AS A BIRD THAT WANDERETH FROM HER NEST

One view of these three verses is to see in them a logical develop­ment of truth beginning with an illustration, 27. 8, then the application, 21. 16, culminating with divine cursing, 26. 2.

‘Birds of the air have nests’, Matt. 8. 20, a place of security, shelter and rest, somewhere they can lay their eggs and nurture their fledglings. A bird that wanders from her nest, to flitter from branch to branch, departs from her divinely provided position, neglects her responsibility to her young and exposes herself to unnecessary danger, an illustration of the course of those who wander from the place that God has granted to them. In the sec­ond verse, that place is linked to ‘the way of understanding’. That this man wanders from it infers that he has been instructed in it and possibly for a time even walked therein. Wandering from it his final resting place is among the congregation of the lost, for those who turn from the way of understanding will ulti­mately reap God’s judgement. The third verse is understood by some to be an assertion that while the flight patterns of birds and swallows might appear, to human view, to be without direction they do in fact have purpose, bringing them to their intended destination. In like manner, the judgement that overtakes the wicked is not arbitrary but divinely and righteously adminis­tered. Interpreted thus, the three verses can be seen to trace the course and end of every apostate, cf. 2 Pet. 2. 1-3.

But what of true believers, can’t they at times act much like wandering birds? Didn’t Jonah, whose name means ‘dove’, behave thus, leaving his appointed sphere of ministry and at what great cost to himself as he came under the discipline of God? Are we content with the position that in the providence and grace of God has been given to us, or is there, with us, the restless spirit of a wandering bird, cf. 1 Cor. 7. 17-20; 12. 18? How­ever, some commentators, and the writer also, interpret the third proverb rather differently to that suggested above, understand­ing it as an assurance that as the wandering bird and the swallow going to and fro never alight upon us, so a curse given without cause will never come to pass, cf. Balaam’s cursing of Israel, Num. 22-24, Goliath’s cursing of David, 1 Sam. 17. 43!