Eagles are Majestic

This series on the Biblical metaphor of the eagle resulted from a scheduled tweet series that was my most retweeted ever. This is the fourth post inspired by the success of that series. In the first, we discussed how eagles must soar rather than flap their wings to fly. To do this, they wait upon thermal winds that lift them high above other birds and carry them along. This is the picture portrayed in Isaiah 40:31 where we are told to “wait upon the Lord” and we will “mount up with wings like eagles”. The winds that would topple us, if we accept them and turn into them become the winds that allow us to truly soar. In the second, we considered the patience of eagles as hunters as compared to the Biblical view of “patience”. An environment that is peaceful includes people with patience. Last time we noted that eagles are conspicuously marked; Christians are exhorted to be conspicuous in order to draw others, ultimately to God, as His work is displayed in our lives — we are to be “light” to the world.

Eagles are also majestic. “Majestic” is a word that communicates well, because we all know what it means; however, it is hard to define. Here’s a definition from Dictionary.com

Ma-jes-tic [muh-jes-tik]

– adjective characterized by or possessing majesty; of lofty dignity or imposing aspect; stately; grand: the majestic Alps.

Please notice that even its own definition uses “majesty”, proving how self-evident yet difficult to explain is the meaning. We see the word in 2 Peter 1:16-18:

We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

In the original language, the word for “majestic” is “megaloprepous”. We’re going to deconstruct this word to glean its full meaning. The word includes the root words “megaloi” and “prepo”. “Megaloi” translates well into English, we see it in a a word like “megastar”.  It’s not enough to be a star, Angela Lansbury is a star (Murder She Wrote, Beauty and the Beast), it’s better to be a “megastar” like George Clooney. Notice that I didn’t need to put movie credits after his name, everyone knows who he is, he’s a big star.

“Megaloi” is more than that though, we see it in the English word “megalomaniac”. An “egomaniac” is someone who is self-obsessed, someone who thinks very highly of themselves, but a megalomaniac is much more extreme; it’s someone who is very, very self-obsessed, to the point of viewing themselves as God-like. Adolph Hitler was a megalomaniac. Now if we extract “megaloi” from these examples, it stands alone as
Really, Really, Really … [fill in the blank]

The word is used twice in Luke 21:11 …

There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

Here Luke uses the word to describe the end times as a period of …

Really, Really, Really … big earthquakes

Really, Really, Really … big signs from heaven

The meaning of “prepo” is not as obvious, because it is translated into English in various ways. It is “became” in Hebrews 2:10 …

For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many children to glory, to make the author of their salvation pefect through sufferings.

It is “appropriate” or “fitting” in 1 Timothy 2:9-10 …

I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

The easier part of the meaning of this word is “attractive” or “pleasing” or “becoming”. We know what these words mean, but there’s a missing piece of the puzzle. “Fitting” or “appropriate” implies some standard against which a measurement is taken. What is the standard?

Really, Really, Really … big attractiveness

Really, Really, Really … big fit

Mountains can be majestic (Psalms 68:15):

The mountains of Bashan are majestic mountains; rugged are the mountains of Bashan.

A military procession with flags can be majestic (Solomon 6:4):

You are beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, majestic as troops with banners.

A world power like Egypt can be majestic (Ezekial 31:2):

Who can be compared with you in majesty?

In each of these examples we get beauty (becoming) and power, but threateningly so. In each case the majesty is communicated through our eyes and through our instinct both to appreciate power and its implied threat. Therefore, the meaning of majesty is as follows:

Really, Really, Really … attractive to the eye

Really, Really, Really … perfect fit for our eyes and our instincts

We are perfectly built by God to appreciate both beauty and power. Our eyes and instincts are perfectly fitted to appreciate majesty in God, in man and in nature. Our eyes and instincts are the implied standard, the missing piece to complete the puzzle of the meaning of majesty.

When are you observing majesty? When you see a beautiful eagle, mountain or army procession, you are feeling their majesty. When will you feel every sense and every instinct fully observing and feeling majesty? Your sense of majesty will finally be fulfilled when seeing and feeling Jesus in His resurrected (transfigured) body (2 Peter 1:16-18). You are built to be filled with a sense of complete majesty at that moment.

The next time you worship or pray, will you yield to this idea? Yielding to a vision of Jesus in all His glory on His throne surrounded by His creation is surrendering to your own God-given senses and sense. It’s what you were perfectly created to do.

Just do it.

Please contribute to our understanding of “majestic” by commenting.

Recording: Eagles are Majestic

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