Monday, June 28 2010

Did Unicorns Really Miss The Boat?

The Unicorn Song (words and music by Shel Silverstein), perhaps made most famous by the Irish Rovers, was about how the mythical unicorns missed their place on Noah's Ark because they hid from Noah, "playing silly games." An excerpt:

The ark started moving, it drifted with the tide
The unicorns looked up from the rocks and they cried
And the waters came down and sort of floated them away
That's why you never see unicorns to this very day

You'll see green alligators and long neck geese
Some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees
Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you're born
You're never gonna see no unicorns

Mythical Unicorns Missed The Boat; Real Unicorns Didn't

While the song is correct, the mythical unicorns (usually portrayed as a horse with a long, single horn extending from their foreheads) missed their ride on the ark, the real unicorns were with Noah on the ark. How do we know? Because unicorns are recorded in the Bible after the flood. Job saw them in his time:

"^39:9 Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?

^39:10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

^39:11 Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? ^39:12 Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?" (Job 39:9-12 KJV)

King David also saw them in his time:

"^92:10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil." (Psalm 92:10 KJV)

Moreover, we know that unicorns exist today. How do we know that? Because they are described as existing in the future at the time of Christ's return.

"^34:7 And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

^34:8 For it is the day of the LORD vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion." (Isaiah 34:7-8 KJV)

But if "unicorns" exists today, why can't we see them? The answer is, we can. You almost certainly have seen a "unicorn," if only in pictures.

The English word unicorn, which is derived from the Latin words meaning one horn, was used by the King James translators (and others) for the original Hebrew word of the Scriptures, pronounced reh-ame, which means a wild bull. The best-known wild-bull "unicorn" of the animal world is the rhinoceros - a very strong, single-horned (which is what "unicorn" means) animal that perfectly matches the description of the Biblical unicorn.

Fact Finder: Why is the ship that Noah built called an "ark"? Why is the word used for two other "arks" in the Bible?
See Arks Of The Covenant

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This Day In History, June 28

1389: The Ottoman (Turkish) Empire victory at the Battle of Kosovo; a turning point for the Turks in the development of their European empire, and a tragedy for the medieval kingdom of Serbia because it began for the Serbs more than 4 centuries under Ottoman rule (listen to our Sermon The Ottoman Empire).

1519: Charles I of Spain became Holy Roman Emperor.

1629: The Peace of Alais. Peace settlement between French royal forces and the Huguenots by which the Huguenots retained their religious and civil liberties but lost their military power.

1635: The French colony of Guadeloupe was established in the Caribbean.

1838: The coronation of Queen Victoria took place in Westminster Abbey, a year after she had ascended the throne.

1914: Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, 51, nephew of Emperor Franz Josef and heir apparent to the Habsburg throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sophia were assassinated by a Bosnian, Gavrilo Princip, in Sarajevo, setting off the First World War (listen to our Sermon The European World Wars). The assassination took place on the anniversary of the defeat of the Serbs by the Turks at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389.

1919: At the end of the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles Palace, near Paris. Germany was stripped of all its overseas colonies, demilitarized, and ordered to pay heavy reparations.

1940: Italo Balbo was killed at age 44. The Italian airman and Fascist leader, who was decisive in developing Benito Mussolini's air force, was killed by "friendly fire" when his own anti-aircraft gunners mis-identified their commander's aircraft and shot it down in Tobruk harbor.

1951: The first color-TV broadcast.

1968: Daniel Ellsberg was indicted for leaking the "Pentagon Papers."