Equally Yoked

   Most of us have very little understanding of what it means to be equally yoked.  We’ve never had the experience of working the ground with a team of oxen pulling a plow.  The majority of us have never ridden in a wagon pulled by a team and even fewer have driven one.  Yet it’s not been that long ago that knowing the proper way to yoke a team of oxen was vital to getting the job done.  If they weren’t correctly paired one would be pulling too much of the burden.  If the yoke wasn’t fitted correctly the animals could be seriously injured.

   In some parts of the world oxen are still the primary means of farming and transportation.  Those who can effectively pair and yoke a team are highly sought after.  The yoke must to be fitted and formed to correctly lay on the oxen to be teamed.  They are made for and fitted to one specific team and won’t properly fit another.

   Equally yoked is sometimes still used to refer to a marriage in which the partners are well suited to each other.  Each has the desire and ability to compliment the efforts of the other.  If a couple can identify the issues that cause the loving yoke of marriage to be irritating and painful they can, with the help of God, refit their yoke to better share the joys and weather the storms that can be common in marriage.  Unfortunately in our society today it is more likely that they will simply throw off the yoke and go their separate ways.

   How does the lesson of being properly yoked affect our lives today?  We have most likely never even see a properly yoked team of oxen.  It’s even less likely that we will work a field with a plow pulled by oxen.  Yet we too need to be properly yoked in life.  Whether in marriage or other aspects of our life we need a balance and cooperative effort to succeed.

   Our team in life is important but there is a much more important team that we must consider.  We are part of the team that will determine our place in eternal life.  Jesus will work with us to plow fertile soil if we will let Him.  There is no other who knows best how to fit the yoke to you.  He will task you lovingly and never break you.

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Matt 11: 28-30)