December
10

Serve Without Fear

And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be 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 David His servant, as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from the beginning, Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us; to do mercy with our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant; the oath which He swore to Abraham our father, that He would give to us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and justice in His sight, all the days of our life. (Luke 1:67-69,74)

This is a prophecy of Zechariah respecting the Lord and His coming. “A horn of salvation in the house of David” signifies omnipotence to save by Divine truth from Divine good, “horn” is that omnipotence; “the house of David” is the Lord’s church; “the enemies from which He should save” are the falsities of evil, for these are the enemies from which the Lord saves those who receive Him. (AE 316:11)

A single angel has greater power than myriads of infernal spirits, yet not from himself, but from the Lord; and he has it from the Lord in the proportion that he believes that he has no power from himself, thus that he is the least; and this he can believe insofar as he is in humiliation and in the affection of being of service to others, that is, insofar as he is in the good of love to the Lord, and of charity toward the neighbour. (AC 3417)

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