Y is for Yoke (Part 1)

Unless you live in a pre-industrial society, you don’t think much about yokes because teams of draft animals pulling plows have been replaced by powerful tractors. But if you were a farmer in Bible days, you needed yokes so you could harness your animals and plow your land. Cultivating the land meant growing food to eat and also to sell so you would have money to purchase other things you needed.

Our English word “yoke” goes back to a Latin word that means “to join.” The image of the yoke is used frequently in Scripture and teaches us some important truths that can help us in our Christian walk and work.

Submission
“The first duty of every soul,” wrote P. T. Forsyth, “is to find not its freedom but its Master” (Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind, p. 28). Once we find our Master and obey Him, we have found our freedom to do what we were made to do and become what we were ordained to become.

Obviously the draft animals must submit to the will of the farmer and accept the yoke, or no work can be done. It wasn’t easy work, but they would be fed and set free at the close of the day and could anticipate total rest on the Sabbath. The godly farmer took good care of his animals.

For lost sinners, submission means salvation and this is the beginning of the Christian life. Saul of Tarsus was like a stubborn animal “kicking against the goads” (Acts 26:14) and refusing to yield to the Lord; but eventually God conquered him. Proud of his own righteousness and his religious zeal, Saul refused to submit to God’s righteousness until he was humbled by the Lord (Rom. 10:1-4); Acts 9:1-19). Until then, Saul had been wearing the “yoke of slaver” (Gal. 5:1), which nobody could successfully wear (Acts 15:10).

The invitation of Jesus still goes forth:

“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” (Matt. 11:28-30)

An “easy yoke” is one that fits well and was designed especially for you, and the “light burden” is one that you can carry successfully because you love Him and therefore find that “his commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). “If you love me,” said Jesus, “you will obey what I command” (John 14:15). When we come to Him, we receive the gift of “peace with God,” and when we learn from Him, we find rest in the Lord. You can’t lose.

Submission is not subjugation or slavery but a willing obedience to one who loves us and wants the very best for us. A wife has no hesitation in submitting to a husband who loves her “just as Christ loved the church” (Eph. 5:15-33), and the Christian has no difficulty submitting to other believers in the Lord (1 Cor. 16:15-16; Eph. 5:21; Heb. 13:17) or to civil authority that doesn’t contradict the clear law of God (Rom. 13:1-5; Acts 5:29). Whether we are young or old, we must clothe ourselves with humility toward one another (1 Peter 5:5-6). The wisdom of the world tells us to assert ourselves and get what we deserve, but God’s wisdom tells us to humble ourselves and let God do the judging.

Service
The yoke enables the animals to work together, share the burden and accomplish more. So it is with the spiritual yoke that we Christians wear. If we are sincerely seeking to serve God, “we are God’s fellow workers” (1 Cor. 3:9); if we are serving ourselves or this world, we are tearing apart what God wants to keep together. Paul had many friends who served the Lord with him, but he didn’t see them as his “employees” but as his “fellow workers.” This included Priscilla and Aquila, Urbanus and Timothy (Rom. 16:3-4, 9, 21), as well as Ephaphroditus (Phil. 2:25), and the people who were in Rome when he was a prisoner there—Tychicus, Onesimus, Mark, Jesus, Epaphras, Luke and Demas (Col. 4:11-14) and Philemon (Phlm. 1:1). What a great privilege to serve the Lord and to do it together with Paul!

Over the years, I’ve been privileged to labor together in conferences with some of God’s finest servants, and their submissive attitude has influenced me greatly, although I still have a long way to go. I recall a conference where Dr. J. Vernon McGee was scheduled to be the third speaker, but the first two speakers, inflated by the large crowd (who came to hear Dr. McGee!), took too much time in their preaching. When Dr. McGee was given the platform, he said, “I have changed my text to John 10:8—‘All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers.’” The wave of laughter eased the tension and he went ahead and brought a marvelous message. We all wished he had been given more time.

In Philippians 4:2, Paul names two women who were breaking the yoke because they couldn’t get along with each other, and he asked his “loyal yokefellow” to help the women accept their yoke and serve together (v. 3). What a great name—“Sunzugos, yokefellow”! I wouldn’t really want the name but I would sure like to deserve it. The Greek preposition sun means “together with” and Paul uses it three times in Philippians 4:3—“yokefellow,” “contended,” which is “fellow athletes,” and “fellow workers.” What a fellowship!

We must be careful not to compromise and yoke up with those who are not God’s children. “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers” (2 Cor. 6:14) isn’t commanding us to leave the world (1 Cor. 5:9-11) but to take care of our testimony. The people of Israel “yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor” (Ps. 106:28; Num. 25) and 24,000 people died in the plague God sent. “Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together” (Deut. 22:10) illustrates this truth: the ox and ass have different temperaments and different speeds, and being yoked together could only bring frustration and no work would be accomplished. Even more, the ox was a “clean animal” and the ass was “unclean” (Deut. 14:1-8).

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