Submit to God and Be Healed

“Go and tell Hananiah, ‘This is what the Lord says: You have broken a wooden yoke, but in its place you will get a yoke of iron'” Jeremiah 28:13.

Jeremiah was God’s “weeping prophet” to His wayward and rebellious people in the 6th and 7th centuries before the birth of Christ.

This passage is referring to an exchange between the false prophet, Hananiah and Jeremiah. Hananiah is convinced it’s not God will for His people to be taken captive to Babylon.

And to demonstrate his conviction, he tore the wooden yoke off Jeremiah’s neck that he’d been wearing to illustrate his point.

And Jeremiah’s point was Israel would be taken captive to Babylon. This was God’s way of disciplining His rebellious, idolatrous people.

Our passage above is his response to Hananiah, and where we pick up the story.

The wooden yoke is essentially the consequences of our sin or immaturity in the same way the yoke of the king of Babylon was the consequence of Israel’s sin.

We will eventually be set from of the sin or immaturity that brought us under the yoke if we yield to it. In the same way the Israelites who submitted to the king’s yoke would eventually be set free.

We see in the previous chapter of Jeremiah that God encouraged the Israelites to accept the consequences of their sin by going into captivity. He promised to be with them in the foreign land. And He would eventually free them.

Those who refused this wooden yoke perished in an iron one.

Submit to God and His Yoke

I think there’s a principle here about what happens when we refuse to accept the “yoke” God puts on us. To read the passage for context, click here.

We may think we are freeing ourselves from a difficult situation, but in reality, we are inviting an even harder one.

This is the case because the yokes that come upon us are invariably the result of some sin, or area of weakness or immaturity in us.

If we stay in the yoke, we will eventually be delivered from the thing that brought us into in in the first place.

But if we throw it off and refuse to submit to it, our issue won’t get dealt with. And that very sin problem or weakness will cause us to be yoked again.

Except this time the situation will be worse, because our issue will have gotten worse.

When We Refuse to Submit to God, We Don’t Heal

When we refuse to submit to the dealings of God in our lives, we don’t heal. Instead, we grow progressively more unhealthy. We don’t stay the same.

If we submit to the yoke, we gain strength and maturity. But if we reject it, we become weaker and more polluted. But we don’t stay static. We’re always changing.

The yoke will set us free if we submit to it. So having to endure a stronger yoke if we don’t submit is actually a mercy.

It’s another opportunity to gain strength and maturity. And ultimately freedom from our sin.

We sometimes experience this in marriage. The marriage begins to feel like a yoke, like a burden. It’s robbing us of freedom.

But the problem isn’t really the marriage. It’s us.

And if we submit to it, we will be delivered from our issue, gain maturity and ultimately freedom.

But if we reject it and break it off, we will discover to our dismay that the next relationship also begins to chafe. It will feel like a yoke too, except worse.

And we will again think it’s the relationship. But it’s really our own issue that we haven’t dealt with. The relationship probably will be worse too. But this is because our issue has gotten worse.

This affects our ability to have a healthy relationship. And it also affects our ability to choose appropriate partners.

Refusing the Wooden Yoke is the Broad Path

Breaking the wooden yoke is like choosing the broad path. It seems like the way to deliverance and freedom. But in reality, it only leads to greater bondage.

Submitting to the wooden yoke is like choosing the narrow path

It’s more difficult and painful now. But will lead to freedom in the end (Mathew 7: 13,14).

The only deliverance from our yokes, our problems, our pain is to submit to the yokes our immaturity or weakness gets us into.

We get delivered from our problems by getting delivered from our sin (or immaturity). And this happens in the yoke.

When we find ourselves in a trying situation: a bad marriage, illness, money problems, we had best submit to it.

We better yield to it. And work through it with a right attitude and earnestness.

Because if we don’t, if we throw off the yoke, the issue that brought the yoke upon to begin with us will grow worse. And bring a stronger and more painful one to bear.

The Hard Way and the Harder Way

There is no easy way. There is only the hard way and the harder way.

The wooden yoke may be difficult to bear. But the iron one more difficult still.

Here’s another example: Many people, especially women in our society today use food to cope with stress, medicate pain and provide comfort.

I know because I was one of them.

Going on a diet and changing our eating habits and lifestyle is hard. It’s a painful yoke to bear.

But the alternative is an even more difficult one.

The inability to find a decent, emotionally healthy partner, health problems, low-self-esteem, self-hatred.

The wooden yoke of losing weight and changing our lifestyle is not easy. But the iron yoke of a low-quality life is worse.

This principle holds true for any sin. It’s just as true for an out-of-control temper, lust, anxiety, bitterness.

We All Need a Yoke

Since none of comes out of the womb mature, we will all bear a yoke of some kind. Our only real choice is the wooden or the iron.

If I would’ve left my ex-husband when I realized I didn’t love him, or even five years later, I would’ve ended up in a similar situation.

I hadn’t matured or healed yet at that point. So, I would’ve again made an inappropriate choice. And I would not have had the tools to have a healthy relationship, because I wasn’t healthy.

I would’ve gone from the wooden to the iron.

But because I endured the situation (by God’s grace alone) until he finally opted out, I gained strength and maturity.

I have no desire to be married again. But if I did, it would be much different. I would have the tools to have a healthy relationship.

Enduring the wooden has brought freedom from my sin so I don’t need to endure another yoke.

The yoke is both the consequence of and deliverer of our sin or immaturity.

To delve further into some of the ideas contained in Submit and Be Healed, see The Testing of Your Faith and Freedom: The Link.

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