This post has been very difficult to write. I have had to put it aside several times, because I didn't understand where it was going, or what it was really about. However, weeks later, I am a little clearer about what I am to learn (I think).
Usually, when we think about spiritual yokes, we associate them with an evil, or bondage of which to be rid. There are promises in the Word of breaking yokes that cause us to hope and rejoice:
"It shall come to pass in that day that his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing."
Isa. 10:27
"...and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the band of those who have enslaved them." Ez. 34:27
A yoke is used to control and direct an animal, and may be used to join two together to work in unity. Oxen, some of the strongest beasts in the earth, are controlled with yokes. I saw an ox once, and it was so large, it almost looked monstrous. Yet, it goes and turns as the yoke directs him to go.
Jeremiah described a yoke that might be used in spiritual training:
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth." Lam. 3:25-27
It sounds to me that even waiting and hoping is a kind of yoke, according to Jeremiah's words above.
The Hebrew meaning of the word "yoke", is to act or deal with severely, to act or play the child. The root meaning also deals with causing to drink again and again after a former drink in order to quench the thirst fully, to drink again, to drink fully. It can mean to go back over a field that has been harvested in order to glean it of what remains. It can also mean to strike again after a first blow, in order to cause death.
Our instinct, when we perceive that we are under a yoke, is to throw it off however we can. We don't like being confined and forced to go a way that we don't desire to go. We assume that it is a spiritual enemy that has done this.
However, God also uses yokes with His people.
In Jeremiah 28, there is a prophet named Hananiah, whose name means "God has favored (gracious, favor, pity, mercy, supplication)". He prophesies that God has broken the yoke of the King of Babylon over Israel. Not only that, but the vessels of the Temple taken by this king would be brought back to Israel. The captive king and people of Judah taken would be returned to the land from Babylon. What a great prophetic word. The people must have been rejoicing when they heard it. It certainly fit into all that they understood about the God of Israel, and His covenant with them.
There was just one problem. The prophet Jeremiah was prophesying the exact opposite of this good news. In fact, he was going around wearing a wooden yoke symbolizing the fact that the people of Judah were to submit to the yoke of God, through the captivity to the King of Babylon. He approached Hananiah.
If I had been there that day, and witnessed this battle of the prophets. I have a strong suspicion that I would have been rooting for Hananiah. I would have been wrong.
Hananiah took the wooden yoke off of Jeremiah's neck, and broke it. Jeremiah received the word of the LORD, and said to Hananiah, "Thus says the LORD, You have broken the yokes of wood, but you have made in their place yokes of iron." (v. 13).
Jeremiah proved to be correct. The King of Babylon returned, and took the remaining inhabitants of Judah, except for the poorest, into captivity. They remained in captivity in Babylon for the prophesied 70 years.
God knew the hearts of His people, and He knew their confusion. In the next chapter of Jeremiah, He speaks some of the most beautiful words to His befuddled and captive people, in order to explain His yoke:
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope( to give you an expected end)." Jer. 29:11
Jesus also speaks of yoking His believers:
"Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." Mt. 11:28-30
Jesus is working hard here to sell us on the idea of allowing Him to yoke us, but He does yoke us. I wonder now, if it is possible that I sometimes confuse the yoke of Jesus for the yoke of an enemy, because I just don't want to be yoked. After all, if I could root for Hananiah, what else could I get wrong? Probably a lot.
I think of Saul of Tarsus. I think that Jesus had been trying to yoke him for some time, because He tells Saul on the road to Damascus, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads." (Acts 9:5)
A goad is a sharp implement that you use to poke the hind end of a yoked animal in order to get it to move forward when it is balking. The animal can sometimes kick back in order to try get rid of the goading.
Finally, Saul surrenders, and asks Jesus, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" (v. 6). I am so glad that Saul, that is the apostle Paul, finally surrendered to the yoke of Christ, and was converted on that road. His surrender changed all of our lives, as we read and learn from his deep writings in the New Testament.
However, this all leads me to consider what yokes I have tried to throw off, and what goads I have been kicking against.
This all came together for me this morning, as I read a news report that the persecution of Christians in Middle Eastern countries, has resulted in thousands of non-Christians, becoming believers in Christ. Those Christians in that area had to submit to a yoke of persecution. If I have difficulty with even smaller yokes, would I be willing to wear a yoke of persecution if it meant that thousands could be saved as a result? What if only one got saved as a result, or if I didn't see any saved as a result of my persecution? Would I, instead, be praying and doing everything I could do to throw off that yoke?
Accepting that yoke would require that I actually believe my favorite words from Jeremiah (29:11, above).
Do I believe those words in my heart? I hope so.
Our Father yokes His people.
"I Know the Plans"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZHxZAJMHCI
"His Yoke is Easy"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ_jwXnOFcg
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