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The Scales of Justice

Monday, July 30th, 2012 | Author:

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  Matthew 11:29  ESV

Yoke – Yesterday we connected Paul’s idea of “bond” with Yeshua’s statement about “yoke.”  “Freedom comes in chains,” we said.  When Yeshua invites us to take His yoke, He is not offering liberty.  He is offering glorious constraint; constraint that instructs us in a way of life delivered from toxic anxiety and confusion.  But the Greek word zygos has another meaning that heightens His invitation.  Zygos also means “scales.”  It is found in Revelation 6:5 and in Leviticus 26:26 (LXX).  The horseman of judgment comes with scales in his hand.  He will weigh the deeds of men.  But by what standard?  Both the rabbis and Yeshua tell us that the standard for these scales is the “yoke” of the law (Torah), an excellent wordplay in Greek!

Do you suppose that the translator of Yeshua’s words in Matthew’s Greek had this wordplay in mind?  When you hear, “Take my yoke upon you,” do you also hear, “Take my scales upon you”?  Do you connect “yoke” and “law”?  It would be hard to read the Greek translation of Yeshua’s Hebrew without making this connection.

Far too often we read this verse without its connection to Jeremiah or its nuances in Greek.  We read the verse with the eyes of Plato and Aristotle.  We think Yeshua is offering assistance (forgiveness and restoration) without obligation, at least without obligation to others.  We want rest, not duty.  So we convert zygos into something akin to “removing all my burdens.”  We look for Platonic peace, that is, freedom from everyone else.  But zygos as “scales” can never provide such fictitious folly.  All of Torah is about obligation – to God and to others.  The “Law” is a way of living in the world, among those who occupy the same place and time.  When we take on Yeshua’s zygos, we take on the standard which the third horseman brings.  There is no rest without scales just as there is no peace without chains.

Perhaps this is enough for today.  Perhaps we have already been convicted of our ungodly desire to be “free” of all those burdens of others.  Perhaps the horseman finds us wanting.

Topical Index:  Matthew 11:29, yoke, zygos, freedom, law, Torah

TRAVEL NOTES:  In about a week, I will be traveling to Europe where I will lecture on a cruise ship through the Greek islands.  Don’t worry, Today’s Word will continue as usual and all your book orders will be taken care of without delay.  I will just be out of email contact for some time.

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Take My Yoke

Sunday, July 29th, 2012 | Author:

 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  Ephesians 4:3  NASB

Bond – Syndesmos is the Greek combination of words that mean “together” and “band or shackle.”  We might think of this word with the imagery of a chain.  Each link is welded together with the next.  The “bond” is only as strong as its weakest link.  This all seems quite ordinary.

Until we connect this idea to two others:  peace and yoke.

First we must recognize that Paul’s concept of peace is tied to chains, not freedom.  To preserve the unity of the Spirit, we must be chained together.  Those seeking freedom from obligation are not suitable for unity of the Spirit.  They are, in fact, opposed to God’s exhibition of unity, found in the community that embraces the Spirit of the Lord.  In the Bible, freedom is a function of voluntary obligation, not individual liberty.  The biblical concept stands in utter opposition to our culture of indulgence even if that indulgence is laced with spirituality.

Once we realize that freedom comes in chains, then we are prepared to understand Yeshua’s statement about the zygos, the yoke.  A yoke not only ties us to Him, it shackles us to each other.  The yoke is the implement of peace, the equipment of the saints.  Just as Yeshua exhorts us to take His yoke and find rest, Paul reminds us that the bond of true fellowship is the unity of mutual obligation.  And, of course, this is one of the meanings of that great Hebrew word hesed.

Do you think of chains when you think of peace?  Do you see yourself as handcuffed to the Spirit, shackled to the truth?  Do you rejoice in your obligations toward others?  Do you know what it means to be bound to the Lord?  Does your desire to serve Him result in yoking yourself to another?

Unless you can answer these questions with affirmation, you probably haven’t left the world of Greek “freedom” behind.  There is no unity without the clank of metal or the feeling of restraints.

Topical Index:  bond, syndesmos, yoke, zygos, peace, freedom, Ephesians 4:3

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Reading the Shema

Monday, April 18th, 2011 | Author:

“Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.” Mathew 11:29 NASB

Yoke – Yeshua quotes Jeremiah 6:16 in this famous passage.  The context of the Jeremiah citation should help us understand the key words here.  Those words are “rest” and “yoke.”  But when you read the passage in Jeremiah, there isn’t any mention of a yoke at all.  So why should we be looking for a Tanakh context to Yeshua’s choice of the word ‘ol (Hebrew for “yoke”)?  The answer is found in the cultural ethos of the audience.

When we think of the yoke of Yeshua, what do we have in mind?  Most Christians think first and foremost about the “law of love.”  We imagine that this yoke is the urging to live a morally upright life, to encourage good behavior and acts of grace.  But it is highly unlikely that anyone in the audience that day would have had these thoughts.  Why?  Because the connection of Jeremiah and “yoke” could only have meant one thing – Torah!

Look at the context of Jeremiah.  First notice that it is YHWH who speaks.  He says, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths; where the good way is, and walk in it.”  What are the ancient paths?  What is the good way?  YHWH can only mean His instructions found in Torah.  After we have found the ancient paths and walked in them, then “you will find rest for your souls.”  And what of the “yoke”?  The Mishnah and the Midrashim call the Shema kabbalath ‘ol malkhuth shamayim, “taking on oneself the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven.”  Every Jew who said the Shema three times daily would have known what yoke Yeshua spoke about.  It was the same yoke YHWH gave His people, the same yoke YHWH encouraged His people to renew in the prophecy of Jeremiah, the same yoke that governed the life of Yeshua.  The only difference, and it is a very big difference, is that Yeshua calls this His yoke.  No one except YHWH could ever make that claim.

The crowd understood.  This was not a “new” commandment.  This was a prophetic call that echoed Jeremiah.  Come back to the ancient paths.  Walk in the ancient ways.  Take the yoke of the Kingdom upon yourself.  Follow Yeshua in learned obedience.  And discover that this burden brings rest.

Topical Index:  yoke, ‘ol, rest, Jeremiah 6:16, Matthew 11:29

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A Burden Accepted

Saturday, December 25th, 2010 | Author:

December 25 Submit your neck to her yoke, that your mind may accept her teaching. For she is close to those who seek her, and the one who is in earnest finds her. Sirach 51:26

Yoke – On this day when the ancient world celebrated the renewal and return of the fertility gods, a day that Christianity has adopted into its own calendar for reasons buried in church history, it might do us some good to look at a verse not found in our usual Bibles but nevertheless, apparently on the mind of Yeshua.  The parallel is Matthew 11:29 (“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”).  Of course, we know that that last part of this teaching from Yeshua cites a passage from the prophet Jeremiah.  But we might not realize that the first part of this statement parallels passages in Proverbs and in Sirach  (sometimes called Ecclesiasticus).  Sirach is part of the wisdom literature of the 2nd Century BC.  You can read the text here.

Yeshua’s adaptation of the material in Sirach demonstrates that He was familiar with the wisdom literature of the rabbis.  But that isn’t the most important point about this parallel and the parallel with Proverbs.  The crucial point is the difference Yeshua introduces.  In both Sirach and Proverbs, Wisdom is personified, calling for men to come to “her” to receive instruction in living and the blessings of a righteous life.  In both books, the narrator acts as the intermediary between Wisdom and the reader.  But Yeshua changes all that.  He is not the go-between.  He is Wisdom itself.  In other words, Yeshua does not cast Himself as the prophet or teacher pointing toward Wisdom (the divine instruction).  He casts Himself in the role of Wisdom, and thereby claims that He is divine.

No one in His audience could have missed the change or the claim.  Even if the audience didn’t specifically recall the Sirach passage, everyone would have known the text of Proverbs.  Yeshua’s proclamation was unmistakable.  No rabbi would ever make such a claim, at least no rabbi who did not believe that he was the manifestation of God Himself.  The first point Yeshua makes is that He is the authority on Wisdom and that He is the only intermediary between God and men.  Now that we see how powerful this verse really is, we also need to ask why Yeshua employed the imagery of the yoke.

The Hebrew concept of a yoke is almost always negative.  Jews viewed yokes as a symbol of oppression.  They had a long history of yoked captivity and tyranny.  To suggest that people willingly take a yoke upon themselves would be inconceivable, except in one instance.  The rabbis taught that voluntarily accepting the yoke of Torah was an experience of freedom, not of slavery and servitude.  This positive use of ‘ol (Hebrew “yoke”) is found in the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah said: Whoever takes upon himself the yoke of Torah, from him will be taken away the yoke of government and the yoke of worldly care; but whoever throws off the yoke of Torah, upon him will be laid the yoke of government and the yoke of worldly care” (Pirkei Avot 3:6).

Add this background to our familiarity with the Matthew text.  Yeshua declares His divine authority with regard to instructions for living.  He is the only mediator of truth.  Then He tells us to willingly accept His yoke, the yoke of kindness.  What is that yoke?  The only positive reference found in His own cultural setting claims that the yoke is Torah.  Yeshua builds on the popular and familiar teaching of the rabbis and takes it one step further.  Once again, He calls His followers to return to the only teaching that relieves us of the world of slavery – to return to His Torah since He is its divine author.

Perhaps this day should be remembered as a day when we acknowledge that Yeshua comes with supreme authority to bring us out of slavery by returning us to God’s eternal instruction.  Perhaps when the angels sang, “Peace on earth and good will toward men,” they were offering in song what Yeshua offered in teaching.  “Return unto me.  Come back to My direction and be freed from worldly care.”

Topical Index:  Sirach 51:26, Matthew 11:29, Jeremiah 6:6, Proverbs 8, yoke, ‘ol, Torah

Sirach is part of the wisdom literature of the 2nd Century BC.  You can read the text here.

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