Thursday, January 16

THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2014

Genesis 32:13–34:31

Matthew 11:7–30

Psalm 14:1–7

Proverbs 3:19,20

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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.” (Matthew 11:28–30)

 

 

I would like to take this opportunity during a hectic season to review the promises and opportunities given in Jesus’s words. 

 

Please note that He prefaced this invitation with some comments on revelation:  “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children.  Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do….  All things have been committed to me by my Father.  No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Matthew 11:25b:27)  From this discussion, we understand that we may count it a privilege to have received God’s revelation through Jesus Christ, His Word, and His world.  This revelation involves both God’s action and man’s seeking, and both sides come together to bring the believer into harmony with God and to bring glory to His Name.

 

1.       “Come to me… ”  In this most personal of invitations, Jesus (God Himself!) welcomes us to approach Him.  He is “gentle and humble in heart” and willing to associate with His beloved creatures.  While He sits enthroned in heaven, He opens His arms to the broken and the tired.  What an amazing display of His love for us!

 

2.       “… all you who are weary and burdened… ”  From this phrase, I gather that Jesus understands that we will all face weariness in this world.  While our poor decisions do cause us headaches, we also must wrestle with the fallenness of this world.  The disorder and chaos brought about by the Fall interrupted what God had intended for perfection, and He remains sovereign over even our challenging circumstances in leading us into a deeper knowledge of His character and goodness.  In John 17:3, Jesus explains:  “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

 

3.       “… and I will give you rest….  You will find rest for your souls.”  The rest contemplated here involves not just physical recuperation, but also emotional and spiritual healing.  While the Promised Land offers milk and honey, it also afforded the Israelites a home and a place to commune freely with God.  For us today, “rest” does include restoring our physical weariness, but I believe that Jesus wishes to bring emotional, spiritual, and mental integrity (wholeness) to His children.  Out of this wholeness and restoration, we may minister to a hurting world and point them to this invitation through the testimony of our changed lives.

 

4.       “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me… ” Jesus here invites His hearers to a life of discipleship.  In this agrarian society, the crowd would have understood the “yoke” to involve joining in the work, the mission.  The phrase promises inner transformation and becoming fitted to a godly life.  The yoke also helped the grouped oxen to strengthen their efforts together, directing the force in a common direction.  Furthermore, the yoke implies that there will be a harmonious sharing of responsibility and growth:  that, together with Jesus, we may bring forth a spiritual harvest.

 

5.       “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  Receiving Jesus’s invitation doesn’t promise a pain-free life, but rather one of purpose.  As Pastor Scott explained on Sunday, Jesus seeks “committed” followers, who will count the cost and surrender completely.  Yet, this statement points to the supernatural synergies that Jesus will bring about in our lives.

 

Two other examples for this picture:  a lever and a crew team.  Crowbars provide a good example of the benefits of leverage.  Without the crowbar, it may be difficult to remove a deeply embedded nail, but the crowbar increases the force that we may apply with our fingers to remove the nail with seemingly much less effort.  Committed disciples may leverage God’s abundant power by standing where He desires us and then trusting Him to bring that power to bear – for His glory.

 

Similarly, a crew team trains vigorously for a five-minute sprint.  Their training involves personal strength and conditioning and concentration on their individual strokes.  Yet, the coach and the coxswain guide the team to work in unison, leveraging their individual strokes to produce a powerful locomotive effect.  This combination of forces causes the boat almost to glide on top of the water, and their synergies create much more power than their eight individual strokes together.  Please check out this YouTube video for a better image:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8ewDewMXTw.

 

 

Lord Jesus, thank You for revealing Yourself to us.  We trust You for rest, in our own lives and for our dear sisters Kym and Heidi and their families.  We trust that Your yoke is indeed light, and we commit ourselves to a life of discipleship and purpose.  Work through us and bring Your abundant power to bear as we seek and serve You.  In Jesus’s Name, amen.