Daily Devotional – February 17

Biblical Accuracy

Are unicorns real? AnAPreport coming out of an Italian nature preserve announced, “Single-Horned ‘Unicorn’ Deer is Found in Italy.” Sounds like fantasy, doesn’t it? But unicorn merely means “one horn”, and that is what was discovered in Italy.

Interestingly, its twin has two horns, so in this case, the one horn is probably a genetic flaw or birth defect. What is interesting is that the horn is positioned in the center of its head. Unicorns are mentioned in the King James Bible multiple times (Deuteronomy 33:17; Numbers 23:22, 24:8; Psalm 22:21, 29:6, 92:10; Isaiah 34:7). Ancient artwork also has images of unicorns. Remember that a unicorn is just a one-horned animal but depictions do not look like rhinos. They could be a one horned deer, goat, or some other animal. Unicorns were some kind of four-legged mammal with either a genetic mutation for a single horn (like the one found in Italy) or an extinct variation of a species still alive today.

God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.

~ Numbers 23:22

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett