Dr. Rodney Plunket

This morning I want to begin by looking at several Old Testament (OT) passages that help us more fully appreciate a powerful statement of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30.  The Book of Leviticus (Lev) is the third book in the OT.  In Lev 26:13 God refers to the deliverance that God has brought about for the people of Israel.  In that verse we read:

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be their slaves no more; I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

I want especially to notice the word “yoke” in this verse.  It is used here to refer to the extremely negative experience of being slaves in the land of Egypt.  Notice that the Lord God is the one who breaks that yoke.

The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the OT.  It presents Moses preaching to the Israelites in preparation for their move into the Promised Land of Canaan.  In chapter 28 of that book, Moses reveals to the people of Israel what will happen if they rebel against God.  Please listen to what Moses says in verses (vv) 47-48 of that chapter.

Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and lack of everything.  He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.

Again, the yoke is a symbol that represents an extremely negative reality.  That negative reality is slavery, a slavery brought about by Israel’s unwillingness to serve the Lord.

But “yoke” is not only used in this very negative way.  Please listen to the words of the OT prophet Jeremiah.  In the first three lines of Jeremiah (Jer) 2:20 we read:

For long ago you broke your yoke

          and burst your bonds,

          and you said, “I will not serve!”

And please look with me also at Zephaniah (Zph) 3:9 in the Greek version of the OT, and we should note that the Greek version of the OT served as the Bible of the early church:

For then I will change the language of the peoples for her generation, that all may call on the name of the Lord, to serve him under one yoke.  From the boundaries of the rivers of Ethiopia will I receive my dispersed ones; they shall offer sacrifices to me.  In that day you shall not be ashamed of all your practices, with which you have transgressed against me; for then will I take away from you your disdainful pride, and you shall no longer magnify yourself upon my holy mountain.  And I will leave in you a meek and lowly people; and the remnant of Israel shall fear the name of the Lord, and shall do no iniquity, neither shall they speak vanity; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth.  For they shall feed, and lie down, and there shall be none to terrify them.

Notice that here the yoke is again a positive symbol.  It represents the proper service that God’s people should render to God.  And notice something else.  Notice that their service of God under this “one yoke” takes place in a context of contentment and rest.  Words that conjure up a picture of sheep peacefully grazing are used.  The prophet writes, “For they shall feed, and lie down, and there shall be none to terrify them.”

That pastoral picture of contentment and rest is also found in the OT Prophetic Book of Isaiah (Isa).  Please look with me Isa 65:8-10:

Thus says the Lord:

          As the wine is found in the cluster,

                    and they say, “Do not destroy it,

                    for there is a blessing in it,”

          so I will do for my servants’ sake,

                    and not destroy them all.

          I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,

                    and from Judah inheritors of my mountains;

          my chosen shall inherit it,

                    and my servants shall settle there.

          Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks,

                    and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,

                    for my people who have sought me.

These verses look forward to a time when God would use a remnant of God’s people to make of the people all that God had dreamed they would become.

The Lord God wanted to give the people rest.  God wanted Israel to be like sheep peacefully grazing.  God wanted them to serve the Lord with joy and contentment, but the life of that nation is characterized by rebellion; as a result, they rarely experienced the rest that God wanted to give.  There may be no OT passage which better conveys what God wanted to give and how people rejected it than Jer 6:16.  There we read:

Thus says the Lord:

          Stand at the crossroads, and look,

                    and ask for the ancient paths,

          where the good way lies; and walk in it,

                    and find rest for your souls.

          But they said, “We will not walk in it.”

What a shame it is to miss out on the rest that God so longs to give.

Jeremiah 6:16 is a natural lead-in to the passage in Matthew (Mt) that serves as the focus passage for our mission special this year.  Please look now with me at Mt 11:28-30 and the words of Jesus our Savior:

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

In verse (v) 27, the verse immediately preceding the verses just read, Jesus says, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”  In vv 28-30 we hear this Son, who alone knows the Father, speaking just like the Father speaks through prophets in the OT.  As we have seen, in the OT the Father promised the people rest if they would yoke themselves to God.  That picture is the background for Jesus’ words here.  Jesus also wants to deliver people from slavery, from captivity.  And Jesus wants to lay a yoke upon them that is not a heavy iron yoke of servitude and grim labor.  Jesus’ yoke is easy and light.  Jesus’ yoke actually leads to rest.  And Jesus uses the words of Jeremiah 6:16 to describe the effect of receiving that yoke.  Jesus says, “You will find rest for your souls.”

My dear sisters and brothers, through the foreign missions which God has given this Broadway family to fulfill we have the opportunity to offer rest to a weary world––to a world weary of being enslaved to despair, enslaved to fear, enslaved to sin, enslaved to hopelessness.  We want to bring home to you now the power of Broadway’s missions efforts.  We want to do that through pictures actually taken in our mission areas in the mountains of Peru; the coastal regions of Kenya; and in Washington, England.  Please watch with the eyes of faith.  Please watch and feel the power of the gospel as it provides rest for a weary world.

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