Take My Yoke Upon You and Learn of Me...

Matt 11:28 “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”.

This command goes out to all those who bear heavy burdens; to those for whom life itself has become a burden. The Lord will go on in the next few verses show us how to enter into perfect rest and thus alleviate our burdens. We will see from His instruction that actually the rest of God (which is the secret to laying down your burden) resides in getting into His yoke with Him.

V:29 “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”.

“Take My yoke upon you…” This yoke of Christ is in contrast to the yoke one already wears; the yoke of bondage put upon us by our adversary (Lev 26:13). There are only two yokes in life; the devils yoke and the Lords Yoke. Jesus indicted those of His day by essentially telling them they were yoked up with the devil (John 8:44 “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do…”). The Lord is encouraging the reader to take His yoke because in fact it is much lighter than the yoke of the enemy.

The enemy is subtle yet scheming; he convinces man that he is a "free agent" and is free to do anything he pleases. Yet he completely understands the trappings of sinful choices that it places an iron yoke around one's neck that will enslave them to sin. When we are born again Christ breaks that yoke and seeks to yoke us together with Him that at the end of our life we might have a reward for our labors.

I want to focus on this statement: "Learn of me..." Learn what? Learn what it means to walk in His yoke and to surrender yourself to His will for your life. Learn how to walk in His yoke by following His example for He Himself walked in a yoke with His Heavenly Father (to the cross). As we surrender ourselves to His yoke we learn of His ways. I have seen the end of those who reject His yoke and their way is fraught with snares and pits, it is better in the end to go His way all the way.

“For I am meek and lowly of heart…” This is one of the extraordinary aspects to the Godhead; it is the fruit of meekness. This virtue is defined thusly:

"Softness of temper; mildness; gentleness; forbearance under injuries and provocations. 1. In an evangelical sense, humility; resignation; submission to the divine will, without murmuring or peevishness; opposed to pride, arrogance and refractoriness”.

WEBSTER dictionary.

Matt 11:29 is educating us on the virtue of meekness "...ye shall find rest unto your souls." You see that a major component to finding rest is meekness. The Lord Jesus Christ epitomizes meekness (Speaking in prophetic essence Psalm 45:4; V:8 describes the garments or the characteristics of Christ and myrrh equates with meekness); He was completely submissive to the Father's will. When you think of the power He had access to and yet He allowed shame and spitting; physical pain and smiting; the Son of Royalty who up to His earthly ministry had known only wonderful and reverential treatment (Even the Satan rebellion did not inflict one physical scar on Christ). But in the ignominy of His crucifixion He settled once and for all the absolute power and triumph in the Godhead trough meekness.

V:30 “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”.

The Yoke - it is easy, does not bind, chaff or harm the wearer in any way. In other words, it is a perfect fit...if we will but come into it and plough in His field we shall find it very comfortable. When does it chaff or cause us difficulty? When there is a conflict between our will and His.

Let us consider an account where this was so. Jonah 1:1-3 - Jonah found the yoke burdensome; it conflicted with his own will and so he paid the fare and fled from God. And as a result he released a firestorm of Gods dealings (Jonah 1:9-12; V:15) in his life that took him to the very gates of hell (Jonah 2:1-2; V:6). You see, it is an easy yoke when you consider the alternative.

You will find people unable to accept the Lords yoke, they say it is too hard: Isa 49:20 "...the way is too strait" This word strait is unique in Isa, it means "too narrow" or "too tight" We are told to enter in at the "Narrow" gate for “Broad" is the way that leads to destruction. This yoke is only hard for those who reject it, for those who prefer to do their own will instead of Gods (the way of transgressor is hard!).