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Is My Yoke Easy?

CecilW

CecilW

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Jesus is our Head & Example, right? For everyone, but especially for men, as He is our direct Head according to 1Cor 11.

He told us that His yoke is easy & His burden is light.

He said that as we l3earn of Him, we shall find rest for our souls.

So here is the introspective question of the day, men:

If a woman enters into a marriage relationship with me, taking my yoke upon her, will she find that MY yoke, like Christ's, is easy and my burden light?

As she learns more and more of me, will she find rest for her soul or greater & more distressing agitation?

Balancing thought: The unconverted heart learning of the requirements of life with and in Christ may / will find them foolish & repulsive for it is desperately wicked. A "wife" may be in opposition due to this situation OR because we're failing on our side. I'm just personally loathe to lay the difficulty at her feet without very serious introspection.

My 2 cents for the day ...
 
Sir, is it always the wife that takes the yoke of the husband? Is there any instance where we take their yoke and they ours so the load is shared and the whole burden is a balanced?

If we live our lives (both husband and wife) according to the guidelines of God, then our wives will find our yoke easy and light. Between husband and wife only, not with the world as we were not promised easy lives.

If we follow in the footsteps of the Son, we are already better persons, the only distressing things a wife could additionally know are of the little but infuriating variety. :D

But if this refers to polygyny, most of us (husbands and wives), I think, didn't start out already knowing the whole truth as some parts were suppressed. There might be a hardening of the heart in the part of the wives ingrained by years of deception.

Although it's easier to unyoke those who don't want to be yoked equally in Christ, as believers we have the following responsibilities:
1. Love God above all. If we love Him, then we need to follow Him, live our lives according to His guidelines.
2. Spread the word of God and try to get as many people on His side.

What better way to start than with our unbelieving wives? What better way to lead people (including our wives) to God than to show them that through the Messiah, we have become better persons?

IMHO.
 
pebble said:
Sir, is it always the wife that takes the yoke of the husband? Is there any instance where we take their yoke and they ours so the load is shared and the whole burden is a balanced?
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If the justification for adopting this concept is because of Christ & His example, then No.

He is the head. We enter into relationship with Him and accept His authority and yoke.

Man is the head of his wife. Trouble always ensues when that is reversed, and God does not honor the reversal. She thus must enter into relationship with him as head, accepting his yoke.

That is a separate issue from bearing one anothers' burdens. If a man marries a woman with 4 children, and there are legal issues to be resolved to get them out from under their father's abuse, he should accept the responsibility of helping her accomplish that task. Even if it is pretty durn expensive. But that is not the "yoke".

If anything, is lead position should mean that he takes the lead in getting what needs doing done. But it is still his job to lead. His yoke that she takes upon herself.

If she takes it off, proclaims herself the head or at least independent, and refuses his headship, the relationship will go bad or end.
 
Okay. Got the point. It is only our yoke that matters in marriage. The woman has to unyoke herself from her previous yoke, whatever it is.

But it is difficult to do when the man is yoked mid-journey and the wife was used to having none. :(
 
Cecil,
I am curious to know which yoke is being referred to in the passage? Is it the double yoke which would imply that Jesus is pulling along side of us or the single yoke in which we are giving up of ourselves in service / following Him?
Thanks!
Chris
 
chris said:
Cecil,
I am curious to know which yoke is being referred to in the passage? Is it the double yoke which would imply that Jesus is pulling along side of us or the single yoke in which we are giving up of ourselves in service / following Him?
Thanks!
Chris
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Good question, I have never figured out how this is supposed to work out. The cross that we are told to take up was never promised to be easy nor light.

Yeshua's more continual point was that the life was not going to be easy, but with his help it will definitely be easier than going it alone.
 
There are lots of different types of yokes, and not all involve oxen. This passage is talking about a yoke being used to carry "burdens", ie one of these:
360px-Milkmaid%27s_yoke%2C_Hereford_Museum_and_Art_Gallery_-_DSCF1940.JPG

This is worn by a person, you put it on your shoulders and hang buckets or anything you want to carry on each side. It means the weight goes on your shoulders instead of your arms, making it much easier to carry heavy loads a long distance. It is commonly called a "milkmaid's yoke" since in recent years in Western countries they were generally used to carry pails of milk. But variations of this are used in every culture for carrying all manner of things, they would certainly have existed in Israel. An ox-yoke by comparison is used to pull things, not carry burdens, so doesn't really fit the illustration.

So when saying "my yoke is easy and my burden is light", I believe Jesus was talking about one of these. His yoke is easy, or comfortable, and his burden (the things hanging on the yoke that you're carrying) is light.
 
steve said:
The cross that we are told to take up was never promised to be easy nor light.
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I believe that Luke 9:23, "take up your cross daily", isn't about carrying burdens through your life. You don't carry a cross all through your life, if you take up a cross it means you're about to die. To take up your cross daily is to put aside your life and be willing to die for Christ every day. People commonly say about hard things "this is just the cross I have to bear", but I don't see that fitting the passage at all. The cross we bear is our willingness each day to die for Christ.
 
FollowingHim said:
To take up your cross daily is to put aside your life and be willing to die for Christ every day...The cross we bear is our willingness each day to die for Christ.
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That definition is much better than the common perception of being forced to carry somebody as a mental/emotional/spiritual burden because... that's the cross we have to bear.

BTW, that yoke looks heavy. I hope that's not what we are required to carry. :D
 
Those yokes are actually fairly light and surprisingly comfortable, they are carved inside to fit onto your shoulders so the weight is spread over a large area of skin. Far better than a backpack with straps. Now imagine one made by the Master Carpenter Himself, just for you.
 
CecilW said:
Jesus is our Head & Example, right? For everyone, but especially for men, as He is our direct Head according to 1Cor 11.

He told us that His yoke is easy & His burden is light.

He said that as we l3earn of Him, we shall find rest for our souls.

So here is the introspective question of the day, men:

If a woman enters into a marriage relationship with me, taking my yoke upon her, will she find that MY yoke, like Christ's, is easy and my burden light?

As she learns more and more of me, will she find rest for her soul or greater & more distressing agitation?

Balancing thought: The unconverted heart learning of the requirements of life with and in Christ may / will find them foolish & repulsive for it is desperately wicked. A "wife" may be in opposition due to this situation OR because we're failing on our side. I'm just personally loathe to lay the difficulty at her feet without very serious introspection.

My 2 cents for the day ...
Click to expand...
Hey Cecil how you doing it's good to hear from you by the way that potential 3rd wife you know about that Married the other guy well that marriage lasted less than a year and now she's contacting me again. It's good to see more activity happening on the site and our family misses you we hope sometime you can come back to visit your friend Steve from Tulsa
 
I don't think Cecil is active on here anymore but I believe someone is in touch with him. Samuel might know who.
 
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