A YOKE joins two draft animals at the neck so they can work together as a team. It looks heavy and uncomfortable. Many OT uses depict it as a literal yoke that binds two oxen or to figuratively describe a heavy duty or partnership, or forced labor.
The first mention of a yoke is in a reminder from God: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.”
God never intended that anyone be yoked in slavery to anything, yet this was not always lived out in the lives of His people. For instance, one OT king was advised to serve the people kindly, but he said, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.”
The Lord used this term to speak of bondage under pagan kings and to idolatry. In Jeremiah 28:14, He says: “I have put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke to serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him, for I have given to him even the beasts of the field.”
In his Lamentations, Jeremiah said, “My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by his hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck; he caused my strength to fail; the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand” revealing the suffering of being disciplined for sin. However, he and other prophets also wrote promises from God using the symbol of a yoke:
Jeremiah 30:8. “And it shall come to pass in that day, declares the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and I will burst your bonds, and foreigners shall no more make a servant of him.”
Ezekiel 34:27. “And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land. And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them.”
Hosea 11:4. “I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.”
Nahum 1:13. “And now I will break his yoke from off you and will burst your bonds apart.”
In the NT, Jesus also used the image of a yoke to show the severity of spiritual bondage. That is, the bondage of a life yoked to sin is doubled by the heavy labor of trying to plow through it in our own strength, not realizing that this ‘teamwork’ with my own self is the cause of my struggle. He said,
Matthew 11:28–30. “Come to me, all 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.”
I imagine being yoked like an animal with an apparatus fitted to join me with a partner. We are attached with neck pieces attached to a heavy top bar that is attached to a load pulled by two rather than one, but both are me! The yoke itself is heavy so I am bearing the weight of it as well as pulling the load. Jesus invites those who are yoked in that way to take on the ‘way’ of life that He offers. In other words, He wants to set me free from the weight of trying to cope using a ‘partner’ that is part of the problem not the solution.
Sin is defined as doing things my way without God. The human answer tends to either deny sin exists or tries harder to be good enough. Both make the burden even heavier because both are the burden! Trying to fix life apart from the enabling power of God is simply impossible. Jesus says His way gives rest because His yoke is nothing like mine and His burdens are also nothing like mine.
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. An NT verse illustrates the simplicity of Christ’s burdens: “Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.”
In life, all who work for overbearing taskmasters with a motivation for personal gain carry a heavy load of resentment and frustration. Jesus’ way is to honor that taskmaster and be motivated by doing their work “as unto the Lord” — a change of intention changes the weight of our task. Doing the tough stuff for Jesus makes it a light load compared to doing the tough stuff for some sort of personal gain or to please a tyrant. This yoke business is more than being set free from burdens; it is being set free from the tyranny of self. Galatians 5:1 sums up what I need to remember and do: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
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