Shatter the Yoke (Isaiah 10)

Isaiah 10:27 On that day, His burden shall be taken from your shoulder, and his yoke shattered from your neck. 

God will have let Assyria bring their destruction upon Israel, but God calls the Israelites to not fear, for it will only be a brief moment. God will allow their suffering for a brief moment (God’s time and our time are two different things of course, and a moment for him could be much longer for us) before he destroys them. And then God will take the burden from his people. 

God allowed his people to struggle because as a nation, they sinned. Many people question God’s motives even in present times, asking why God would allow suffering. Through suffering, we are healed. And perhaps, through our suffering, others may be healed. We have all heard “there is a greater purpose,” and most of the time we will not understand it. But God performs miracles through people’s sufferings. Sometimes it takes our suffering for us to truly empty ourselves and open ourselves to God. We must persevere through suffering, knowing the whole time God is with us and hasn’t left us. 

It is so easy to think our sufferings are worse than other people’s. When I am struggling, I try to remember the Passion of Christ. The journey he endured from conviction to crucifixion just to free me of my sins. He dies for me to take that yoke off my neck. He suffered lashes and thorns shoved on him, public humiliation and nails in his hands. I try to visualize (and having watched “The Passion” I have vivid images) his suffering, and how he did indeed take it all on for others. It does help me get through my now seemingly smaller burden.

We can use our suffering to show God’s work to others, and perhaps help them come back to God. Let God take your burden. Lay them at Jesus’s feet. He himself calls us in Matthew 11:28 “come to me, all you who labor and burdened, and I will give you rest.’’ Remember which side of heaven we are on. It’s not meant to be all sunshine and rainbows, even for those whose hearts are devoted to God. He loves you and wants to free you. Bring him your sorrows and allow him to shatter your yoke.