When the angel Gabriel told Zacharias that his baren and post-menopausal wife, Elizabeth, would conceive and bear him a son, he doubted the angel's words, asking, "How can I know that what you say is true?" (Luke 1:18) As a consequence of doubting, Zacharias was struck "dumb"-being unable to speak for the better part of a year. On the day of his son John's circumcision (that being the same day on which Jewish boys receive their name), Zacharias obeyed Gabriel's command (Luke 1:13) by indicating that the baby should be named "John." As soon as he wrote this to those gathered, his tongue was loosed, and the elderly priest prophesied the words recorded in Luke 1:68-69.

In this passage, Zacharias predicts that "the Lord God of Israel" would "visit us and accomplish redemption for His people." Indeed, rather than saying that He "would" do these things, Zacharias speaks in the past tense-that He essentially already has done so in the form of the baby then still living in Mary's womb. This prophecy in the past tense is often seen by scholars as evidence of the great faith of the one uttering the prediction. So certain is Zacharias of what he declares, he prophesies it in the past tense to, in effect, say 'I know for sure this will happen, almost as though it already has!'

When Zacharias prophetically refers to Jesus as "a horn of salvation," that is a Hebrew Bible metaphor describing the power of Jesus' ransom sacrifice. Just as horns represented the power or strength of an animal, anything associated with horns (like sacrifices on a horned altar or anointing someone out of a horn) implied that thing had great power. Thus, Zacharias' description of Jesus as the "horn of salvation" tells us not only that Christ would save us, but that He would do so in incomprehensibly powerful ways.

In our modern vernacular, Zacharias was essentially witnessing to those around Him that Jesus is the Savior of all, and that He had come to die for the sins of us all. Zacharias reminds us that there is power in Jesus-in His life, His works, His sacrifice, and even in His holy name!