And every time we see them, We ought to be reminded of the comparison that God makes here between himself and the eagle. To understand God comparing himself to the eagle, it's helpful for us to know some things about eagles. Eagles are a very powerful bird. The eagle we would say rules the skies. Just as the lion is the king of the jungle, the eagle is the king in the sky. The eagle has keen eyesight, is able to see eight times better than you and I are able to see with 20-20 vision. What you see at one mile, an eagle can see from eight miles away. That kind of eyesight. The eagle has, as we know, mighty wings. The span of the wings of an eagle can exceed six feet, able to carry, therefore, an animal that is heavier than itself. And the eagle is a very fast bird, too. The bald eagle is able to reach speeds of up to 100 miles an hour. But the golden eagle, speeds of up to 200 miles an hour. And not only speed, but precision, able with great precision to pluck a fish out of a pond, out of a river. a mighty and a majestic and an impressive bird. But there's one more thing about the eagle, and that is what our text focuses upon. And the point in the text is that an eagle uses its wings and its speed as well and its eyesight and all of its faculties that God has given to that eagle to show a special care for its young. As eaglets grow older in the nest, they come to a point when they need to learn to fly. And the eagle, the parent eagle, knows when it is time for the eaglet to learn to fly, not only, but also to start hunting and caring for itself. parent will encourage the eaglets to do this, to get out of the nest, to start finding its own food, and to start caring for itself. And one way in which the adult eagles will do that is by bringing less food to the eaglets, so that on account of hunger, perhaps they will jump out and start to fly. But if they don't, then the eagle will do what Deuteronomy 32 speaks of regarding the eagle, namely that the eagle stirs up the nest. And the idea of that in Deuteronomy 32 is that the eagle, the adult eagle, will start destroying the nest, start making it less comfortable for the eaglet, so that the eaglet is, as it were, forced to get out of the nest. And then if still the eaglet doesn't jump out and start learning to fly and to fend for itself, the eagle, the adult eagle will even push the eaglet out of the nest, force the eaglet to learn to fly. But as soon as the eaglet is out of the nest, The eagle will watch that young eaglet very, very closely. And if that eaglet is unable to fly yet, or if that eaglet soon tires from trying to fly, the adult eagle is there to do what the text mentions, to bear them up on their wing. The adult eagle will dive with speed and precision and save the young before it hits the ground. The eaglet will land on top of the adult eagle, on top of its parrot. And the adult eagle will keep flying and bear that eaglet up to a place of safety. saving that eaglet and keeping that eaglet safe. That's the powerful and striking picture that our text gives us of the care of Jehovah. Whenever his children, eaglets that we are, are in danger or are in trouble or are falling, falling such that if they were to hit the ground, they would be destroyed. God swoops down and rescues us from destruction. God says to us in the words of our text, you have seen this. You have seen this. He wants us to take note of the fact that he has done this in the past. He wants us to take note of the fact that he has done that also in the past year, 2024. Troubles have been experienced and dangers have been faced by many of us, if not all of us. Many things have happened that have threatened to ruin and destroy the lives of the people of God. Many have passed through the valley of the shadow of death and have faced many fears, and in some instances, for a time at least, troubles have seemed to pile one upon another. And the threat, the real threat, to us as the people of God on account of all those things. The real threat has not been our earthly, our physical life and well-being, but the well-being of our souls. Troubles have tested and troubles have affected our faith and our trust in Jehovah, our God. And in that respect, there have been times when we have been like that eaglet that is plummeting down, facing the potential of being destroyed spiritually. But God says to us, I was there, and you have seen it. That is, you have experienced it. You have seen that I have swooped down in my love and with my amazing power and precision have had you land on my wings. I have saved you again and again from being destroyed spiritually and I have carried you to safety. I've also kept you safe physically But the important thing is that I have kept you safe spiritually, kept you safe in your soul, in your faith, in your salvation, in Jesus Christ, my son. And God says, again, you have seen that. And you have experienced that. You have seen it in your own life, and you have seen it in your own soul. God has caught you when you were falling and carried you through. God has given grace sufficient. God has preserved you and me spiritually, not without struggles, not without struggles of faith, but God has preserved. And not only have we seen it in our own lives, but we have seen it also in the lives of others, in the lives of fellow believers, in the lives of other saints of God. A remarkable thing that is to observe that the child of God overwhelmed with trouble has, on account of God swooping down with his spiritual love and concern and care for every one of his children, empowered and enabled those who have been in distress still to believe and still to trust in God and still to confess God is good. We have seen that. God has been there for us. And God has been there for us because we are precious to Him in and through Christ His Son. And as the text makes plain when it comes to God's purpose, God's purpose is first of all the preservation of you and me in our salvation in faith and trust in Him. And that purpose of God to preserve us arises from God's perfect knowledge of us and of our circumstances in life. God knows that our lives are difficult, just as the eagle knows that its eaglet's circumstances are precarious. God knows what those exact difficulties are in our lives. God knows that we struggle spiritually when His hand is upon us. He knows that our faith falters. He knows that sometimes we lose hope. And God knows those things, not simply because God is observant. God knows those things not simply because God happens to look and to notice the dangers and the threats to our faith and to our soul, but he knows those things because God is the one who sovereignly sends those perils into our lives. Every trouble comes from here. That really is another significant part of the comparison that God makes here of himself to an eagle. The adult eagle, when it really comes down to it, is the one who puts its young into danger. The adult eagle does that by building a nest in such a high place, far from the ground. If the eaglet were to fall out of the nest, that's it. That's it. The adult eagle does that by enticing the eaglets out of the nest by not feeding them as much, first of all, and then by stirring up and ruining the nest so that the eaglet is, as it were, forced to jump and to fly and to fall to the ground. Then the adult eagle also does that by forcing the eaglets out. If they won't jump and try to fly, the parents force that. And that's part of the comparison here, because that's also what God does. He puts us in those difficult and trying circumstances. Our struggles and our troubles in life, every one of them, are planned and sent by him. And we experience them because God, like an eagle, you could say, pushes us out of the nest. He is in sovereign control of that. We may never say concerning anything that happens, well, God didn't really want that to happen. We can't say that. But the saints of God, whom God puts into those trying and troubling circumstances in life, are precious to him. And that is true of the eagle, too. The eagle cares for its eaglets because those eaglets are valuable to and important and precious to the adult eagle. The adult eagle can't simply ignore them and let them fall to the ground and be killed. There is a bond there, and that's true of God. God loves his eaglets that we are, small, defenseless, unable to fly, needing his help. He loves us as those whom he has chosen and who are precious to him and who have been redeemed by him in Christ Jesus his son. And so like an eagle in relation to its eaglets, our almighty God never takes his eyes off us. He is aware of everything about us. And he catches us again and again because he sees that there are those things that cause us to struggle spiritually. He has caught us countless times in 2024, sometimes even without our realization of it or our acknowledgement of it, saving and preserving and protecting our souls and saving and preserving and protecting us in our faith and in our trust in Him. He has been faithful. He knows we need Him, and He has been there to help, to protect, and to defend. And God does not change, and God has not changed, and God will not change, and therefore God will continue providing this and providing it constantly throughout 2025 also. But notice too, beloved, our text has, it mentions a second purpose of God. That is this purpose of God, and brought you unto myself. That's really God's ultimate purpose. That's God's main purpose. You may ask the question, why did God rescue Israel from Egypt? Why did he deliver them from bondage? And then why did God rescue them again at the Red Sea? And why did God care for them and preserve them in all the wilderness travel on their way to Mount Sinai? providing for them food when there was no food, providing for them water out of the rock when there was no water in the wilderness. And why did God rescue all who are His at the cross of Christ, giving and punishing His Son there in order to rescue and preserve His people in the marvelous salvation that he had purposed for us? And why has he kept each of us from being destroyed spiritually by the afflictions and troubles and distresses of our earthly pilgrimage? The text says this is God's purpose. God says to bring you unto myself. to bring you into blessed fellowship with me, to bring you into fellowship with me now already in this life and ultimately in heaven. That's the main purpose of God. God has already brought us near to himself in this life. God did that and laid the foundation for that at the cross. There and then he provided the way for us to be brought near to him, the way for us to be brought into covenant fellowship with him, the way for us to be the friends of God, the way for us to be adopted into God's family and to be the children of God, the sons and daughters of the living God, those helpless eaglets whom he loves. And by the Spirit working faith in our hearts, God causes that to be a reality also in our consciousness and in our experience, something that we can enjoy, enjoy in this life, being near to God. Already now in this life, walking with God because God is walking with us. Already now, knowing that God is always with you in this life, with you also in the valleys of life, knowing that God is always there for you, and you can always turn to him for comfort, and he, as our loving Father, is listening. He hears, and he notices. And he counts and records even every sorrow and every tear. God is near. And not only is it that God is near, that we are near to him, but God brings us nearer and nearer to himself. God even uses the troubles of life to do just that very thing. Because of the crosses he sends us in this life, we can confess, nearer still dearer, my God to thee. God causes us to be near to him. And when we are near to the Lord and to Jehovah God by faith, then the remarkable thing is we receive the strength of an eagle. That's pointed out in the one other passage that speaks about the eagle in Scripture, Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40, verses 29 through 31, the text that we're looking at is a text that compares, namely in Exodus 19, compares God to the eagle. Deuteronomy 32 compares God to the eagle, but now Isaiah 40 compares us to an eagle, receiving the strength of an eagle from the Lord our God, because He is near, and we are near to Him, and by faith we are strengthened. Isaiah 40, 29, He giveth power to the faith. And to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. 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, they shall walk and not faint. Near to the Lord. and strengthened by him to have the strength of an eagle. Already now, near to God, but God's ultimate goal and purpose is to bring us near to himself in heaven. In his love for us in Christ, he wills that we be with him forever, that we see Him face-to-face through the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may have fellowship with Him in and through Christ our Savior, that we might be forever near God our Father, then nothing anymore can threaten to take that away from us, not even in our experience. That's God's ultimate purpose, and it is that purpose of God that governs everything that God does. Why does God sometimes push us out of the relative safety of the nest in order to face dangers in this life? Why does he and will he no doubt in this new year do the same, sending us times of sorrow and suffering and grief? Why does God keep trying and testing our faith All of it to bring us to himself. Closer and closer to the Lord now in this life, and ultimately with him in heaven. That's the purpose that God will be carrying out and accomplishing also in 2025. A marvelous work of God's grace, still nearer now and one day in the presence of God forever. So at the start of and all through this new year, beloved, may we remember what God says to us here. You have seen what I have done for you. What I have done for you and in you by my almighty grace in Christ. And you have seen this. You have seen that I have borne you on eagle's wings, just as an eagle does that for its young. And I have carried you safely to myself every single time. Believing that, then we can be confident that God will continue to do the same every day of this new year, and every day until the end of our earthly lives, and every day until he brings us safely to himself in heavenly glory forever and forever. And God give us faith to believe and trust in Him and in Him alone. Amen. Father in heaven, we are thankful to Thee for Thy faithfulness and that to us who are of ourselves helpless and frail and weak. and even undeserving of thy goodness and faithfulness. We praise thee for it and we pray thou ought give us the confidence of thy continued presence and nearness and help to us in every time and moment of need as those needs arise regularly, even daily. in our lives as pilgrims on this earth. Bring us closer to thyself now, and bring us closer to thyself forever, thou hast promised it, and thou wilt surely do it. In Jesus' name, amen.