Apocalypse Revealed # 244
244. And the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. This symbolizes the Divine truth of the Word in respect to its concepts and the understanding they afford.
Eagles have various symbolic meanings, but flying eagles symbolize concepts which lead to understanding, since when they fly, they recognize and see. They also have sharp eyes so as to see keenly, and eyes symbolize the intellect (nos. 48, 214).
To fly means, symbolically, to perceive and teach, and in the highest sense, which has the Lord as its subject, it means to foresee and provide.
That this is the symbolic meaning of eagles in the Word is apparent from the following passages:
Those who wait on Jehovah shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on wings like eagles. (Isaiah 40:31)
To mount up on wings like eagles means to be raised into concepts of truth and goodness and so into intelligence.
Does the hawk fly by your wisdom...? Does the eagle mount up at your command...(and) spy out its food? Its eyes observe from afar. (Job 39:26-27, 29)
The eagle here describes a faculty for recognizing, understanding, and foreseeing, and the fact that this does not result from one's own intelligence.
(Jehovah,) who satisfies your mouth with good, so that you are renewed in your youth like an eagle. (Psalms 103:5)
To satisfy the mouth with good means to give understanding by means of concepts. Thus an analogy is made with an eagle.
A great eagle with large wings and long pinions... came upon Lebanon and took from the cedar a little branch... Then it took some of the seed of the land and planted it in the field of a growing crop..., and it grew and became a vine... But there was another great eagle..., to which the vine bent its roots... (Ezekiel 17:1-8)
The two eagles here describe the Jewish and Israelite churches, each in respect to its concepts of truth and consequent intelligence.
In an opposite sense, however, eagles symbolize false concepts, by which the intellect is corrupted, as in Matthew 24:28, Jeremiah 4:13, Habakkuk 1:8-9, and elsewhere.
James 3
1
Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment.
2
For in many things we all stumble. If anyone doesn't stumble in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.
3
Indeed, we put bits into the horses' mouths so that they may obey us, and we guide their whole body.
4
Behold, the ships also, though they are so big and are driven by fierce winds, are yet guided by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires.
5
So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest!
6
And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna.
7
For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and thing in the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind.
8
But nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
9
With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the image of God.
10
Out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
11
Does a spring send out from the same opening fresh and bitter water?
12
Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water.
13
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good conduct that his deeds are done in gentleness of wisdom.
14
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, don't boast and don't lie against the truth.
15
This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic.
16
For where jealousy and selfish ambition are, there is confusion and every evil deed.
17
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
18
Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
