Take My Yoke
Posted by: bneumann848 <bneumann848@...>
I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt so you would no longer be their
slaves. I broke the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk with your
heads held high. (Leviticus 26:13 New Living Translation)
Come to me, all of you who are weary and
over-burdened, and I will give you rest! Put on my yoke and learn from me. For
I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my
yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 J.B. Phillips
Translation)
Admittedly, I’ve never lived on a farm, but
the idea of wearing a yoke seems anything but “easy” and “light.” God told Israel that He broke the yoke of
slavery from their necks, yet Jesus bids us to come to Him and voluntarily put
on another yoke.
According to Wikipedia,
“The yoke has connotations of subservience; in some ancient cultures it was traditional
to force a defeated enemy to pass beneath a symbolic yoke of spears or swords.
A remnant of this tradition is the saber arch
seen at some military weddings. The
yoke may be a metaphor for something oppressive or burdensome, such as imperialism, or for a link or bond
between two people, such as marriage.”
Did you catch that last part? Read that scripture in Matthew 11 again and
you’ll find that it’s not about us laboring under an oppressive set of laws,
but about learning to walk in step with the One we love beyond words, learning
from Him, following His leading, trusting that He knows the way. In that place of surrender, we find rest.
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