Four Horns

And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns! And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” And he said to me, “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?” He said, “These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one raised his head. And these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.”
Zechariah 1:18–21
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Four Horns
The four horns were used to scatter. The sins of the people and their following of other gods has caused wrath and anger from God. He commands that there be no other gods besides him, but God’s people are constantly giving their fear and trust to other things and persons. They are constantly loving things more than the One who gave them to us. We break God’s Law and ignore his Word. For this, the Lord scatters. But He also gathers. He must first change the hearts of his people. He takes out the heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh, a heart of faith and love. The Lord does this by the proclamations from his altar. He does so from the four horns of the holy place. The Means of Grace (preaching, baptism, absolution, and the Lord’s Supper) work forgiveness and where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is life and salvation. What is the power of this Word? It is the One who redeemed us by dying on the cross. This is Jesus, the very Son of God. He goes forth from heaven, leaves behind his throne and crown, to come where you are to rescue and make new. He dies so that you would have life. He dies to give heavenly gifts. We are bought back by his own blood. The one who spends his own blood to have you, rises from the dead to live with you, too. Thanks be to God.