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May 23, 2022 |
| Yoked | ||
The Bible uses the word "yoked" many times, in the Old Testament especially, and in prophecy especially. This picture is of a relatively modern yoke, but to be honest, yokes haven't changed a whole lot in 6,000 years. It consists of a heavy wooden piece that goes over the neck and shoulders of an ox. Coming down from that piece are two smaller wooden pieces that go beside the ox's necks. That keeps the large piece from falling off the oxen. The ox pushes against the large piece, which has a rope that is attached to the load that they are pulling.
Lost somewhere in the fog of time, there was a man who looked at an ox and said, "That powerful animal could do things I could never imagine doing, but how do I get him to do my work?" Eventually someone figured out the yoke, and it became wildly successful. As mankind spread out, they carried the idea with them and changed it in small ways. If you look at other countries, even today, the yokes that they use are very similar to the yokes that we have.
It changed societies. It changed the way we look at oxen. They were useless pests that would eat your crop. The yoke made oxen into a valuable commodity. A farmer who didn't have oxen and yokes needed to get them, or he would be doing that hard work himself.
Most farms in this country use tractors now, but there are still some primitive farms that use them. Because oxen aren't used much now, people in our time don't know what a yoke is or its purpose, or how it works. This becomes a problem because the Bible uses that word so many times and in different ways, and we may not understand. In this study, we're going to look at how the Bible uses the word "yoked".
In most cases, the Bible uses "yoked" as a metaphor that represents servitude or slavery. Just as animals were forced to put on a yoke and do their owner's work, slaves were also forced to do other people's work.
By your sword you shall live, and your brother you shall serve; but it shall come about when you become restless, that you will break his yoke from your neck. (Genesis 27:40)
This comes from Isaac's prophetic blessing of Esau after Jacob stole his birthright blessing. Esau was the older, and Jacob should have been subordinate to him.
Their father's blessing tells Esau that a time will come when he will be free of his brother, his yoke. Issac is using the word "yoke" to symbolize the authority that came from birthright. He doesn't mean that Esau will be a slave. He means that, when it comes to family matters, Jacob will rule.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect. (Leviticus 26:13)
This verse refers to the side bars of a yoke. If those bars aren't there or they're broken, the yoke can slide off.
The verse also says "made you walk erect." The imagery here is of a slave who must have a posture (and attitude) of submissiveness. For an ox to pull effectively, its head must be down a little so that its shoulders push against the yoke. That can be seen in the picture above. If he raises his head, the yoke will pull painfully on his neck. This head-down posture is the point of those words.
When God says an ox is to be sacrificed, one of the conditions that he puts on the animal is that it can't have ever worked in a yoke.
This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed." (Numbers 19:2)
There is a reason for God to request this, not a practical reason, but a prophetic reason. All of the sacrifices were prophetically symbolic of Jesus, who would be the fulfillment of them. This tells us that Jesus would never have been under the yoke of sin. It may have also included not being under the yoke of slavery, but that would be a small thing in comparison. Who can be without sin? Certainly no man. This was to be a hint about the Messiah, but most Jews missed it.
In this case then, the yoke is a spiritual yoke.
It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke; (Deuteronomy 21:3)
Yoke is used in a slightly different way here, but the idea is the same. The sacrifice is prophetically symbolic of Jesus.
So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them. (Numbers 25:3)
This verse comes from the time when the Israelites were wandering around in the desert. They run into some people who deceive them into worshipping Baal of Peor.
Baal is mentioned quite a bit in the Old Testament. It only means "master" or "lord," so there are many Baals. This is Baal of Peor. A better known one is Baal Zebub, which is the Lord of flying bugs like flies. Somehow Baal Zebub entered English as Bealzebub, which became a name for Ha Satan.The phrase "yoked to" is a little different use of the word "yoked." As described earlier, there was a rope or chain that connected the yoke to something else, like a farming implement or a wagon. So when the verse says they were "yoked to Baal," that means they were pulling Baal's load around, doing his work.
The verse also says they yoked themselves, which means they slipped off the yoke of God and took on the yoke of Baal of Peor.
The reference to "yoked" that all Christians know is "unequally yoked," probably because it also appears in the New Testament.
Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together. (Deuteronomy 22:10)
God doesn't explain that to Israel. They may think he doesn't need to because it's obviously a good instruction for anyone using animals for work. Because a donkey and an ox are different heights and different strengths, they can't pull together effectively. We'll talk about that more when we talk about oxen working in teams.
So it's an obviously good instruction, too obvious. There has to be a deeper meaning than that. God's real point was about believers and unbelievers working together. He says don't do that.
The word "yoked" is also used as a symbol of hard labor, hard times. That commonly comes as a threat.
Therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you. (Deuteronomy 28:48)
This verse is part of Deuteronomy 28, where God, through Moses, presents a long list of all the things that are going to happen to Israel if they turn away from God. More than a warning, it is really prophetic, because God knows they will turn away from him, and all these things happen to them.
God is threatening Israel with an iron yoke, but iron yokes were never used. The idea is metaphorical. A wooden yoke could sometimes be broken, but everyone understood that iron was stronger than wood, so an iron yoke would be an unbreakable yoke. It would also be a heavier yoke. So the message is about hard labor that never ends. That unending quality is emphasized by the phrase "until he has destroyed you."
God is more interested in destroying attitudes, like arrogance, that led to Israel turning away from him, but sometimes an attitude doesn't die until its holder dies. But the destruction God wants results in returning to him with humble hearts and fitting attitudes.
The verse makes another point. If you can't stand the lightweight yoke that I've put on you, wait until you see the yoke your enemies have for you.
Now therefore, take and prepare a new cart and two milch (milk) cows on which there has never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves home, away from them. (1 Samuel 6:7)
The Philistines had captured the Ark of the Covenant, but suffering followed wherever they took it. They determined they would return the Ark to Israel, but the Ark was a treasure; thus, some doubted the suffering was from God. If God (or a god) were behind this, they wanted to return the Ark … but only if a god was behind it.
So they set up a test. Cows that had been under a yoke learned that, mostly, you go straight ahead working together. They chose two cows that had never been in a yoke, so they wouldn’t just follow the road into Israel. Plus, they took the calves away from the cows, who would normally never leave their calves. They reasoned that, if the never-yoked cows without their calves took the Ark back to Israel, then it was the action of God and his will that it be returned.
In this case, the word "yoke" is just a yoke. Its significance is that it is part of a test to determine the will of God and to please God.
The young men who grew up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us!’ But you shall speak to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins! 11 Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’” (1 Kings 12:10-11)
King Solomon had lived well off the people, but someone had to pay for the wives. That had fallen on the people. They had done well, too, but the burden of his government had been heavy on them. Now Solomon is dead and his son, Rehoboam, is King, and the people are asking him to lighten their burden.
Rehoboam refuses to do so and says he will increase their load instead. The result is that Israel breaks into two groups, Judah / Benjamin versus the other 10 tribes. There will be sporadic war between them,but they will remain divided.
In this case, "yoke" refers to the load a government imposes on its people. The message behind the story is that if the load is too heavy, you will kill the animal and have nothing. The common people would have known that, but King Rehoboam did not.
His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east. (Job 1:3)
It was rare for a single ox to be used. They were usually used in a team of two, where the animals had been matched for their strength, height, and ability to work. As a matched pair, they had more value than as separate animals.
An unmatched pair of oxen had differences that kept them from working well together. The yoke twisted their necks, or it wouldn’t stay on.
In this case, the word "yoke" doesn't refer to a piece of wood. It refers to a matched pair of oxen that can work together under a yoke.
The word "yoke" is also used in prophecy in many different ways.
The Lord of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand, 25 to break Assyria in My land, and I will trample him on My mountains. Then his yoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder. 26 This is the plan devised against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations.” (Isaiah 14:24-26)
Isaiah is speaking prophetically about a person and his forces. Through him, God is saying that he will remove the yoke that this person has placed on them.
The word "yoke," in this case, refers more to control of their lives than hardship. The word is used in the context of a prophesied future removal.
Isaiah could be referring to one of 3 possible events.
So the best fit seems to be with the anti-Christ conquering Israel.
Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it. (Jeremiah 28:10)
At God's instruction, Jeremiah had been wearing a people-sized yoke. People sometimes wore yokes to help them carry heavy loads like jars of water. The yoke would go across the shoulders, and a jar of water would hang from each end.
Jeremiah has been wearing this small yoke, not to carry anything, but as a sign from God, a warning that they've turned away from God, and they need to accept that a Babylonian yoke will be put on their necks because of that. Jerusalem was not then under Babylonian control, but it had been, and Israel had rebelled.
Jeremiah went into a group of people, where a false prophet called Hananiah had been telling the people that God told him the yoke of the Babylonians was going to be broken within two years. Hananiah was falsely prophesying that all of the people who were taken before would be returned, and all of the articles that were taken from the temple would be returned, within two years.
That's exactly the opposite of what Jeremiah was saying as he walked in on Hananiah's prophesying. Of course Hananiah didn't appreciate this contradiction. He grabbed the small yoke from Jeremiah's shoulders and broke it as a sign for his own prophecy.
Both of them had used the yoke as a sign from God. It is somewhat clever of Hananiah to use Jeremiah's sign as a sign for his own prophecy, but things don't go well for Hananiah after that. A little later in that chapter, God tells Jeremiah to tell Hananiah that he's going to die within the year, and that does indeed happen, establishing Jeremiah's credibility as a prophet.
This case is related to the last one.
It will be, that the nation or the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine and with pestilence,” declares the Lord, “until I have destroyed it by his hand.” (Jeremiah 27:8)
This is a different idea, where the verse is telling the people they need to willingly put on the yoke of the king of Babylon.
God is telling Israel that he is using the King of Babylon to destroy them and others. God had ordained that the Babylonian Empire would be given a time when it would conquer and rule. If anyone resisted, they would be fighting against God, and they would be destroyed.
There are other places in prophecy that are like that. When Jesus is about to be captured, he says that this time is given to them, and anyone who fights against them will not succeed. There is another one in our future, where it says, if you fight against the Antichrist, you're not going to succeed, you'll just die trying.
It seems like God is punishing them, but this is really a chance for them to survive. All they have to do is accept the yoke of the king of Babylon. But that's just not in their nature. They see themselves as God's chosen people and somehow special because of it. Therefore they won't have anything to do with being ruled over by the king of Babylon. And they are destroyed.
This is another use of "yoked" from prophecy.
Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in My arms; But they did not know that I healed them. 4 I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, and I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; and I bent down and fed them. […] 12 Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, Israel with deceit. And Judah is unruly against God, even against the faithful holy one. (Hosea 11:3-4,12)
In this one, the yoke is a little different. This is actually a prophecy about Christianity. This chapter begins with the words, "out of Egypt I called my son," which is easily recognized as a messianic prophecy.
We know who Judah is. We know who Israel is. Who is Ephraim? They were one of the tribes, but prophecy often uses Ephraim as a reference to Christians, and that's what's being done here. We also see the "faithful holy one," which is a reference to Jesus. God is speaking, through Hosea, about another one who is holy. Who else could that be?
In this prophetic utterance, God is speaking about Ephraim (Christians), saying I:
We're crossing into the New Testament now to see another usage of "yoke" that we know well.
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. (Matthew 11:29)
Many Christians have twisted this to mean that there is no yoke at all, nothing they need to do to live the way God wants them to live. They use the non-Biblical phrase "resting in Jesus" to teach that Jesus is talking about a rest in the present, but the rest is really a future promise.
The difference between the Old and the New Covenants is important to understand here. In the Old Covenant, when you were age 12 or 13, the full load of that covenant landed on you, and you had to keep all of those rules and regulations perfectly. If you didn't, you had to make trips to the temple to sacrifice valuable animals. In the New Covenant, the load is lighter. The believer is supposed to learn and grow as the Spirit leads him to pull a heavier load, which he is able to do as he has become a stronger animal in the faith.
In Acts 15, the early Christians are figuring out what changed in the New Covenant.
And now, why are you tempting God, so as to put a yoke on the necks of the disciples, which not even our fathers nor we were able to bear? (Acts 15:10)
In this usage of "yoke," they are deciding what parts of the Old Covenant apply to Christians. The discussion began with circumcision but expanded to all of the law.
In this verse, Peter's argument is that the Holy Spirit is being given to Gentiles without them first having followed the Law, so who do these leaders think they are to slap that yoke on them now? You are telling God how to do his business, and therefore setting standards for God.
That is the same kind of tempting of God that the Israelites did when they were wandering around in the desert. They were always telling God what to do and trying to get him to do what they wanted instead of doing what he wanted.
The word "yoke" is used here to refer to the Old Covenant laws as a heavy burden to pull, one that had proved too heavy for the Jews.
This is the second reference to unequally yoked.
Do not be children of the yoke [associates] with those who are unbelievers; for what partnership has righteousness with evil, or what intimacy has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)
The translation I'm using, which is very direct, shows the idiom "children of the yoke", which pictures two oxen sharing a yoke as children to the yoke. The verse means don't be associates (partners, intimates) with unbelievers.
This takes us back to the other yoked verse from Acts 15. The Old Covenant law said they should not enter the houses of Gentiles. The intent of that was essentially the same as what Paul is saying to the Corinthians, but the division line now is believer versus unbeliever rather than Jew versus Gentile.
Most Christians abuse this verse when they want to marry someone who isn't a believer, but they cling to it when they want to divorce someone and remarry.
This verse isn't only about marriage. It's about any binding relationship that you can't freely walk away from. We always need to be careful with business partners and anything like that where we are bound by a promise. Your business partner and that promise may drag you into positions where you shouldn't be. Maybe he's going to commit your company to things that you don't want to be involved in because they're not godly things.
Stand therefore in that liberty with which the Messiah has set us free, and do not be yoked again in a yoke of bondage. (Galatians 5:1)
The Galatian church had wandered back into Judaism, and were starting to follow all of the Jewish laws and to be circumcised. Paul goes through a long explanation of why that is wrong and what they've lost by doing that. This verse is his summation.
We talked about standing already, and that wearing a yoke makes that impossible. Paul is telling them they get nothing from being slumped forward in that yoke. Instead they should stand and enjoy the freedom they've been given in the New Covenant.
They had yoked themselves to the Old Covenant instead of taking on the yoke of Jesus, which is a lighter yoke. We've seen the word "yoke" used in many ways. In this case it is being used as both the yoke itself and the burden you must pull with it. The things that we must do are the yoke and the burden, and the law specifies those things.
They had forgotten that salvation comes by faith in God, not by following the law. The law tells us how we should live our lives. In the Old Covenant, there was a huge amount of law, and breaking that law was a sin. That was a heavy yoke and burden. Under the New Covenant, our burden is much lighter, meaning that there are fewer things that we must do and not do.
There are people who want to believe the yoke is only the rules that were added by the leaders of Judaism, things like restrictions on how far you could travel on a Sabbath day, for example. Understanding "yoke" that way isn't consistent with what the rest of the Bible says, especially the verses from Acts 15 that we looked at above.