Encouragement
Mankind was born fitted for a yoke! You were born with a yoke and you will die with a yoke! You will never be free from its restraint! Its weight will rest heavily upon your soul and there will never be freedom from it.
The yoke I speak of is firmer than iron. It does not bend nor twist, always confining you and forever directing your paths. Man by himself is no better than the oxen straining with the weight under the bondage of his yoke and the constant beating of the masters whip.
We try to live in the yoke pretending it isn’t there. If it causes a sore we apply medicine to it. If we tire of it we lie down and play. If it’s ugly we dress it up with the sales we found at the mall. But it is always there reminding us of one ugly fact – we are prisoners! We are in bondage! We try to improve, we grow but the yoke does not.
Its confining, its heavy, it hurts, its hard and its ugly! It is man made too! It is ancient. The man who made it was the first man who ever lived. He is dead but his handicraft endures for all ages. Adam left his legacy for all men to experience, the yoke of sin!
This yoke determines our path. It guides us and directs our steps. With it we are linked with the hordes of humanity who march in unity wherever the yoke leads. Our lives are not our own. We belong to the yoke! It is the master of our destiny and we are its servants.
Job 5:7 Says “For man is born for trouble as sparks fly upward.” And so it is for the yoke bearers!
But from the womb of a peasant girl in Israel came hope! A seed was born that would have the power to break the yoke and deliver the slaves from their bondage. This seed would grow up and become the most powerful force ever seen on planet earth!
In Mat. 11:28-30 this seed issued an invitation! “Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you for I am gentle and humble in heart and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my load is light!” (Italics mine)
Here God offers “the great exchange,” the yoke of sin for the yoke of righteousness. A yoke for a yoke! A promise for a load!
The promise for such an exchange is rest for your souls! Sweet, beautiful rest! Now this perplexes me! Why do we see so many in our churches today completely squashed by the loads of daily living? I am not talking about someone apart from the covenant of God but these are people who have publicly and sincerely declared that Jesus is their Lord! These are people who love God, go to church, pay their tithes and do all the right things. These are not your closet Christians. These are the saints of our generation! So why do they struggle with loads that they were never meant to have?
If this describes you let me ask you another question. At what price would you be willing to pay for this freedom? Would you be willing to suffer scorn and ridicule? Would you be willing to sell all your possessions and give the proceeds to the poor for it? Is there a price too high for a restful soul?
It is interesting to see that here in Mathew, Jesus doesn’t say that’s the price you have to pay for it. As a matter of fact he doesn’t mention any price. But he does give instructions for how to get it. In this passage he gives three commands.
The first is “Come to me!” He doesn’t say go to church, be good, buy a bible, get baptized or quit doing bad things. In fact the yoke of sin prevents you from doing all of these, but, it cannot prevent you from coming to Jesus! There does not exist a yoke so strong as to prevent you from coming to the “yoke breaker.”
Secondly he says “Take my yoke upon you!” If you think about it the only way this can be accomplished is by faith! It takes faith to trade what is familiar all of our lives, for the unknown. But can the one who makes such an offer back it up? O absolutely! Because not many days hence he would be crucified and conquer the master yoke of death by emerging from the grave alive. You bet he can back it up!
Now here is a divine fact. You cannot bear two yokes at the same time! The bearing of one prevents the other, yet Jesus says you have a choice. You can take his yoke upon you! In doing so the former yoke is abolished with all of its power!
And finally Jesus gives us one more command, “And learn from me.” You have been a life-long pupil of your former yoke and you learned it well. Now there are new lessons to discover and to live! Now there is a new path under your feet and an eternity awaits you with lessons and experiences from the Holy One!
So there it is. Three simple steps that can rescue you from the soul crushing weight of modern day living. Head for Jesus, trade your yoke in for the “divine model,” and fill your soul’s quest for wisdom and understanding by learning from him! Putting all of this in action will dress you with his yoke. The load will be light, your path easier and in your journey you will have rest for your soul! Real rest! Sure there will be times when the yoke leads you over some rough roads but you’ll have heaven sent tranquility and rest while others struggle.
Yep, you were born with a yoke. Now, which one will you die with?
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