The Yoke of God -vs- the Yoke of Bondage

Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart and 

ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30

God's desire is to bring you and I to an expected end:

For I know the thoughts I think toward you saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.  Jeremiah 29:11

That expected end is fulfillment of the vision, finishing the work of God:  

My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.   John 4:34

Whenever we enter into something new, it always requires leaving the old. Birth requires leaving the security of the womb.

God is asking us to take a new step of faith:

Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.  Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. . .   Isaiah 43:18-19

You may have been bound by doctrine which claims the power of God is no longer for today. You may have thought the extension of the Gospel to the world was the responsibility of ministers or missionaries. You may have been bound by tradition or denominations which prevented you from joining hands with the rest of the Body of Christ in the harvest fields of the Lord.  But God is revealing His vision. We are becoming part of a new network of spiritual laborers bound together by unity of purpose.

The Bible records two separate incidents involving the use of a net in the natural world which illustrate a great spiritual truth.

The first event occurred at the beginning of Christ's earthly ministry and is recorded in Luke 5. The disciples had been fishing all night and caught nothing. Jesus told them:  

Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught. [Peter said:]  Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing; nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.   Luke 5:4-5

When they let down the net they caught so many fish that it broke and they had to call their partners in another boat to come help them. The catch was so great that it filled both boats and they began to sink. Peter was amazed at this but Jesus told him:  

Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men.  Luke 5:10

The catch Peter was experiencing in the natural world was nothing compared to the great harvest he would reap in the spirit world as he became a fisher of men.

A similar incident is recorded at the end of Christ's ministry in John 21. The disciples had fished all night and caught nothing. At Christ's command they cast in the net and, once again, it was filled with fish. But this time was different than the first. The net did not break:  

Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three; and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.  John 21:11

These two events actually happened in the natural world, but they were parallels of a great spiritual truth. The first time the net broke but the second time it did not. What made the difference?

The first net was an example of the efforts of man. Peter was a fisherman by trade. He knew the natural methods and the tradition of fishermen. Through the broken net Jesus showed him that the efforts of man could not fulfill the vision and work of God.

When Peter realized the great work to which God was calling him he cried out:   

Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.  Luke 5:8

Peter would become a fisher of men. The old network could not accommodate the great spiritual harvest. Peter would have to abandon the traditions of man. He must cross the line of separation between Jew and Gentile. The old network must be broken and he must become part of a new network.

Jesus did not come to destroy the old, but to fulfill it through the new. 

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.  Matthew 5:17

He did not destroy the law, but added new meaning to it. He did not abolish the blood sacrifice for sin, but fulfilled it through the shedding of His own blood for the remission of sin.

Jesus warned about putting new wine into old wine-skins. The old wine-skins would not be able to hold the new wine just as the net could not hold the fish. 

No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.  Mark 2:21-22

The challenge of the Great Commission cannot be accomplished with anything less than a new net in the spirit world.

Between the first and the second fishing trips, a new network had been created. These natural fishing incidents were parallels of what had happened in the spirit world.

This new spiritual network can accommodate the vision which Jesus gave. But to enter it, one must step from the old into the new. The old yoke must be broken. The old net must be destroyed in order for the new net to hold.

Yokes were used all over the ancient world to unite animals together to labor in the harvest fields. They may still be used for this purpose in many nations today.

Jesus spoke of the yoke when He said:  

Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me: for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.  Matthew 11:28-30

The vision He has given is of the harvest field. Today that field represents millions of people who have never received the Gospel message. . . And He tells us this challenge is "easy" and "light"?

That is exactly what He is saying. But the old network, the old yoke, cannot accommodate the vision. You cannot fulfill it in yourself. You cannot do it through the efforts of man. You must become part of the new network and be yoked together with Him.

We are all under a yoke of some type. 

You are either under the yoke of bondage or you are under the yoke of God.

The yoke of bondage is three-fold. You can be in bondage to either sin, self, or man.

  The yoke of sin:  

I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt [sin] that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.  Leviticus 26:13

The yoke of Egypt is parallel the yoke of sin. You must have the yoke of sin broken in your lives if you are to come under the yoke with Jesus.

  The yoke of self:  

The yoke of bondage can be a bondage to self:   

For that which I do I allow not; for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that do I. Romans 7:15

Selfishness and pride are examples of the yoke of self.

   The yoke of man:  

The yoke of man is bondage put on you by others:  

For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne and lay them on men's shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.  Matthew 23:4

The yoke of man can include the bondage of guilt, tradition, denomination, or impossible standards of behavior imposed by others.

The three-fold yoke of bondage of sin, self, and man speaks of imposed labor, heaviness, and restlessness.

The three-fold yoke of God speaks of a united labor instead of imposed labor. It speaks of lightness instead of heaviness. It is a yoke of rest instead of restlessness.  The three-fold yoke of God is easy, light and restful:

Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.   Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus provided three steps to bridge the gap between the yoke of bondage and the yoke of God. It is the way out of the old and into the new:

*  Come:    You must willingly come to Him. This destroys the yoke of sin.

*  Take:      You must take His yoke. In doing so, the yoke of man is destroyed.

*  Learn:    You must learn of Him in order to destroy the yoke of self.

The yoke of God is not simply imparted by God. It is shared by Him.

(Biblical Studies)




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