Horn of Salvation

And has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David.
Luke 1:69

The day John the Baptist was born, God gave his father, Zacharias the priest, a special prophesy that not only related to his son being chosen by God to be a “prophet of the highest” (Luke 1:76) but also of the coming Messiah. Filled with the Holy Spirit, the old man proclaimed that God had risen up the Horn of Salvation from the house of David.

The horn of a bull or ox was a well-established symbol of power in the Old Testament (see Deuteronomy 33:17; 1 Samuel 2:10; Psalm 75:10). The bronze altar had horns at its four corners representing God’s strength available in every direction. The false prophet Zedekiah made a set of iron horns to convince King Ahab to attack Ramoth Gilead saying, “Thus says the LORD: 'With these you shall gore the Syrians until they are destroyed.'" (1 Kings 22:11). Truly the object lesson was impressive, but the message did not come from God, so Ahab was killed in battle just as the true prophet, Micaiah, predicted.

King David twice called the LORD the “Horn of my salvation" (2 Samuel 22:3; Psalm 18:2), because he realized that it was God who gave him his victories and delivered him from his enemies. The Horn of Salvation also refers to God’s mighty power to save a soul from sin and death and hell. Jesus, whose very name means Salvation, was God’s instrument for thrusting through and bringing down the stronghold of Satan.

Salvation seems so easy from the human viewpoint, even a little child can ask for and receive salvation. However, most people aren’t saved, because the enemies of God (the world, the flesh, and the devil) set up obstacles to faith to prevent them from ever being saved. The good news is that there is no force in the universe that can stand up to Jesus Christ when they are gored with the Horn of Salvation.