Colossians 3:23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

We are currently doing a study this week about God’s sovereignty. Interestingly enough the word sovereign does not appear in the King James Version of the bible in any form. The word used in the KJV which is interpreted as sovereign in other translations is kingdom. The use of the title Lord and King of kings also points us to sovereignty.

I have no difficulty with God being sovereign but I listen to people and it seems that others do not relate to this issue with the peace and comfort that is also a large part of who God is in this world. I wonder why. Perhaps it is because their only reference to sovereignty is a historical relevance of earthly nobles.

There is a mistrust of human kingdoms. They are selfish and defensive. Power has to be felt for authority to be maintain. The terms and conditions living in a kingdom of man are strict and unyielding. We know that God does not change and that in itself whispers into our subconscious strict and unyielding, but God is not man that He should lie.

When we hear the gospel of Jesus Christ the main focus is the escape from this miserable life towards something better and more desirable. We here that all we have to do to be saved is to believe by faith, that faith saves. Believe on the name of Jesus Christ and be saved. The terms we hear are believe. There is no fine print to be read.

We are babes in Christ, innocent of what it means to be Christians. We grow in Christ, we get weaned off the milk of the gospel and move towards digesting strong meat. We grow in grace. We grow in knowledge. We are conformed to the image of Christ. Yet the issue of His sovereignty, His will be done, always looms in the background as an unseen element of His majesty, always lurking there.

That is the largest difference between earthy kings and God’s sovereignty. Earthly kings lead with power and might to rule with authority. God leads with love to draw us into a place of willing service, to enact His will to show and extend His power which is to save the lost.

Romans 1:16a For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;

Psalm 16:1-2 I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

At my initial reading of the horn of salvation here, my thoughts were directed to the Hebrew meaning associated with the horn. It was a symbol of strength in the oxen, the animal’s primary defense. Yet the term my strength had already been used earlier in that verse, so I wondered, was there a deeper meaning. Since our salvation is of the Lord in the ministry of the New Testament, I looked for a comparative there.

Matthew 11:29-30 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Something that is light is easily thrown off. The horns of an oxen prevent the yoke from being tossed off by the oxen. This imagery here is that because Christ is the head and the horns grow from the head, that Christ prevents us from shedding off the yoke.

We often look at salvation as being set free. We are freed from the pain and penalty of sin, sin no longer holds us in its death grip. Here we get a glimpse of the effect of salvation beyond being set free. That same salvation binds us in the yoke, the symbol of cooperative effort towards good works. The issue of Matthew 11:30 of the easy yoke and the light burden is one of comfort. One might say it is a comfort fit.

John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

Abide with us forever, yet another confirmation that the horn of salvation keeps us from shedding the yoke of comfort, the Comforter.