Under A Yoke

"Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take My yoke upon you 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)

Jesus was speaking in the manner of His day when He gave the invitation to "take My yoke upon you."  The people who heard Him would know He was inviting them to be His disciples.  At about the age of 12, all Jewish boys were considered to be under the yoke of the Law - it was an idiomatic term to say they were now at the age of accountability to submit to the Law.  Of course in Jesus' day they were accountable not only to the Written Law of Moses, but also to the Oral Law and the traditions of the Rabbis.  As a young man came of age and was invited to follow a particular Rabbi, which was a great honor, people said that he was now 'under the yoke of Rabbi so-and-so'.  The young man would follow the Rabbi and learn from him his particular interpretation of all the minute laws and traditions that regulated just about all of Jewish life.

A yoke would be a common sight in Jesus' day as He lived in an agrarian society.  It was used to unite two separate animals to accomplish one common purpose.  Most likely the yokes in Jesus day were made of wood, perhaps by a carpenter.  I imagine a good carpenter would want to make sure the yoke he made for a particular animal would fit that animal and not be too big or too small or too rough.  When Jesus said "My yoke is easy", He literally meant 'well-fitting.'

One of the things I discovered in researching yokes is that there is something called a 'training yoke' and it was formed so that a young and untrained animal could be paired up with an older and more experienced animal who would bear the greater weight of the load.   In Paul Harrison's commentary of this passage in Matthew's Gospel, he writes of the older trained animal..."led under the guiding hand of the ploughman; all the younger animal had to do was to 'pull his weight'.  If the smaller animal pulled away there would be trouble.  The furrow would have to be ploughed again, of course; but in the process of it all, the yoke would chafe the shoulders, not of the young animal only, but of both animals.  The young animal's rebelliousness had to be tamed, it had to become meek and lowly, yielding to the senior partner.  So the yoke was made to sit easy on him when he cooperated but chafe when he did not.  But the senior partner, too, had to be meek and lowly.  It had to be patient and forgiving of the younger animal's spirit and bear with it until the younger learned the benefits of willing cooperation.  So the yoke was made in such a way as to encourage him too, to keep the junior partner in line.  If he lost his cool with the junior partner, the yoke would rub him raw too."

Paul wrote to Timothy (lTim1) that "We know that the Law is good if one uses it properly".  By Jesus' day the Pharisees, in their zeal to 'protect' the Law from being transgressed, had added so many additional restrictions that to follow the Law as they deemed right became a burden to the people.   "The Yoke of the Law", which had started out as a beautiful description of one being obedient to God had now become a taskmaster that none could live up to.  It was a heavy burden laid on their shoulders by the religious leaders of the day. 

The Rabbis and Pharisees said, "We'll yoke you to the Law".  Jesus said:  "I'll yoke you to Me.  I'll bear the greater weight, I'll train you up.  My yoke is easy.  And although it's still a yoke, this Carpenter made it for you and it fits you perfectly.  But if you strain against it or don't walk in step with Me, if you pull away in rebellion, it will be painful and you will chafe; but you will still be yoked to Me.  And if you choose to 'pull your own weight' and walk in step with Me, I will bear the greater weight of the ploughing.  The burden on you will not be too great and you will not become weary in our work together."

As we grow in maturity in our walk with the Lord I believe He gives us opportunity to be in His usual position in the yoke with a younger, inexperienced one at our side.  Children are a good example of this picture.  We are yoked together with them, we show them the path, we work along with them, carrying the greater burden;  if the child rebels and gets rubbed raw or chafed, we do too.  It hurts.  But when was the last time I invited someone other than my children to come under Jesus' yoke with me?  Someone who needs to walk alongside a more experienced Believer who can show her the way and shoulder most of the weight; and also shoulder some of the pain too if that person pulls away and chafes at cooperating.  Someone whom I won't let go of if she starts to wander.  Jesus said:  "Open your eyes and look at the fields!  They are ripe for harvest."  (John 4) 

Open our eyes Lord.

Lean on Me

Bill Withers had a hit in the 1970's called "Lean On Me" and it goes like this:

"Lean on me when you're not strong

I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on...

You just call on me brother, when you need a hand;

we all need somebody to lean on."



Friends are a special blessing in our lives.  They laugh with us, cry with us, share our interests and our dreams.  We confide in them, can't wait to share our joys and successes with them and yes, call on them when we need someone to 'lean on'.  And if you have friends in the Faith, you are doubly blessed.  There is a wonderful illustration of this in Exodus 17.

Moses had just led God's people out of Egypt and into the desert when the Amalekites attacked them.  Moses told Joshua to choose some men to go out and fight the enemy.  He, Moses, would go up on top of the hill with God's staff in his hands.  As long as he held his hands up towards heaven, the Israelites had victory but when he grew tired and lowered his hands, the Amalekites would win.  Then we read this:

"When Moses' hands grew tired, they (Aaron and Hur) took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it.  Aaron and Hur held his hands up - one on one side, one on the other - so that his hands remained steady till sunset.  So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword."



What a beautiful picture - a brother Aaron and a friend Hur - coming alongside Moses to hold him up in his time of trouble so his hands could remain steady.  The word for 'steady' in Hebrew is 'emunah' and it means 'faithfulness'.  It is often used in scripture to describe the character of God.  From this word we get a sense of dependability, trustworthiness and righteousness.  Moses hands remained steady; they remained faithful.  In this particular instance they remained so because he had friends who came alongside him, who stood shoulder to shoulder with him to support him with their steadiness and faith.  Moses could lean on them and there was victory in the battle.

There is a similar story of friends in the Gospel of Luke.  Jesus was teaching in his hometown of Capernaum and was healing the sick.  There was such a crowd gathered in the house that there was no room left, not even outside the door.  Some friends came seeking healing for a paralyzed man they were bearing on a mat.  When they realized they couldn't get near to Jesus they went up on the roof, made an opening in it and lowered the man to the floor in front of Jesus (Luke 5).  When Jesus saw their faith He said to the paralytic:  "Son, your sins are forgiven."  And then He said:  "Take up your mat and go home."   And immediately the man stood up, took his mat and went home praising God.  This is another beautiful illustration of friends coming alongside in their faith, their 'emunah' to help a brother in need.  The paralytic could lean on these friends and God responded in victory in his life.

There have been many times in my life where I have been like Moses, weary in the battle.  Yet I have been blessed with friends who allowed me to lean on their faith during those times when mine seemed shaky and unsteady.  And there have been times when I am like the paralytic, needing forgiveness and healing.  During those times too I have had friends who stood alongside me, carrying me to Jesus to receive in my hour of need.  I have known friends who, like the Book of Proverbs says:  'stick closer than a brother'.

Paul writes to us in the Book of Ephesians to put on the full armor of God.  And then he says:  "In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinquish all the flaming arrows of the evil one."  (Eph. 6)  Most scholars believe Paul had in mind a picture of the Roman military armor when he wrote this to Believers.  This shield they used was perhaps as large as 4 1/2' tall and 2' wide.  Soldiers could stand shoulder to shoulder behind it and create a huge wall of protection from the enemy's attack.  This is us, in Christ, when we stand shoulder to shoulder in faith, in steadfastness, in 'emunah'.  When you are weak, lean on me and my faith; when I am weak let me lean on you and your faith.  Together we can remain steady.  After all, we all need somebody to lean on.