Being Cornucopia

The horn of plenty marries the curse upon Adam and the curse upon Eve and unites them as a blessing.

The Table in the Mountain

Israel was given a “Firstfruits” of the Promised Land in Numbers 13. As with all Covenants, it was bittersweet. There were grapes, but there were giants. It was the same challenge as the one given to Adam. They were called to be judges who made their decisions based not on sight but on faith in the Word of their God.

God offers us a place at His Table, but between us and Him stands death’s door. The Law must be satisfied before He can pour out the Covenant blessings. Israel would inherit the crops and vineyards of Canaan but there would be bloodshed first. There is nothing inherently wrong with the fruit of Tree of Wisdom,¹Judicial wisdom is the knowledge of good and evil. or Cainite fruit and vegetables, but the “fruit” of Adam, or the blood of Abel’s offering, must come first. Priesthood precedes kingdom as the head precedes the body.

The traditional image of cornucopia is a perfect illustration of this process:

The cornucopia (Latin: Cornu Copiae) is a symbol of food and abundance dating back to the 5th century BC, also referred to as the food of worship and holiness, Horn of Amalthea, harvest cone, and horn of plenty.

In Greek mythology, Amalthea was a goat who raised Zeus on her breast milk, in a cave, on Mount Ida of Crete. Her horn was accidentally broken off by Zeus while playing together. The god Zeus, in remorse, gave her back her horn with supernatural powers, which would give whoever possessed it whatever they wished for. The original depictions were of the goat’s horn filled with fruits and flowers: deities, especially Fortuna, were depicted with the horn of plenty. The cornucopia was also a symbol for a woman’s fertility. The story is said to be a predecessor of the Unicorn and the Holy Grail stories.²From the Wikipedia entry for Cornucopia.

The relevance of fertility to the Covenant promises is obvious, but what is the significance of the horn? Horns are symbols of power. The very phrase “horn of plenty” contains the fruit of the head—the horn of Law—and the fruit of the body—the abundant outpouring of Grace. This image marries heaven and earth, death-and-resurrection. The horn of plenty marries the curse upon Adam and the curse upon Eve and unites them as a blessing.

Perhaps this explains the strange use of the “horn” in Isaiah 5. It’s so strange that translators don’t know what to do with it. Peter Leithart writes:

Most translations say that the Beloved planted his vineyard on a “fertile hill,” but Isaiah wrote that He planted it on “a horn, a son of oil” (Heb. beqeren benshamen). The phrase might refer to a fertile hill, but that’s not what the words mean.

The passage closest to Isaiah’s usage is in Zechariah 4, where the two olive trees are called “sons of oil” (v. 14). In Zechariah, the phrase refers to Zerubbabel and Joshua, the two anointed ones who lead the post-exilic community. Zechariah doesn’t use the word “horn,” but it fits the context, since the anointed ones are anointed from horns filled with oil, and become the horns of Israel, the victorious wild ox.

What would it mean to say that Yahweh had a vineyard on a “horn, a son of oil”? Verse 7 says that vineyard is “the house of Israel” and the men of Judah are the “delightful plant” within the vineyard. That vineyard was planted “on” the anointed one, David and his descendants. The links are complex but fairly clear: David is anointed, hence a “son of oil”; Yahweh regularly raises David’s horn on high; David is also a mountain “horn” on which Israel rests.³Peter J. Leithart, Son of Oil. See also Psalm 132:17.

Well, that is a good start, but it is only the exaltation of the Covenant Head. What about the Body? As in marriage, the “living sacrifice” of the Head is life to the Body.

Could the vineyard have been planted in the horn? Horns and anointing oil are generally concerned with the head. Horns, including those upon Israel’s bronze and golden altars, were made to be bloodied, but only broken horns are bloodied with their own blood.

Joseph was exalted over his brothers, an exalted “horn,” which his envious siblings subsequently broke. Yet, in his brokenness, Joseph brought abundance to Potiphar’s household. Joseph was broken again, and prospered even in the stony barrenness of a prison. Finally, it was his chains that were broken and he was exalted once more, prospering Egypt and distributing the salvation of his abundance to all nations.

In Revelation 5, Christ was the Firstfruits Lamb. He poured out the olive oil of the Spirit at Pentecost and sealed an entire army of sacrificial lambs, who are later pictured as grain and grapes. Through death, the Lamb emptied Himself and became a Holy Place, a Holy Land. The bloodied, emptied horn is followed by the Spirit, and the buried head brings a harvest. The Spirit overshadows the good soil and fills Him with bridal fruit.

That is also what we see in Zechariah. The cherubim that exiled Judah from the Garden-Land into the World have hammered their flaming swords into flaming plowshares. The result is a new burning bush, a multiplied Lampstand. With a renewed flow of Spirit oil, the Restoration era was a spiritual Cornucopia, despite outward appearances. When Jesus came to inspect it, the entire empire was ready for harvest. Enter Paul.

The same “horn of plenty” pattern was repeated in a grander scale in AD70. The Firstfruits Lamb was seen with seven new horns, seeking vengeance. As Jesus died for Judea, so all Judah (the kingly horn) would die for the abundant life of the world.

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