Raise spiritual craftsmen against every wicked horn, oh, Lord! – Part 1

“Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were four horns… “What are these?”…“These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. And I said, “What are these coming to do?”…But the craftsmen are coming to terrify them, to cast out the horns of the nations that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it,” (Zech. 1:18-21).

Satan’s mode of operation against believers is to destroy destiny, induce failure, hardship, oppression and confusion. Therefore, the world is in dire need of spiritual craftsmen, who can help checkmate activities of Satan and his cohorts. Here, we need to appeal to God to help raise for His children craftsmen in order to withstand the ceaseless attacks of the evil one.

In the vision of Prophet Zechariah, he began by saying “then I raised my eyes …. This is clearly meant to announce a new vision (see 2:1; 5:1; 6:1). In raising his eyes, he looked and saw “four horns.” They were remarkable “horns” in that the animals to which they were associated were not seen or mentioned. The appearance of these horns was something so striking to Zechariah that he asked, in verse 19, “What are these?” Plainly, they are meant to be taken symbolically. As we read on in the text, we see that they are the “horns” that “scatter Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem” (v. 19); and they have such a distressing and humiliating impact on the people of Judah that “no one could lift up his head” (v. 21).

Obviously, a horn is a feature of a living animal that it used to exert force. To understand the symbolic meaning of this, though, we should look elsewhere in Scripture to see where “horns” are used figuratively: Poetically, a “horn” is used in Scripture as a symbol of power. Psalm 75:4-5 uses horn in this sense, in a negative way of ‘self-exaltation,’ when it says, “I said to the boastful, ‘Do not deal boastfully, and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up the horn. Do not lift up your horn on high; do not speak with a stiff neck.” It can also be used in a positive way in reference to God’s favour, as in Psalm 92:10; where it says, “But my horn you have exalted like a wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil. My eye also has seen my desire on my enemies; my ears hear my desire on the wicked who rise up against me.”

Ven. Ernest Onuoha Rector, Ibru International Ecumenical Centre, Agbarha-Otor, Delta State.
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