“Therefore, this is what the LORD says: ‘“I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the LORD.”
~ Jeremiah 28:16
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever seen a yoke? A yoke is wooden devise that connects two oxen together at their necks. A yoke has a top and a bottom part. The two parts of a yoke are connected together after the top part of a yoke is laid over the necks of two oxen and the bottom part of the yoke is brought up under the necks of the two oxen. Both the top and the bottom part of a yoke have two U shaped indentations that are an equal distance apart. The neck of each oxen fits snugly into one of the two openings that are caused by the U shaped indentations. When two oxen are yoked together, the two oxen can only turn in the same direction. During the twelve years that your grandmaa and grandpaa were in Bolivia, your grandmaa and grandpaa would at times see two oxen that were yoked together pulling a two wheel cart made out of wood. The two wheel cart would sometimes be overloaded with bananas or firewood or garbage or . . . the cart’s two wheels would oftentimes be thick, crudely cut round pieces of wood with a hole in the middle of each wheel where they were attached to the cart’s axle. The wood wheels would sometimes have pieces of rubber nailed to their ‘bottoms’. The pieces of rubber kept the rocky streets and the rough roads from chewing up the wood on the ‘bottoms’ of the wood wheels. A yoke can also be a type of frame which a guy will put over his shoulders so that he can carry a heavy load.
Yokes were being used when Jeremiah was alive – which was over 2600 years ago. Jeremiah 28 begins with Jeremiah wearing a yoke. God had told Jeremiah to wear a yoke to symbolize the bondage that Babylonian guys and gals were inflicting on God’s specially chosen guys and gals. Jeremiah recorded in this chapter in his Jeremiah Book the date when Hananiah – a prophet from Gibeon, attempted to one-up him in front of the temple priests and a group of guys who were in the house of God or God’s temple that was located in the city of Jerusalem. It irked Jeremiah a lot what Hananiah was telling the priests and the guys who were in the temple on that particular day. Hananiah told the priests and the guys who were in the temple that the LORD Almighty – Who was the God of Israel, would in two years have all the temple articles that had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar – who was Babylonia’s king, returned to His temple that was located in the city of Jerusalem. Hananiah also on this same day told the temple priests and the guys who were in the temple of God that on the same day that God would have all the temple articles returned to His temple that was located in the city of Jerusalem that God would have Jehoiachin – who was Jehoiakim’s kid, freed from being in captivity in Babylonia to be king over Judah’s land area. Before Hananiah decided that he had to say what he thought that God had told him to say, Jeremiah had prophesied to God’s specially chosen guys and gals telling them that the LORD Almighty would not be allowing His specially chosen guys and gals to return to the land which He had given to them to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . until they had suffered as slaves in Babylonia for seventy years for their disobedience to Him. Jeremiah and Hananiah – whose name meant ‘the LORD is gracious’, were in conflict over when God would return all the temple articles to His temple that was located in the city of Jerusalem and when God would allow His specially chosen guys and gals to return to their homes in the land that He had given to them to always to have to live as their very own land if . . . Hananiah tried to sink home what he was telling the priests and the guys by taking the yoke that Jeremiah was wearing and breaking the yoke into pieces as a way to symbolize the way that God would break the oppressive yoke that the Babylonians had over God’s specially chosen guys and gals. Jeremiah’s response to Hananiah is found in verse 16 which says “Therefore, this is what the LORD says: ‘“I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the LORD.”’” Hananiah was dead two months later.
Jeremiah was a true prophet spokesman for God – as God the Father. Jeremiah never hesitated to tell God’s specially chosen guys and gals the truth – even though Jeremiah knew that there would always be guys and gals who would not be happy with what he was saying. Hananiah thought that he was a prophet spokesman for God. Hananiah wanted to be the guy who said things that he knew would make other guys and gals happy with him. One day during the seven weeks that a summer team that your grandmaa and grandpaa were leading was in Bolivia, your grandpaa had this summer team visit a village that was located on the opposite side of a wide, shallow river. Several wooden carts – each cart pulled by a yoke of oxen, carried the summer team, your grandmaa and grandpaa and all of their stuff through the river and then another couple of kilometers over a very bumpy dirt road to the village where your grandpaa wanted the summer team of guys and gals to put on a happening for the guys, gals and kids who lived in the village. It was daylight when the oxen pulled wooden carts carried all the guys and gals and their stuff to the village. It was a pitch black when the oxen pulled wooden carts began carrying the guys and gals and their stuff back to the vehicles that were on the other side of the river. As the oxen began to move the wooden carts that were filled with college age guys and gals, your grandmaa and grandpaa, projector, generator, etc., one of the summer team guys tried to help the pair of oxen that were pulling the cart that he was in by shining his flashlight on the road ahead of the oxen. The driver of the wooden cart asked the young guy to turn off his flashlight as . . . just as oxen can see where they are going in pitch black darkness, God is always ready to carry you through your lives darkest moments.
Jeremiah 28 (548)