The Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai on the first day of the third month, a month and a half after they left Egypt. Though their final destination was Canaan, Sinai served as an important waypoint. There they would hold the promised festival to celebrate transferring their service from the pharaoh to Yahweh.¹ For Moses, this constituted a return to the mountain where he’d first encountered God, fulfilling the appointed sign of his calling.²

Soon after arriving, Moses headed to the top of the mountain to speak with God. He received a two-part message for the Israelites explaining why they should serve Yahweh and accept his covenant. The first part of the message recounts what Yahweh had already done for them to prove they could trust him. They had watched him ruin Egypt to free them. Then he brought them “on eagles’ wings” through the wilderness to where he waited for them at Mount Sinai.

This verse, along with Deuteronomy 32:11, is often misunderstood to mean God carried Israel through the wilderness like an eagle carries its young on its wings. But real eagles don’t carry their young, and the verb nasaʾ, sometimes translated “to carry,” literally means “to lift up.” Like other birds, eagles are lifted up on their own wings, not the wings of other eagles. So the eagle in the metaphor is Israel.

By riding air currents eagles can soar long distances almost effortlessly. The air currents lift the eagle up high in the sky without it having to flap its wings.³ Yahweh led Israel through the wilderness and provided them with food and water through little effort on their part. He gave his people wings and, like the air currents, lifted them high so they could soar effortlessly to him.