Encouragement

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If ever I need a reminder that God watches, knows my secret thoughts, pays attention to my actions, guards and cares about my ways, I needn’t look beyond God’s dealing with Jehoahaz, king of Israel. God’s anger was not simply aroused against Israel’s sin, but it turned them over to their enemy. It’s interesting to note who Israel was turned over to. Hazael, king of Syria, contains a little “gem” to the careful observer. Who was Israel turned over to? None other than God Has Seen, and indeed He does. God sees, and acts. He is a rewarder of the righteous, but He chastens those He loves, desiring them to turn back to Him. Ample evidence can be found in the outpouring of Jehoahaz (Jehovah Has Seized) to the Lord. God listened, saw Israel’s oppression, and sent a deliverer.

In the same way, the Lord sees all the things that distress me, that place pressure upon my heart, my soul, my mind. And His deliverance is always the same. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

Yet there is something within man’s nature that resists a yoke, even a loving one. Oxen, even a dumb ox, will submit to the direction of a yoke. But man, in his foolishness continues to resist his salvation. And in the process, becomes bloodied.

I don’t believe a yoke is an option for any of us. We are always yoked to something. Sin’s yoke is burdensome, leading me to the path of destruction, guiding my steps, footfall by footfall, to death. This yoke gleefully leads me through pain-fraught lands where the only hope seen lies in glistening skeletal remains scattered along the parched by-ways. Sin’s yoke comes in every size and shape imaginable, even designer yokes so alluring to my eye they’re hard to recognize, hard to resist.

It amazes me how willingly I submit to such yokes. It puzzles me, until I realize that when God’s love created man, he was created to be yoked. Built into the Master’s artful design of each heart lies a follow mode that has already been engaged. Why? The answer lies gracefully wrapped in the beauty of Jesus’ love-filled words.

Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest for your souls.

In Jesus’ yoke lies rest. In His yoke He leads, I can only follow. In His yoke I am led to paths already straighten, cleared of dangerous debris and stones of stumbling. In His yoke my heart learns the ways of green pastures where I can feast and still waters where I assuage my thirst in safety. In His yoke I learn of Him, the fullness and tenderness of His love. Resting in His yoke, the burdens fall on Him and I feel but the lightest touch of His gentle leading.

Hazael needed only to slip into the yoke of God’s love. Instead, he turned to the golden calves, took on their yoke, and led his people away from the refreshment of God’s blessing, straight to destruction. Jehovah Has Seized could have been seized by Love’s blessing; instead he chose to be seized by the hand of Love’s correction. Redemptive, but, oh how costly.

Most precious Lord and loving Sovereign, how I long to be known as ‘Jehovah Has Seized’...seized by Your heart, seized by Your love, seized to know the gentle leading of Your yoke of rest! But You will not force Your yoke upon me. Instead, You ask that I take it, willingly, as the gift of grace You made it to be. Let it rest upon me, Lord, snuggly, made to fit perfectly, that I may follow only You all the days of my life.



© 11 May 2005
DeAnna L. Brooks

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