Nougat 11

Despite it not being the weekend, I pray we rested yesterday. More importantly, I pray we took Jesus’ offer up. The good news is this offer is eternal, for both here and hereafter. Equally good news is that there’s another offer up for grabs. Here’s today’s Holy Nougat

“Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11:29‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This business of yokes is not quite fun. When plowing fields etc; two oxen were ‘connected’ *at the necks* and attached to a plow (or whatever implements we’re needed for the task). I suspect that they would have been whipped initially until they learned the routine; but it might be that they paired a strong experienced ox with a weaker (less experienced) one. I (guess and hope actually) that it wasn’t with two oxen of similar strength and/or obstinacy. For that’s where trouble would begin. Can’t you see the raw necks when each insists on going its own way?

As I prepared that nougat yesterday, I couldn’t help but think of human yokes; like Samson being yoked to the treading mill for harvested grain(16:21). For all his former strength and independence, he could only go round in circles, or wherever the wheel took him.

Of course I also made the connection to the admonition; ”be not unequally yoked …” in 2 Corinthians 6:14; for I believe he got yoked to Delilah, who was a kindred but unequal spirit (read Judges 15-16). How so?, you ask. Well for me, he may have felt that Delilah had a similar desire for the unique and exotic; and she wasn’t bound by rules he found unnecessary. But, ultimately he’d yoked himself to someone whose loyalty was as strong as his. Except that they weren’t loyal to each other! Nor was Samson loyal to God’s Spirit. That was his problem. Delilah was the manifestation, not the problem. For he knew God’s plans for his life, or at least his parents’ version. But off he went doing his own thing. And painfully found out that the wrong yoke is a real prison sentence!

When we consider our own actions, we might not be romantically yoked with the wrong person; but we might be yoked to things or people in unhealthy ways. When that happens, we might ultimately find ourselves unintentionally yoked by prison chains to a spiritual treading mill. If that’s the case, then it’s not good to blame the person or situation if we misunderstood what we were getting into.

Jesus offers each of us a way off the unequal yoke. He offers Himself to be on the other side of each of our yokes. We know that having been this road before, Jesus knows every pitfall and He is sure-stepped. And He will ensure that the previous yoke no longer imprisons us. Of course we have to decide whether to trust Him. No one else can make that decision for us. Will we?

Tomorrow, we will look at Jesus’ offer to take His yoke.

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May all we seek be found in Christ