Joined at the Shoulder
“What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” Matthew 19:6 NASB
Joined together – Every translation I checked has the same wording, “joined together.” But that doesn’t quite capture the overtones of this very unusual Greek verb (syzeugnymi). The verb literally means, “yoked together.” It is found only twice in the LXX (Ezekiel 1:11 and 23). Both are translations of the Hebrew verb havar. When Yeshua spoke about the purpose of marriage, he must have used this Hebrew verb. It isn’t just about “joining.” It’s about pulling the load together. Joining is what we do with lumber, pipes and committees. But yoking implies work to be done. No one hitches two animals with a yoke without having an objective in mind. The point of yoking is pulling in the same direction in order to accomplish the same purpose.
Two people who are joined together in an agreement for mutual pleasure, protection and provision are not necessarily yoked. To be yoked is to share the same task. This is the purpose of marriage as God sees it. My spouse and I must share in the same God-given objective. Without this, we may be joined but we are not yoked. Of course, that doesn’t mean we do the same job. We may both have different tasks in the world but we have the same objective. What is that? It is to live in yoked harmony, recapturing what it means to be one again in a display of perfect redemption. Our objective is reuniting. We two are to become one. This language should remind us of Yeshua’s prayer in John 17. To become one is the highest of divine objectives. That is the purpose of marriage.
In case the imagery wasn’t clear enough, we might look at the homophones of havar. The consonants are Chet-Bet-Resh. Changing the vowels from a to e produces a word that means a company, a band (of brothers) and a magic spell. The concept behind all three is “binding,” whether by association or incantation. Altering the vowels again produces haver, the Hebrew word for friendship. Obviously, being yoked means more than a tandem work team. It is closely associated with the deepest kind of community.
Finally, let’s take a glance at the pictograph. Chet-Bet-Resh is the picture “a fence around a person in a house.” Marriage is the fence around the house. It binds husband and wife so that nothing and no one can interfere in the exercise of God’s prime directive for “one-flesh” union. That doesn’t mean sex. The prime directive is to act as image-bearers of the heavenly kingdom here on earth so that His name may be glorified in the unity of being one.
Yoked means pulling together, not pulling apart. Yoked means deep friendship, anchored in common commitment. Yoked means not being alone. Yoked means holding hands while we travel the path of God’s purpose in a broken world. Yoked means not letting go. Lots of couples are married, inside and outside the church. Few are yoked. Those who aren’t, know they aren’t. Those who are can’t imagine what it would be like not to be.
[An except from Guardian Angel, p. 119-120.]
Topical Index: yoked, syzeugnymi, Matthew 19:6, marriage, Guardian Angel
Everywhere in scripture I keep finding more and more ways that the more-than-one can become echad. Isn’t the very purpose of the Law to bring every kind of creation together in purposeful, VOLUNTARY unity? Isn’t that the very definition of love, in fact? KInda like the reversal of the Big Bang? LOL In Biblical marriage, I see that it is two-people-plus-YHVH-equals-echad. I like that very nice differentation that Skip makes between being “joined together for mutual pleasure, protection and provision” – which is as close as the world is going to understand echad, I believe, with the added JOINT TASK that transforms marriage into true echad. Wasn’t it the assignment of stewardship in the Garden that gave us the PURPOSE that provides us the opportunity of echad with the world around us? The more I think about it, the more I can see that when you get married “before God”, you are supposed to be expecting that your marriage is going to be operating under a divine assignment to bring a function of echad into the world in the flesh. In this way, it then becomes a picture of how the Godhead must function, does it not?
The more I look at it, it is that mutual goal, direction, function, that in a very mysterious way can draw us out of our peculiar loneliness and give us a profound relief of unity: that EXPERIENCE of “not being alone” that is surely the deepest cry of the heart. Profound loneliness, to me, seems to create an instability at the atomic level that causes all of the deepest desires and drives that compel the human in every dimension. “It is not good that man be alone” to me sounds like the reflective Voice of experience. To me, it is another echo of the statement “Let Us make man in Our image”. I don’t think that it is “good” for God to be alone, either.
So, my question to you, Skip, is: if perfected mutual purpose can make echad out of humans – in a very small, faint echo, granted – I wonder what it can make out of the Godhead?
Hey, we were doing great until the last line when you snuck in “Godhead.” Where did that purely Trinitarian idea come from? If your previous remarks are an analogy, then one in purpose doesn’t make one in BEING, does it? You are still a separate person form your husband even if you are one (echad) in purpose. You don’t suddenly become someone else. Aren’t the Father and the Son one in purpose? Does that REQUIRE that they be the same being? The analogy doesn’t work, does it, because there is nothing in our experience that actually can be ONE and at the same time be individually more than one.
Back to the drawing board.
But what if we are talking precisely about Something that is BEYOND our analogies and experience? What if, purely BECAUSE we can ‘imagine’ that the Godhead can be counted separately in the first place, automatically makes it impossible for that separate counting (the trinity counting) to be true if we are to consider the verse that tells us that God is something that we cannot even imagine? Why can’t They be One in Being? Why can’t that be true precisely because I cannot imagine it?
What if we are committing idolatry when we think that They can be split up into three things to count in the first place? What if the trinitarians had it wrong because they had the audacity to assume that they could split YHVH up so as to count in the first place? What if THAT is what the injunction of “The LORD our God, He is One (ECHAD)” was given to us for; so that we would not commit the sin of attempting to rend asunder what God hath joined together? Why CAN’T HE BEGET HIMSELF? Especially when He so specifically said that He did? And, no, I’m not talking about the virgin birth.
What if the weakness in the whole argument against the trinity consists of agreeing with the trinitarians that the platform assumption of the Countable Things is a valid platform at all? What if the trouble has started further back up the creek? What if counting itself is the sin? It wouldn’t be the first time we got snookered into guessing which of the three shells the nut was under, instead of considering that it could have been in the lap all along. Are we sure we want to agree with the premise that the trinitarians are standing on; even for the purposes of debating them? You do have to be standing in at least the same alley if you are going to go toe-to-toe with a body…
Lots of questions, good ones, but one fatal flaw. If God reveals Himself in ways that Man cannot understand, then either we must be completely silent (since we have nothing to intelligibly say) or we must choose to believe what is irrational for us. This is the mystic’s dilemma. If God really is three in one and somehow at the same time is not divided, then, as Millard Erickson so pointedly says, we believe in the Trinity precisely because it is absurd. Is that what you are suggesting? For if it is, then let me add a whole list of absurd propositions that you should believe precisely because they are nonsensical. You should believe that God is the God of life but He requires you to kill everyone who does not believe in Him. Right? You should believe that God is the sovereign creator but the universe is a random accident of purposeless matter. Right? You should believe that He loves you but intends to send you to eternal punishment because it pleases Him to see you suffer. Right? If you reject all of these statements because they don’t make any human logical sense, then why do you accept a Trinitarian claim that is equally nonsensical. Just because the Church has taught it for 1700 years?
Thank you, Skip. I also believe I am intelligent because I am expected to be able to use it to experience my God, too. The absurd question was spaghetti on a wall, I guess, because I think it would be important to make a distinction between nonsense and the numinous. I worship what I cannot fathom, but I should not worship what I cannot make sense of; but there’s that Greek thinking again; the temptation to ‘use’ my head in the places that only my heart should enter. It is true we toss around terms so carelessly; terms that are good terms, but that may be so corrupted by misuse that they have to be re-defined and refined again before we can even talk. The Unfathomable may be one of those.
There are two ways that the trinitarians may be wrong: not just one. All I am asking is that the other possibility of flaw be considered, too, before you get all your eggs into the first basket. I want to see us all still be able to keep our pants, so to speak, all the way through this. That’s all.
I also wanted to thank you to the bottom of my heart for caring for everyone on all sides of this enough to want to set the record straight. Thank you for being jealous for His Name most of all. I share that jealousy. I also think I share that concern. I am desperately desirous for this particular record to be set straight because I need it straight as a tool to heal division and clear confusion in my neck of the woods. I am surrounded by precious people that I am heavily vested in and love, that are separated and fractured, partly because of this issue. I need this foundation re-visited so that we can have a new platform on which to chase these alligators through the swamp. By the way, I am convinced that the swamp itself surely is an artificial construct of a pernicious intention, and I am angry that it exists at all. How about thinking about draining the swamp in the process of going after the alligators? Come to mention it, I don’t think I like those pesky mosquitoes, either!
Skip,
Miracles are beyond our understanding, too.
Does that make them not real or not relevant?
Is God, the author of miracles, trying to confuse us?
Or provoke us into some “mystical dilemma”?
Or . . . does he just want us to have deeply profound
faith in who He is and what only He can do?
I have personally witnessed several miracles.
Perhaps you have, too.
They’re unexplainable to our natural, rational
human minds. But fully acceptable to our
transformed and renewed minds.
Kind of like the notion of the Trinity.
Except that the miracles, while not explained, are expressly referenced in the Scriptures. The Trinity is not expressly referenced. It can only be inferred, and that only if you ignore the verses that speak otherwise. This is similar to saying that Paul spoke against the law, while ignoring those verses in which he clearly exalts the law.
Jordan,
Your point is well taken.
But if you consider that God has not
placed ALL His revealed knowledge to us
in the Scriptures, then there is likely more.
I suspect, much, much more!
It’s OK to speculate that there may be more, but if there is we don’t know it. We have to deal with what we do have revealed, and that prohibits advocating a doctrine on the basis that God MIGHT think its true but doesn’t actually say so.
In addition to what Skip has written, the prophet Amos tells us that YHVH does nothing except having first revealed it through his prophets. What I see revealed in the Scriptures in regards to the “mystery” of the Godhead, is not a mystery at all. The example that I see in the TaNaKh that most clearly resembles the relationship between the Father and the Son, as revealed, is the relationship between Pharoah and Joseph. Pharoah (whose name was not actually Pharoah – maybe it was Tut), gives Joseph complete authority over the Kingdom. Well, not exactly complete, as Joseph still has to obey Tut, but as long as Joseph does exactly what Pharoah Tut approves of, then Joseph is walking in the authority of the executive branch of the Egyptian government (the “Pharoah-Head”). The moment that Joseph disobeys the commands of the Pharoah, Joseph is no longer walking in the authority granted to him. He would no longer be “one” with the Pharoah. It is worth noting that at no time was Joseph known as Tut, or Tut known as Joseph. However, in the eyes of the people of Egypt, Joseph was, in all intents and purposes, Pharoah.
Yeshua was one with the Father, (i.e. unified, echad) at all times because he was always walking in the Spirit. Paul tells us in Romans that if you walk in the Spirit you will always follow Torah, and that if you walk in the flesh it is impossible to follow Torah. Yeshua never let his flesh overwhelm the Spirit within him, as we are prone to do. Thus, when Christ prays and asks the Father that the disciples be “one” with the Father, as Christ is “one” with the Father, Yeshua is asking that the disciples be blessed with the Spirit that will allow them to be obedient to Torah and thereby unified (echad) with YHVH.
Following the Trinity doctrine, that Jesus is God and God is Jesus, to its inferred conclusion would require the doctrine to also acknowledge the somehow all the disciples could become God, as Christ prays for the Father to allow the disciples to be brought into the mysterious “one” entity that Jesus and the Father inhabit together. That seems strange, but you can’t have it both ways. Christ is not asking that the disciples be made “one” in a way that is different than the way the Christ himself is “one” with the Father. He asks that the disciples be “one” with them, as they (Father and Son) are “one. Ironically, I think it would also require the Church-at-Large to apologize to all the Mormons who currently believe that they will, in fact, become Gods, after this lifetime. It seems that the Mormons are merely following the Trinity doctrine to its logical conclusion, albeit with a few wrinkles.
Hi Laurita. Similar thoughts and questions. Great articulation!
Thank you skip, whenever I read in the scriptures about being yoked, I always think am missing something here, and you have explained it so clearly, thanks again, may ABBA bless you and yours always, and don’t stop giving us these wonderful GEMS!
Skip,
Beautiful articulation!
Thanks.
The translation I use does say, “yokes together”. It is the Concordant Literal New Testament from the Concordant Publishing Concern. It tries to be as literal as possible, (and yet still readable) and eliminate interpretation, by consistently using only one English word for each single Greek word. It also uses many little symbols in the text to indicate the Greek verb form etc. It comes with a built in Greek-English concordance of the keywords in the N.T.
One
God is a plurality in unity. ~ Let Me.. (no), Let Us create man in My (no), in Our image..~(Genesis 1.26) We read and have heard of, God the Father, (when you pray, say “our Father..”), God the Son, (the Chosen One) and God the Holy Ruach, or Spirit, or Wind, or Breath. The Trinity is a tri-unity. One in purpose and intent, ~ not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
These three “agree” in One! Is Christ a liar (or blasphemer) when He says “I and My Father are One?” No, for He speaks only truth! One thing God cannot do is lie! He who is the Truth, speaks only truth. The One who said, ~ I AM the Way-the Truth and the Life ~ IS the Way-the Truth and the LIfe.. (And?) No man (no, not one) comes unto the Father, but by Him. The Way to the Father is through the Son, (only, exclusively).
We (both the human and the Divine) are joined together (yoked together) in a common purpose. Our purpose, (our mission) is the same as that of our Master (the Messiah), ~ to seek and to save that which was lost.. ~ Ours is to be a “gospel-centered” life, better yet.. a Christ-centered life, ~ (always, ever) looking unto Jesus, the Author, (Sustainer) and Perfecter of our faith.. ~
To begin this relationship (and that, dear ones is exactly what we have- a relationship!) we MUST be “born from Above..” To be “born of His Spirit (the Ruach) and washed in His blood.” Why? Because we are certainly no better than Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, to whom our Savior said, “You* MUST be born from Above!”
A Savior has been born into this world, (yes, the one we live in) to save sinners. Rabbi Sha’ul (Paul) knew this..(the Messiah died for sinners), but do we? ~ God, be merciful to me, “the” sinner! will (always) be my prayer. (Ask, and you too, will receive!)
So, what has God “joined together” – (in blood-covenant union, btw..)? Sinners are now saints, sons, stewards, and soldiers! “We” (all) do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the Authority of God!
Behold! “See” (take a good, hard look) ~ How great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, NOW we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure… (1 John 3.1-2)
There is something we all should remember..
~ Now all these things are from God, who (has) reconciled us to Himself through Christ and (has given unto) us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God..~
The Good News? (the gospel).. “God and sinners.. “reconciled!”
Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian,
Lift up your voice and sing
Eternal hallelujahs
To Jesus Christ our King!
The Hope of all who seek Him,
The Help of all who find,
None other is so loving,
So good and kind.
He lives! He lives!.. and we are One!
Hi Carl,
Unfortunately, your response ignores most of the discussion and debate we have had regarding the Trinity. You articulate the standard Christian position but without acknowledging the difficulties of lack of proof-texts and the admission that the doctrine is an inference not a direct declaration. Perhaps you need to review the substantial past TWs on the subject.