A Horn of Salvation in the
House of David
Foreshadowing of the Christmas Story
in the Old Testament
The Rev. Kurt Hy. Asplundh
Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited and worked redemption for His people,
And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David.
(Luke 1: 68-69)
I
have had the good fortune the past few years of teaching religion to the
sixth grade at the Bryn Athyn Church School. The sixth-grade religion
curriculum in the General Church is a study of the Books of Kings (along with
some of the historical prophets). It is another fortunate circumstance that this
is the curriculum since I’d say those historical books might have been (before
I started) the part of the Letter of the Word with which I was least familiar. So
I’ve had a good chance to refresh and catch up.
In my first year of teaching, we were getting close to Christmas and we’d
gotten to the 13th chapter of the First Book of Kings. I was trying to make some
progress in the curriculum before we put things on hold for a week’s worth
of holiday-focused material before the break. So I printed out a chapter or
two that I was simply going to read aloud while the kids attended to whatever
classroom handwork they were finishing up.
What actually happens in chapter 13 of First Kings is a little too intricate
and involved to fully describe in this space. For our purposes, we need only
know that a man of God travels “by the word of Jehovah” from Judah to
Jeroboam’s altar to a golden calf at Bethel:
And [the man of God] called against the altar by the word of Jehovah, and said, “O
altar, altar, thus says Jehovah, ‘Behold a son shall be born to the house of David,
Josiah his name . . . ’” (I Kings 13:2)
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