The yoke of freedom

DEVOTION

PROPHESIES AND FULFILLMENTS CONCERNING CHRIST

THE YOKE OF FREEDOM

Deut 18:15-16

15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.

NIV

This statement is among all the Laws Moses is declaring to the people recorded in the book of Deuteronomy. It is as though it does not belong as one of the commands God gave Moses to give to the people. However Moses did continue by telling them why he made this statement.

Deut 18:16

16 For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, "Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die."

NIV

But why would this statement only refer to Jesus as there were many prophets who came out of the Israelites who spoke for God? The idea in this passage is the people no longer wanted to hear directly from God, they felt they would die if God dealt with them directly. Their fear of him was not of reverence, but of trembling fear. Although the many prophets did speak for God throughout the many hundreds of years to follow, the people of Israel never again heard the voice of God until Jesus spoke to them. We also have a period of approximately four hundred years from the last prophet who spoke for God until Jesus was born. They people had not heard anything from God for all those years.  So when Jesus began his ministry, began preaching the good news, the people were hearing directly from God once again. Although they did not know he was God and only thought he was the prophet.

John 6:14-15

14 After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world." 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

NIV

John 1:45

45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote — Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

NIV

Jesus was perceived as this prophet who Moses spoke about. Why Jesus and not any of the other prophets that had spoken to them? It simply has to be because it was meant to be Jesus whom Moses was told to speak to them about when he told them a prophet would be raised up from among them who was just like him. What made Jesus just like Moses whereas all the other prophets were not? It was Moses who led the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. He freed them from slavery. No other prophet throughout the history of prophets led the people out of bondage, until the arrival of Jesus. He was in the process of leading them out of the bondage of the Law, which also is to say he was to lead them out of the bondage of sin. It was the Law which was designed to show them they needed Jesus. As much as they tried to obey the Law they could not and thus they were in sin. Jesus freed them from the Law and sin by his death and resurrection. But they did not know it at the time they thought he was the prophet Moses spoke about. What they saw was once again a man of God speaking the words of God and performing great miracles. They may have remembered the many signs Moses did both in Egypt as well as in the desert during their wanderings. After so many years of not hearing anything from God, now another comes with signs and miracles. Yet he was in that way like Moses, he was going to lead them out of bondage. Is this not like our lives? Some of us lived many years in bondage to sin. We were not born free of sin. Even if we accepted Jesus as a child, we spend our formative years in sin. But some of us did not see Jesus until we were adults and lived in bondage for many years to sin. When we heard from Jesus, however he spoke to us, we knew he came from God to free us. To live as free people, to be free of the yoke of sin which leads to death is an amazing, exhilarating feeling. It is as though a great weight has been lifted from our shoulders. If fact that is exactly what has happened. Before hearing from Jesus, we were yoked with sin, a heavy yoke that burdened us, we were yoked with Satan himself and he was leading us down a furrow of death. But Jesus has told us to take his yoke upon us.

Matt 11:28-30

28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." 

NIV

This is why we are told not to be unequally yoked with the world, it will not lead us to freedom, but to death. We are to be yoked to Jesus and he will carry our burden. Our lives will be free of heaviness, free of burdens, free of worry and anxiety, if only we would allow Jesus to lead the way through the field of life. Our furrow will be straight, and it will be true and right, ready to be planted with the truth of God, ready to produce good fruit as we remain yoked to Jesus. But this also means we cannot travel alone, we cannot make the journey based on the direction we want to travel. We are yoked to Jesus and we are the weaker of the two, so he leads the way and we follow along. But we must take his yoke upon us. We must decide to be yoked to him. That means we do not simply live our own lives combining our faith in Jesus with us. We cannot be yoked to self and Jesus at the same time. We cannot serve two masters. So let us follow the path Jesus has set our course on, let us allow him to make our paths straight, and that "our", is Jesus and us. Let us feel that easy yoke.