The Christmas Horn
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Pastor Dale Lloyd - December 9, 2012
Scripture Reading: Luke 1: 67 – 79
I have this moment each year while preparing
the Advent series when I am overwhelmed with amazement at how inexhaustible this
story is. The songs that have been sung, the books and short stories that have
been written and the endless sermons that have been preached; thousands upon
thousands and thousands more, and yet there is always more to discover. I want
to share one of those discoveries around this theme: The Christmas Horn.
This discovery is found in the song of
Zechariah following his nine months of imposed silence. We need to understand
that not only was Zechariah unable to speak for those nine months, but according
to LK.1:62, he was also deaf and
unable to hear. Why else would the record state: ‘And
they made signs to his father, as to what he wanted him called.’
This discipline of imposed silence was not
without purpose. His silence may have been a divine rebuke for his unbelief, but
God
always turns His rebukes into rewards for those who keep faith. God’s rebuke is not
about punishment but about discipline and His discipline is always redemptive
and restorative in nature. Nine months of
silence meant nine months of hearing the voice of God free of static and
interfering noise. I would suggest that this silence was golden. And in this
crazy world of unrelenting noise we need
to understand the place of silence in our spiritual development – the role it
plays when it comes to hearing the voice of
God.
And then came that incredible moment when
John, in the obedience of his faith, wrote these words on a tablet: "His
name is John." And immediately his tongue was loosed and he was filled with the
Holy Spirit and prophesied:
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
For he has visited us and
accomplished redemption for his people,
And has raised up a
horn of salvationfor us
In the house of David his servant--
As he
spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old--
That
we should be saved from our enemies,
And from the hand of all who hate
us;
To perform the mercy promised to our fathers,
And to remember
his holy covenant,
The oath which he swore to our father Abraham,
To grant
us that we, being delivered from the
hand of our enemies,
Might serve him without fear,
In holiness and
righteousness before him all the days of our life.
And you, child,
will be called the prophet of the Most High;
For you will go before the Lord
to prepare his ways,
To give knowledge of salvation to his people
In the
forgiveness of their sins,
Through the tender mercies of our God,
By which
the day shall dawn upon us from on high
To give light to those who sit in
darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of
peace.
When Zechariah emerged from the discipline of
his silence he did so filled with the Holy Spirit and singing what has come to
be known as the Benedictus, a song filled with insight and with a sense
of the stupendous significance of what was about to happen with the birth of
Jesus. So while we ponder how we will seek some silence for ourselves, let us
learn from what the Holy Spirit taught
Zechariah.
The first thing to note is that most of
Zechariah's song is taken up not with his own son but with the coming Messiah
and the salvation he would bring. Only two verses (76
& 77) refer to John the Baptist. The rest of the Benedictus
is about what the coming of Jesus is going to
mean.
Here is how he begins his song in verse 68,
"The Lord God of Israel has visited and
redeemed his people." Then
in verse 69 he tells us how this
visitation and redemption will happen, "God has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the
house of his servant, David." Jesus is the
horn of
salvation.
I have never before considered this image of Christmas – Jesus
the horn of salvation.We need to know the meaning of the imagery and I can tell you it is
not a musical instrument. This is the only place in the New Testament where
Jesus is called a horn, so we must go back to the Old Testament. It is highly
likely that Zechariah was familiar with this image based on those same Old
TestamentScriptures.
Psalm
92:9 - 10 gives us a picture of what the horn stood for: For,
behold, Your enemies, O Lord; For, behold, Your enemies will perish; all who do
iniquity will be scattered. But You have exalted my
horn like that of the wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh
oil.
In Micah
4:13 God says to Jerusalem,
“Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion, for your
horn I will make iron, and your hoofs I will make bronze, that you may
pulverise many peoples...”
This image of the horn
of the wild oxspeaks of a deadly weapon whose strength cannot be matched; it
speaks of uncompromised victory. We are not talking, ‘Little
boy Blue come blow your horn’, here.
Verse 70tells us that the coming of this horn
of salvationwas prophesied of old. Consider Psalm
132:17, where God says concerning Jerusalem,
“There I will cause the horn of
David to spring forth; I have prepared a lamp for Mine anointed. His enemies
I will clothe with shame, but upon himself his crown shall shine.”
In 2
Samuel 22:3 and in Psalm
18:2, we find the words of David after God saved
him from his enemy Saul. He says, "The Lord is my
rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my
shield, and the horn of my
salvation, my stronghold."
And that brings us back to Luke
1:69. Jesus is the horn of salvation, which means according to verse 71, God uses Him to save his
people from their enemies and all who hate them. And by the way, this reaches
well beyond the idea of personal salvation and has reference to the literal
destruction of God’s enemies.
Verses 74 &75 reveal the outcome of the raising up
this Christmas horn – this mighty horn of salvation. And here it is: "grant that we,
being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in
holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our
life." Please note two things: First
we are going to be delivered from bondage to our enemy, and second
this is going to result in our
fearlessly living a life of holiness and righteousness. Notice
that we are not merely delivered from the enemy himself but from all fear of the
enemy – and that is a vital truth.
The two fundamental spoilers of life are
fear and guilt.
Fear is rooted in Satan himself, while guilt is rooted in the sin issue. And so
we read concerning Christ: ‘...that by going through death as a man he might destroy
him who had the power of death, that is, the
devil...’(Heb.2:14)That
takes care of our enemy and the fear issue. And the following takes care of the
guilt issue related to sin: Heb.9:26...He has been manifested to put
away sin (to take it out of the way) by the sacrifice of
Himself.
Little wonder Zechariah sang: "Blessed be the
Lord God of Israel who has visited and redeemed his people by raising
up a horn of salvation for us . . . that we, being delivered from our
enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him
all the days of our life."
The scripture makes it clear that the image
of the horn speaks of government, of rulership, of kingdom; it speaks of great
strength and power. The prophet told us that the government would be upon His
shoulders and that of the increase of His kingdom there would be no
end.
So I leave you with this image –this picture
of Christmas we may have never seen before: the image of a wild ox crowned with
a fearful display of horns the span of which strikes fear in the heart of his
enemies. There he stands in the unchallenged strength of his being, knowing that
he has fought and won every battle and that his victory is
eternal.
Pastor Dale Lloyd - December 9, 2012
Scripture Reading: Luke 1: 67 – 79
I have this moment each year while preparing
the Advent series when I am overwhelmed with amazement at how inexhaustible this
story is. The songs that have been sung, the books and short stories that have
been written and the endless sermons that have been preached; thousands upon
thousands and thousands more, and yet there is always more to discover. I want
to share one of those discoveries around this theme: The Christmas Horn.
This discovery is found in the song of
Zechariah following his nine months of imposed silence. We need to understand
that not only was Zechariah unable to speak for those nine months, but according
to LK.1:62, he was also deaf and
unable to hear. Why else would the record state: ‘And
they made signs to his father, as to what he wanted him called.’
This discipline of imposed silence was not
without purpose. His silence may have been a divine rebuke for his unbelief, but
God
always turns His rebukes into rewards for those who keep faith. God’s rebuke is not
about punishment but about discipline and His discipline is always redemptive
and restorative in nature. Nine months of
silence meant nine months of hearing the voice of God free of static and
interfering noise. I would suggest that this silence was golden. And in this
crazy world of unrelenting noise we need
to understand the place of silence in our spiritual development – the role it
plays when it comes to hearing the voice of
God.
And then came that incredible moment when
John, in the obedience of his faith, wrote these words on a tablet: "His
name is John." And immediately his tongue was loosed and he was filled with the
Holy Spirit and prophesied:
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
For he has visited us and
accomplished redemption for his people,
And has raised up a
horn of salvationfor us
In the house of David his servant--
As he
spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old--
That
we should be saved from our enemies,
And from the hand of all who hate
us;
To perform the mercy promised to our fathers,
And to remember
his holy covenant,
The oath which he swore to our father Abraham,
To grant
us that we, being delivered from the
hand of our enemies,
Might serve him without fear,
In holiness and
righteousness before him all the days of our life.
And you, child,
will be called the prophet of the Most High;
For you will go before the Lord
to prepare his ways,
To give knowledge of salvation to his people
In the
forgiveness of their sins,
Through the tender mercies of our God,
By which
the day shall dawn upon us from on high
To give light to those who sit in
darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of
peace.
When Zechariah emerged from the discipline of
his silence he did so filled with the Holy Spirit and singing what has come to
be known as the Benedictus, a song filled with insight and with a sense
of the stupendous significance of what was about to happen with the birth of
Jesus. So while we ponder how we will seek some silence for ourselves, let us
learn from what the Holy Spirit taught
Zechariah.
The first thing to note is that most of
Zechariah's song is taken up not with his own son but with the coming Messiah
and the salvation he would bring. Only two verses (76
& 77) refer to John the Baptist. The rest of the Benedictus
is about what the coming of Jesus is going to
mean.
Here is how he begins his song in verse 68,
"The Lord God of Israel has visited and
redeemed his people." Then
in verse 69 he tells us how this
visitation and redemption will happen, "God has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the
house of his servant, David." Jesus is the
horn of
salvation.
I have never before considered this image of Christmas – Jesus
the horn of salvation.We need to know the meaning of the imagery and I can tell you it is
not a musical instrument. This is the only place in the New Testament where
Jesus is called a horn, so we must go back to the Old Testament. It is highly
likely that Zechariah was familiar with this image based on those same Old
TestamentScriptures.
Psalm
92:9 - 10 gives us a picture of what the horn stood for: For,
behold, Your enemies, O Lord; For, behold, Your enemies will perish; all who do
iniquity will be scattered. But You have exalted my
horn like that of the wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh
oil.
In Micah
4:13 God says to Jerusalem,
“Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion, for your
horn I will make iron, and your hoofs I will make bronze, that you may
pulverise many peoples...”
This image of the horn
of the wild oxspeaks of a deadly weapon whose strength cannot be matched; it
speaks of uncompromised victory. We are not talking, ‘Little
boy Blue come blow your horn’, here.
Verse 70tells us that the coming of this horn
of salvationwas prophesied of old. Consider Psalm
132:17, where God says concerning Jerusalem,
“There I will cause the horn of
David to spring forth; I have prepared a lamp for Mine anointed. His enemies
I will clothe with shame, but upon himself his crown shall shine.”
In 2
Samuel 22:3 and in Psalm
18:2, we find the words of David after God saved
him from his enemy Saul. He says, "The Lord is my
rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my
shield, and the horn of my
salvation, my stronghold."
And that brings us back to Luke
1:69. Jesus is the horn of salvation, which means according to verse 71, God uses Him to save his
people from their enemies and all who hate them. And by the way, this reaches
well beyond the idea of personal salvation and has reference to the literal
destruction of God’s enemies.
Verses 74 &75 reveal the outcome of the raising up
this Christmas horn – this mighty horn of salvation. And here it is: "grant that we,
being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in
holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our
life." Please note two things: First
we are going to be delivered from bondage to our enemy, and second
this is going to result in our
fearlessly living a life of holiness and righteousness. Notice
that we are not merely delivered from the enemy himself but from all fear of the
enemy – and that is a vital truth.
The two fundamental spoilers of life are
fear and guilt.
Fear is rooted in Satan himself, while guilt is rooted in the sin issue. And so
we read concerning Christ: ‘...that by going through death as a man he might destroy
him who had the power of death, that is, the
devil...’(Heb.2:14)That
takes care of our enemy and the fear issue. And the following takes care of the
guilt issue related to sin: Heb.9:26...He has been manifested to put
away sin (to take it out of the way) by the sacrifice of
Himself.
Little wonder Zechariah sang: "Blessed be the
Lord God of Israel who has visited and redeemed his people by raising
up a horn of salvation for us . . . that we, being delivered from our
enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him
all the days of our life."
The scripture makes it clear that the image
of the horn speaks of government, of rulership, of kingdom; it speaks of great
strength and power. The prophet told us that the government would be upon His
shoulders and that of the increase of His kingdom there would be no
end.
So I leave you with this image –this picture
of Christmas we may have never seen before: the image of a wild ox crowned with
a fearful display of horns the span of which strikes fear in the heart of his
enemies. There he stands in the unchallenged strength of his being, knowing that
he has fought and won every battle and that his victory is
eternal.