Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Isaiah 56-61
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Matthew 11:25-30
Jesus: I praise You, Father—Lord of heaven and earth. You have revealed Your truths to the lowly and the ignorant, the children and the crippled, the lame and the mute. You have hidden wisdom from those who pride themselves on being so wise and learned. You did this, simply, because it pleased You. The Father has handed over everything to My care. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son—and those to whom the Son wishes to reveal the Father. Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Put My yoke upon your shoulders—it might appear heavy at first, but it is perfectly fitted to your curves. Learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. When you are yoked to Me, your weary souls will find rest. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
I’m not sure most of us are in the same ballpark as the people Jesus gave these words to twenty centuries ago. We complain about our forty-hour work weeks, and sometimes pushed into four ten hour days or three twelve hour days. We complain if we have to work on a Saturday. We complain if we have to work overtime. We complain if we don’t get our vacation time or sick leave. We complain about how hard our life is today.
Think about the people Jesus gave these words to. They lived in an agrarian society. It took four hours to bake the bread they would eat at their evening meal. The women of the house would cook and clean all day, from before sunrise until well after sunset. The men would plant and plow and weed and harvest. They would tend to their crops and the animals that helped them eek out a meager living from day to day. When Jesus gave them a model prayer and told them to ask for their daily bread, some of them didn’t know where their daily bread would come from. Even so, Jesus invites when we are weary and burdened to come to Him for rest.
He uses a metaphor most of us know little about today. He says, “Put My yoke on your shoulders…it is perfectly fitted to your curves.” We don’t know about yokes today because we don’t plow fields with animals as they did when He walked the earth in the flesh with us. The yoke fit around the ox, horse, or other work animal’s neck and shoulders and the reins fed through the yoke to control the animal as it plowed the field or pulled a wagon or did whatever work was required of it.
The yoke was fit to each animal individually. It needed to fit exactly right so that it didn’t rub in one place or another or place more weight in one area over another, but spread the weight over the entire yoke. When the yoke fit just right, the animal could pull tremendous amounts of weight without hurting itself. If the yoke didn’t fit, it would bruise one or two spots and like you, the animal avoids doing anything that hurts that spot already injured. It no longer works effectively or efficiently.
So what would He tell us today? Maybe instead of yokes He would look around at the news reports and see soldiers in their battle array. The equipment and kevlar protective gear they carry weighs about seventy pounds when they go out on patrol, but when it’s fitted correctly, it doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t feel like seventy pounds. If you grab your bag and pick it all up, you know how heavy it is, but once it’s all in place and distributed over your body, you can almost rest as you walk along doing your work as a soldier.
Until we come to Him, we’re like a private in basic training, unfamiliar with that equipment. He puts it on, but doesn’t know how to make it fit right. It jostles and rubs and pushes in the wrong places as he moves through training and everyday he goes back to the barracks with more bruises and sores than the day before. Until finally, he gets smart and asks his drill sergeant for help. That’s all the drill has been waiting for. Helping the new recruit understand that he’s not alone and can’t make it by himself. He needs someone else to show him the way.
That’s what Jesus does for us. He’s like that drill sergeant just waiting for us to realize how desparately we need Him, come to Him and ask for His help. He willingly gives it. But He doesn’t force Himself on us. He wants us to desire Him, not be robots that just jump because we’re programmed that way. He desires us to love Him the way He loves us. So He tells us to come along side Him in His work, share His yoke. He will take the heavy load and give us the lighter burden. Just as with a team of oxen, the lead ox takes the heavy load. That’s just what Jesus invites us to do as He invites us to come to Him.
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