Take My Yoke

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good – not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne" (Matthew 11:28-30).

Whenever reading these verses, I have wondered: what is the yoke of Jesus? What is this yoke that causes us to rest when we are overburdened? That so lightens our load that it is “easy to be borne”?

I think the key to understanding is in verses 25-27:

"At that time Jesus began to say, I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and clever and learned, and revealed them to babies [to the childish, untaught, and unskilled]. . . . All things have been entrusted and delivered to Me by My Father; and no one fully knows and accurately understands the Son except the Father, and no one fully knows and accurately understands the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son deliberately wills to make Him known."

Jesus is praising God that revelation is hidden from the wise and given to the childlike (see also Matthew 19:14). He states that only the Son can make the Father known, and then issues the invitation: “Come to Me . . . .” Because of the continuity of the context of this passage, I believe that the yoke Jesus is talking about is the revelation of the knowledge of God! (See also Ephesians 1:17-19.) Here is a paraphrase of Matthew 11:27-30 in my own words:

"My Father has given me all knowledge and understanding. I hold it in trust for those who are childlike and eager to be taught. I am the only one who has true revelation, and I alone have the authority to reveal Him to whomever I choose. So I choose you! Anyone who is tired and weary, come to Me. As you come to Me, I will give you new understanding of God, and in this knowledge your soul will rest. The experience of My gentle and humble heart will so lighten your heart that all else will be easy to bear. Upon the revelation of the knowledge of God will hang all the burdens you carry. You will no longer bear them in your own strength, but in Mine."

I am blessed that God brought this understanding to my heart several days before finding out that our expected fourth child, Selah Joy, has gone to Heaven to be with Him. My heart can rest, knowing that He has invited me to come to Him in the midst of my trouble. I will set my eyes on Him, not on my circumstances, and let Him reveal His heart to me in a deeper way. God is love. God is good, and everything He does is good. I will rest in Him.