“With my great power and outstretched arm I made the earth and its people and the animals that are on it, and I give it to anyone I please.”
~ Jeremiah 27:5
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever seen a yoke? Do you know what a yoke is? Ask your dad if he has ever seen a yoke. A yoke is two specially cut pieces of wood – a top half and a lower half, with the top half fitting over the necks of a pair of oxen and the bottom half fitting under the necks of the same pair of oxen. The two pieces of wood are strapped together once they are in place over and under the heads of a pair of oxen. Once two oxen are yoked together, the oxen have no other choice but to move together in unison in the direction that the oxen’s driver wants them to go. Your grandmaa and grandpaa – when they lived in Bolivia, would see small, rickety carts with two large wooden wheels being pulled by oxen. These small wobbly carts could be carrying anything – from bananas to firewood to garbage to . . . during the time one summer when a summer team was in Bolivia, your grandmaa and grandpaa took the summer team to an isolated village that was not that far from Santa Cruz. To get to this village, your grandmaa, grandpaa and everyone else who was going to the village had to cross a wide river. Even though the river was not deep, your grandpaa did not want to take the chance of driving through the river in his white C-10 Chevrolet pickup. In order to get to the other side of the river, your grandmaa, grandpaa and everyone else who was going to the village ended up going across the river riding in three wooden, two wheel carts – with each cart pulled by a pair of oxen. Once across the river, your grandmaa, grandpaa and everyone else who was going to the village had to walk on a potholed, dusty dirt path for a couple of kilometers to get to the village where that summer’s summer team put on a happening. When the evening’s happening of singing, giving testimonies, skits, a film and an evangelistic message had ended in the village where your grandmaa and grandpaa took the summer team, everyone who went to the village that day again piled into the three rickety carts with their stuff, the film projector and the material that the summer team used for a kids’ Bible class, and began heading back to where your grandpaa had left his pickup. It was very dark out by this time. As the three carts each pulled by a pair of oxen started down the potholed, dirt path back to the river, one of the summer team guys decided to shine his flashlight in front of the pair of oxen that was pulling the wobbling, rickety wooden cart that he was in – thinking that by doing this that he was helping the oxen see where they were walking. The driver of the wooden cart quickly asked the young guy to turn off his flashlight. Instead of helping the oxen see where they were going, the light from the flashlight actually kept the oxen from seeing what was ahead of them. The oxen had no trouble going down the potholed, dirt path in the pitch black darkness of that night – without any light helping them to see where they were going. Your grandpaa will never forget as the rickety, wooden cart squeaked and wobbled down that dirt path and then through the water of the wide river how tranquil and decompressing that the ride was in that wooden cart that dark night under a star filled sky.
Jeremiah was told by God to make a yoke – and to wear the yoke. Yoke can mean repression or bondage. God told Jeremiah to wear the yoke in front of His specially chosen guys and gals – the guys and gals who lived in Judah, to symbolize how they were going to become yoked to Nebuchadnezzar and to the guys and gals who lived in Babylon. Zedekiah was Judah’s king at this time. Jeremiah also wore the yoke in front of each of the envoys from Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon who were visiting Judah. God told the guys and gals who lived in Judah as well as the guys and gals who lived in the countries of Edom, Moab, Ammon and in the cities of Tyre and Sidon to allow themselves to be ruled by Nebuchadnezzar, then by Nebuchadnezzar’s kid and later by Nebuchadnezzar’s grandkid. God told them that He would then after Nebuchadnezzar’s grandkid was the king that He wold have the different countries rule over Babylon – but for now, they first had to be ruled by Babylon or else. Jeremiah – in Jeremiah 27, writes about the yoke that God had him make and wear. Jeremiah told Zedekiah – Judah’s king, and the guys and gals who lived in Judah, in the countries of Edom, Moab and Ammon and in the cities of Trye and Sidon what God had told him that they needed to do – that if they opted not to do what God had told them what He wanted them to do – which was to be yoked with Babylon, that He would punish them by having them killed by the sword, famines and plagues. God through his prophet spokesman Jeremiah sent a message to Zedekiah – Judah’s king, and to the guys and gals who lived in Judah, Edom, Moab and Ammon and in the cities of Tyre and Sidon to tell them the reason why He could do what He was going to do. God said in what is now verse 5, “With my great power and outstretched arm I made the earth and its people and the animals that are on it, and I give it to anyone I please.” Your grandpaa hopes that you will always remember that planet Earth was made by God, that you were made by God and that every animal that is on planet Earth was made by God. Your grandpaa hopes that you will always remember that everything that has happened, is happening and will happen on planet Earth has happened, is happening and will happen because God has a plan that He formulated before He created planet Earth, you and the animals that He is unfolding continuously for every guy, gal and kid and for everything else this is on planet Earth.
Your grandmaa and grandpaa are praying that you will become yoked through Jesus Christ with God. Only God can help you see through planet Earth’s darkness to the place where He will have you live your lives and what He will have you do with your lives. Your rides will be rough but your grandpaa knows that you will enjoy them.
Jeremiah 27 (233)