Where Eagles Gather
"For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together" (Matthew 24:28).
While driving on a rural road recently, I noticed several large black birds that flew up when I approached a certain location. The birds perched on tree limbs and fences nearby as I passed by. It didn’t take me long to discover that there was something dead nearby. In fact, it smelled like a dead skunk. Obviously, I was quick to get away from there. Looking back in my rearview mirror I saw the birds fly back down to their original location. They were vultures and were having a feast.
The word "eagles" in the quoted passage would be better translated "vultures." These are large birds of prey that feed on dead animals and delight in the rottenness of death.
The picture here has much deeper and more profound implications. The vultures could well symbolize the powers of darkness that are attracted to the stench of the rottenness of the flesh.
Any attitude, speech, and/or behavior that fails to exemplify the person and nature of Jesus Christ has the flesh as its origin and offers corruption as its end. As such, it emits the stench of death and attracts the powers of darkness like the vultures that gather to feast on a carcass on the roadside.
In Galatians 5:16 Paul presents the alternatives when he said “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”
To walk in the Spirit is to be filled with the Spirit and walk in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 5:18 Paul directs, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” The word “filled” has the idea of “being controlled by.” In its larger sense it means to be continuously “controlled by” the Holy Spirit. The idea here is one of submission to the Holy Spirit and walking a walk that is both directed by and empowered by Him.
When one is empowered and directed by the Holy Spirit his life will reflect the life and nature of Jesus Christ. It will be one of submission and obedience. Such a life will not countenance the working of the flesh but will rather detest any show or enticement by it.
Conversely, when one is not submitted to the Lord Jesus he will be prone to give grounds to the flesh, seeking gratification of his lower desires. He will find himself to be a slave to sin and its lusts and the target of the powers of darkness.
One doesn’t achieve victory by grappling with the flesh, trying to overcome it. The more he strives with the flesh, the more he will be ensnared by it. Victory over the flesh comes when one continuously yields to the Lordship of Jesus and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. This can only occur in light of the cross. “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him” (Romans 6:5-8).
The enemy will seek any advantage that he can find. Like the vultures, he is attracted to the smell of the rottenness of the flesh and will feed on it, instigating his malicious power into the equation, and manipulating to gain ascendancy in our lives.
The solution is always Jesus. We must never cease “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
Jeff
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