“Praise be to the Lord, the
God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He has
raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he
said through his holy prophets of long ago),…” Luke 1:68-70
Zechariah,
the father of John the Baptizer, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke these
prophetic words. The words I would like
to emphasize are ‘come’, ‘redeemed’, ‘raised up’ and ‘horn’.
Knowing full well the condition of His creation, Almighty God
came to His people with the intention of buying them back. There was a price on their heads due to their
disobedience. Every year they had to
atone for their sins against the Mosaic Law through an offering. Atonement is the act of restoring a right
relationship between two parties. The
blood of a spotless sacrifice was required to cover over the sins committed.
Redemption can be defined as the payment of an obligation. As mentioned above, sin comes with a
price. There are always consequences
tied to our sin. God sent His Son to pay
the price owed. The people of Israel
could have sacrificed a million spotless sacrifices during the course of their
lifetime and never completely removed the stain that their sin had caused on
their soul. The blood of Christ did that
for them, yet they largely rejected Him.
God raised up what was needed at that time, a horn of
salvation. No one else could have brought
forth such a person. He was wholly
divine, yet wholly mortal. Jesus ate,
drank, slept, laughed, wept, grew tired … he was like us, yet not like us at
all. He was all that we could be in this
life.
A ‘horn’ is a symbol of power. The coming Messiah of the Jews was thought to
be a powerful warrior king. Little did
they realize that He would be a passive representative of God, fully able to
destroy any and all opposition, yet not wishing to follow that course. Christ
came with a sole purpose, or perhaps we should say a ‘soul’ purpose. It was not to overthrow the Roman
government. It was to pay the sin debt
accumulated by mortal men.
The Lord came to free us from the bondage of our own
making. We were all in self-made
prisons, many still are. He breaks the
bonds of sin once and for all. So many
believe in anything but the saving power of God through Christ. They see it as being ‘religious’ rather than
‘relational’. They see it as taking all
the fun out of life, when nothing could be further from the truth. True, focal points change, but the life of a
believer is far from restrictive or mundane.
Living for God is the most satisfying and rewarding thing a person can
do with their life. It’s all according
to your point of view. Until next time,
walk with the King and be a blessing!
