Yokes All Around (7)

Pray Psalm 86.10-12.
For You are great, and do wondrous things;
You alone are God.
Teach me Your way, O LORD;
I will walk in Your truth;
Unite my heart to fear Your name.
I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart,
And I will glorify Your name forevermore.

Sing Psalm 86.10-12.
(Andrews: Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven)
For You are great, You wondrous deeds do;
You are the only and sovereign Lord.
Teach me Your way, let me give heed to,
with all my heart, Savior, all Your Word!
Lord, be gracious to me, Lord, be gracious to me,
praise Your Name forever, Lord!

Review Jeremiah chapters 26-28; meditate on Jeremiah 28.10.

Prepare.
1. What did Jeremiah have around his neck?

2. What did Hananiah do?

Meditate.
Jeremiah used yokes to speak to the nations and the people of God about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar and the armies of Babylon. At the Lord’s instruction, Jeremiah made yokes and sent them to the kings of the nations around Judah and to the king of Judah. These farm implements were meant to reinforce the message Jeremiah had been preaching for years: Repent, or become captives of Nebuchadnezzar.

But why did Jeremiah put a yoke on himself? What was he saying by this? Why did God instruct Jeremiah to wear a yoke, when he was the only person in the neighborhood who was listening to God (cf. 27.2)?

Jeremiah must have worn this yoke for quite a while, since the instruction to do so first came to him while Jehoiakim was king, and he still had it on when Zedekiah was king. For some time, Jeremiah appeared in public wearing a yoke, while he preached to admonish the people of Judah to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar and come under his yoke to save their lives.

Ultimately, of course, the yoke was not that of Nebuchadnezzar, but of God. God had given the instruction about the yokes. Nebuchadnezzar was, as it were, in the yoke with God, as His servant (27.6), to do His will in bringing judgment against Judah and the nation. Jeremiah did not disdain to be in the yoke he called the others to embrace. By placing themselves in the yoke with Jeremiah, the kings of the nations and the king and people of Judah would signal to God that they were submitting to His will. The yoke served rather like the blood on the lintels at the first Passover (Ex. 12). When Nebuchadnezzar came, all who were wearing a yoke would have been spared and taken alive into captivity in Babylon. All who refused to come under the yoke would be punished with death because of their rebellion. Hananiah’s death in the year in which he broke Jeremiah’s yoke foretold what all who stood with him could expect once the city of Jerusalem had fallen into Nebuchadnezzar’s hands.

God called His people to get in the yoke with Him, and Jesus undoubtedly had this episode in mind when He called us to take His yoke upon us and learn from Him (Matt. 11.20). Jesus was in the yoke of God’s will, doing the work that would result in our redemption. By getting in the yoke with Jesus we signal our desire to be at His side, doing His work, learning Him and His ways, and transforming the world under our feet by readying it for the good seed of the Kingdom of God.

Take on the yoke of the Lord every day, and you will find rest and life. The yoke of Jesus is a burden, it’s true, but it is easy and full of the light of life for all who come under it.

Reflect.
1. What does it mean for you to get in yoke with Jesus each day?

2. How does getting in the yoke with Jesus help us to learn Him?

3. How can we be at rest and yet be under the burden of working with Jesus at the same time?

It was not enough for the impostor to resist the holy servant of God to his face, without laying sacrilegious hands on that visible symbol, by which it had pleased God to testify that the Prophet's message was true. For such was the tardiness of the people, nay, their insensibility, that they could not be much moved by words; therefore God added a symbol, for Jeremiah carried cords or bands around his neck: and it was a sign of reproach before men, yet, in order to touch the people, he refused not to undergo that reproach. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Jeremiah 28.10

I take Your yoke upon me, Jesus, so that today I will…

Pray Psalm 86.1-9.
What light, easy, restful burden of working with Jesus is before you today? Praise Him for it, and take it on with a glad and joyful heart as you rest in the Lord in prayer.

Sing Psalm 86.1-9.
Psalm 86.1-9 (Andrews: Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven)
Bow down Your ear, O Lord and hear me;
I am afflicted and much in need!
Rescue my godly soul, be near me;
save me, O God, all my crying heed!
Lord, be gracious to me, Lord, be gracious to me,
all day long I pray and plead.

Lift up my soul, fill me with gladness;
Lord You are good, You will soon forgive.
Show me abundant lovingkindness;
let all who call on You ever live.
Lord, be gracious to me, Lord, be gracious to me,
heed to my poor pleading give.

When in my trouble, Lord, I call You,
You answer me; there is none like You!
There are no works like Yours, and all whom
You have created shall worship You.
Lord, be gracious to me, Lord, be gracious to me,
all shall glory give to You!

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006). All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).