Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
These examples are not to be analyzed like allegories. We must not inquire about the allegorical significance of the birds of the air or the lilies of the field. These examples are proposed so that more important things may be suggested from things of less importance. .
i.e. you are of more value. For surely a rational being such as man has a higher rank in the nature of things than irrational ones, such as birds. Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? And why do you take thought for raiment? That is to say, the providence of Him by whose power and sovereignty it has come about that your body was brought up to its present stature, can also clothe you; but that it is not by your care that it has come about that your body should arrive at this stature, may be understood from this circumstance, that if you should take thought, and should wish to add one cubit to this stature, you cannot. Leave, therefore, the care of protecting the body to Him by whose care you see it has come about that you have a body of such a stature.
From what we have already, then, He urges us in this way: and from examples of other things, by saying, Behold the fowls of the air. Matthew 6:26 Thus, lest any should say, we do good by taking thought, He dissuades them both by that which is greater, and by that which is less; by the greater, i.e. the soul and the body; by the less, i.e. the birds. For if of the things that are very inferior He has so much regard, how shall He not give unto you? Says He. And to them on this wise, for as yet it was an ordinary multitude: but to the devil not thus; but how? Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Matthew 4:4 But here He makes mention of the birds, and this in a way greatly to abash them; which sort of thing is of very great value for the purpose of admonition.
However, some of the ungodly have come to so great a pitch of madness, as even to attack His illustration. Because, say they, it was not meet for one strengthening moral princ...
Although He could have given the example of Elijah and John the Baptist, instead He mentions the birds in order to shame us, for we are even more witless than these creatures. God feeds them by having given them the instinctive knowledge for finding food.
? Although He could have given the example of Elijah and John the Baptist, instead He mentions the birds in order to shame us, for we are even more witless than these creatures. God feeds them by having given them the instinctive knowledge for finding food.
