THE PEACOCK AND HIS FEATHERS (Job 39:13). How majestically he walks across the lawn, with his gay colored train of feathers. He is no doubt a pretty bird. His crested head, blue neck, back of yellow and green, give him a very graceful appearance, but then, he knows it. “As proud as a peacock” is a common proverb. His gorgeous train does all very well in fine weather, but it is a sore battle for him in a storm. He has a very poor voice, only a croaking scream.
We may see in the peacock what we all are and love to be by nature; proud, self-willed, unruly, mischievous. When the peacock dies his beauty passes away. His feathers adorn him no more. So will it be with the proud, unconverted sinners when they come to leave this world. Their beauty will consume away. The world will soon forget them. But for the believer in Christ, there is a much brighter hope. He will rise in the image of his Lord. His body will be fashioned like unto His most glorious body, and he will go to be with Him forever. How wonderful to be a Christian!
THE OSTRICH (Job 39:14). This bird is called the camel-bird by the Arabs. It is a bird of the desert, very large, powerful and swift in its fight. The mother ostrich is referred to in Scripture as heartless and cruel. (Lam. 4:3; Job 39:13-18). Her eggs and her young are often left behind. Her nest is scooped out in the sand. There she lays her eggs and goes off in search of food for herself, leaving them to be hatched in the sun or trodden underfoot of man or beast. When men go out to hunt the ostrich, it is said she leaves her young and flees. How unlike the care God has over little ones who put their trust under the shadow of His wings! To them He says, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Heb. 13:5.
THE SWALLOW AND HER YOUNG (Psa. 84:3). Here we have a home bird, one that we all know—a bird of liberty and swift wing. The swallow is very careful of her young. She builds a cozy nest for them and faithfully cares for them all through. The psalmist thought of the swallow’s nest built in the tabernacle of God, as the emblem of his own soul’s rest. How sweet and safe a resting place for the soul is the sacrifice of Christ! There the weary sinner finds peace and safety.
“I declare unto you the GOSPEL... how that CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” 1 Cor. 15:1, 3, 4.
How wondrous a SAVIOUR is God’s blessed Son!
How great and eternal the work He has done!
God’s glory maintained by His death on the tree,
While mercy flows freely to you and to me.
ML-04/29/1962