See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they?
All wild birds are reliably provided with food and never go hungry.
Zoology
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The cited passage
What current science says
Nature is absolutely brutal for birds. Roughly 50–80% of songbird nestlings never survive to leave the nest, and most that fledge die within their first year from starvation, predation, disease, or exposure. The average wild songbird lives only about 2–5 years. Far from being reliably fed, birds face a relentless daily struggle for calories — which is exactly what drives natural selection, not a cosmic meal plan.
What the text says
This comes from Matthew 6:26. The text claims birds 'neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns,' yet are fed by a heavenly provider — implying a guaranteed food supply for every bird.
Three honest ways to read this passage
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As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
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As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
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As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.