Misunderstood “Yoke”

Matthew 11:28-30 CJB

28 “Come to me, all of you who are struggling and burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

The statement about a yoke is going to take some explanation. And let me begin by telling you that because we are Western Christians, we instantly view this statement in a negative light. But Jews would have understood it quite differently.

Rabbi Joseph Shulam puts it this way:The metaphor of the yoke is typically employed in rabbinic literature to indicate Torah observance as a sign of acceptance of God’s covenant”. In the Torah we’ll find the term yoke (ol in Hebrew) used in a few settings such as the yoke of Heaven, the yoke of the Commandments, and the yoke of the Torah. Due especially, I think, to the sadistic style of slavery that we used in our past, the metaphor of the yoke conjures up people as beasts of burden, and a yoke as a rough, uncomfortable, back breaking instrument of brutality. But that is not how Peter means it, or how the Bible means it, nor is that what it meant to the Jews. A yoke is a device that connects and directs. The yoke harnesses the labors of the creature to the direction of his master. It is not meant to harm or to oppress; it is meant for two wills to act as one. Thus a person who is yoked to Heaven is connected to Heaven and directed by Heaven; they aren’t oppressed by Heaven. A person who is yoked to the Torah is connected to the Torah and directed by the Torah; they aren’t oppressed by the Torah, and so on and so forth.
Another reason (other than cultural) that modern Christians see the metaphor of the yoke as negative and bad is because it is typically compared to Yeshua’s statement that His yoke is easy and His burden is light from Matthew 11. My point is that in Judaism the term yoke doesn’t mean anything oppressive any more than Yeshua’s own yoke was seen as oppressive. Listen to the context of Yeshua’s statement again:

Matthew 11:28-30 CJB
28 “Come to me, all of you who are struggling and burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

What are the struggles and burdens? The struggles and burdens of life; the heartaches, the uncertainties of tomorrow, our afflictions, the guilt we bear for our past deeds, the knowledge of our inability to measure up to God’s standard.

Notice how Yeshua says to take His yoke upon yourself. Again, the yoke is meant in a positive light, as a typical Jewish metaphor meaning to connect yourself to Him so that you take your direction from Him. Connect to Yeshua and allow Him to steer you. Yeshua says to yoke (connect) yourself to Him and learn from Him, and that in this connection you will find rest. Everyone knew what it meant, it was a customary Jewish expression, and Jews thought of it as something pleasant and desirable. Yeshua is merely employing a standard, recognizable, every day part of Jewish thought and language to make an illustration. Yeshua is saying to come and connect yourself to Him; that He will release you from your current struggles and not give you new ones. Many of the several Messiahs who came and went during His day wanted a following and demanded loyalty and obedience. What He was NOT doing (and it is present nowhere in the context of this passage) is comparing His yoke to the Torah, or to the Law of Moses. That is, the source of the struggles and burdens He wants to free us from isn’t the Law of Moses. That thought is simply not present in Judaism and it is not present in Matthew 11. But Christians have for centuries read that into the passage.

Let me tell you something: Jews then and now do not think of Torah observance as a burden; they think of it as a privilege and a joy. It is Christianity that has created this image of Torah observance as some type of primitive, ugly, oppressive weight that brings people low. But let’s talk a bit more about the term burden. Burden of course can speak of a heavy load, but in common speech it also means to hamper, or to impede. So when Peter speaks of avoiding placing a yoke on the neck of the new disciples that is too much to bear, the idea is to not hamper the new gentile Believers with too much too soon. And, by the way, as we get further in Acts 15 and hear the council’s conclusion and read the letter that was sent to the Antioch congregation, it bears out this interpretation.

And then Peter once again speaks of the main thrust of the Gospel message in verse 11:
Acts 15:11 CJB 11 No, it is through the love and kindness of the Lord Yeshua that we trust and are delivered- and it’s the same with them.”

So the thought is not that the Torah Law is just too hard to keep for Jews, so it will be impossible to keep for gentiles. Rather in relation to the subject of Salvation for gentiles it is that it is only through the love and kindness of the Lord Yeshua that we trust and are thus delivered (saved). And, says, Peter, it is like that for us (Jews) and so it is like that for them (the gentiles).

Let me also point out that it is little more than common sense to not expect a gentile who was born and raised as a pagan; a person who until recently knew nothing of the God of Israel, or of the Torah, or what sin is or what a Messiah is; to accept a Jewish Savior (a miracle in itself) and then to just suddenly have to begin to apply to their lives everything that it took Jews all their lives to learn. It would be too daunting and discouraging and unfair. It would be setting them up for failure. In fact the Rabbis of Peter’s era had essentially the same view he held about not hampering gentile proselytes when they converted to Judaism. As found in tractate Yevamoth of the Talmud we read this:

Our Rabbis taught: “If at the present time a man desires to become a proselyte, he is to be addressed as follows: What reason have you for desiring to become a proselyte; do you not know that Israel at the present time are persecuted and oppressed, despised, harassed and overcome by afflictions? If he replies: I know and yet I am unworthy, then he is accepted forthwith and is given instructions in some of the minor and some of the major commandments. And as he is informed of the punishment of transgression of the commandments, so is he informed of the reward granted for their fulfillment. He is not, however, to be persuaded or dissuaded too much.”

The point is that it was the position of Jewish Law, Halakhah, that a gentile proselyte to Judaism was to be brought along slowly and not have too much expected of him other than for a few minor and major commandments, which the community leadership felt was minimum and fundamental. These he would have to understand and do immediately. The rest would come in time, being taught and discipled by the community, and he would be expected to grow at the best rate each individual could. His requirements to adhere to all the commandments of the Torah was not abolished; rather it was postponed until he reached sufficient maturity to be able to comprehend and do without being completely confused and overwhelmed.

Supposed to be the same for Gentile Christians and the parts of Torah that have never been replaced or abolished!!!!

*http://www.torahclass.com/ used as source Torah Class with Tom Bradford
Is an excellent study of the Torah and free to watch from your computer or download each lesson

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