First Kings 19:19-21 (Devotional Reading 1 Kings 19:19-21)
1 Kings 19:19-21 So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, "Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you." And he said to him, "Go back again, for what have I done to you?" So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen's equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.
A yoke was a type of harness, usually made of wooden beams shaped to fit over the necks, which connected a pair of oxen. When the oxen worked together, walking in step with each other, the burden of their plowing was greatly eased. When they got out of step with one another, the yoke would bind and chafe. In New Testament times the phrase take the yoke of was used by the Jewish rabbis to mean "Become the pupil of a certain teacher." Both Jesus and the Apostle Paul used the figure of the yoke to discuss and describe your service to God: Jesus says to His followers, in Matthew 11:29-30, "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Even the Apostle Paul, writing to the Philippians, calls one of the believers his yokefellow in Philippians 4:3.
You are to be yoked with Jesus, and you are yokefellows with one another as you minister. More importantly, your service and ministry should not be a burden. You should be able to walk in step with Jesus and with one another, thus easing the work. The truth is, so much ministry and serving in the church is burdensome! There can be pressure to serve, and you are often the victim of manipulation techniques. The ministry itself becomes a heavy load. It shouldn't be that way... and it wasn't that way for Elijah and Elisha! It should not be a burden for you to share a yoke of ministry.
Often with the right motives, Christians employ the wrong methods in order to encourage you to signup for ministry. One common method is to portray God as needy. "God needs your money, or this ministry will fail"; "God needs your help, or this ministry will fail." The ministry might fail, but God won't!
In Psalm 50:12 God addresses these kinds of appeals for help when He says, "If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness." God wouldn't tell you if He were hungry! Yet we portray God as hungry whenever we employ wrong methods to encourage people to do the right thing. When you share an opportunity to serve God, it should never be a burden to God's people. Elijah understood this principle, and he models it in his calling of Elisha into the ministry. Next time will look at the yoke from Elijah's perspective - from the perspective of sharing ministry opportunities with others.
5 comments:
"In New Testament times the phrase take the yoke of was used by the Jewish rabbis to mean "Become the pupil of a certain teacher."
What source do you use to make this claim? I have seen that Rob Bell makes the same assertion, but with no reference.
Are there any ancient writings that can back that up?
Pastor Pancho,
Thankyou for your words regarding serving in the Body. I love serving but have questions: Many of us are linked to more than one ministry, or serve in several areas of an individual ministry...is there a limit one should put on serving..or should it be to serve until the heart is content? (Many of us feel happy when we do) One Person told me that they give money and that should be enough and dont feel led to serve physically...how should I respond to these questions??
Thankyou for your words of encouragement, challenge, chastizment, etc;, I look forward to reading new posts and learning more about Jesus through this site,
IHS....AP
In response to mlabus...
You can find the reference in the Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 1066.
Now as of historical value or reference the only place that I have found the phrase "Take the Yoke is found the Septuagint under I Maccabees ... him be your captain, and fight the battle of the people. 67 Take also unto you all those that observe the law, and avenge ye the wrong ... confederacy with them, 18 And to intreat them that they would take the yoke from them; for they saw that the kingdom of the Grecians did oppress Israel
Allow me to quote this reference...
The figurative use of "yoke" in the sense of "servitude" is intensely obvious (compare especially Jer 27, 28). Attention needs to be called only to Lam 3:27, where "disciplining sorrow" is meant, and to Jer 5:5, where the phrase is a figure for "the law of God." This last use became popular with the Jews at a later period and it is found, e.g. in Apocrypha Baruch 41:3; Psalter of Solomon 7:9; 17:32; Ab. iii.7,. and in this sense the phrase is employed. by Christ in Mt 11:29 f. "My yoke" here means "the service of God as I teach it" (the common interpretation, "the sorrows that I bear," is utterly irrelevant) and the emphasis is on "my." The contrast is not between "yoke" and "no yoke," but between "my teaching" (light yoke) and "the current scribal teaching'; (heavy yoke).
(2) "Yoke" in the sense of "a pair of oxen" is tsemedh (1 Sam 11:7, etc.), or zeugos (Lk 14:19).
See also UNEQUAL; YOKE-FELLOW.
Burton Scott Easton
Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Definition for 'YOKE'". "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". bible-history.com - ISBE; 1915.
You goto www.bible-history.com and find some interesting thoughts about the yoke. I know it does not answer your primary question but I hope it helps.
One last thing mlabus, Are you referring to Rob Bell from mars-hill? Do you know he does not believe in the teaching of the cross of Christ. He really is in the Emergent Church Movement even though he has not admitted publicly. His teachings do... In the name of love, I would be on your guard with his teachings....
May God bless you and your family Denny Blue !!
Mlabus, may your heart and mind be open to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has great plans for you and your family !! Albert and Salina
Post a Comment