Ⅰ
"Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light"—Matt. 11:28-30:
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To toil here refers not only to the toil of striving to keep the commandments of the law and religious regulations but also to the toil of struggling to be successful in any work; whoever toils thus is always heavily burdened.
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After the Lord extolled the Father, acknowledging the Father's way and declaring the divine economy (vv. 25-27), He called this kind of people to come to Him for rest.
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Rest refers not only to being set free from the toil and burden under the law or religion or under any work or responsibility, but also to perfect peace and full satisfaction.
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To take the Lord's yoke is to take the will of the Father; it is not to be regulated or controlled by any obligation of the law or religion or to be enslaved by any work, but to be constrained by the will of the Father.
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The Lord lived such a life, caring for nothing but the will of His Father (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38); He submitted Himself fully to the Father's will (Matt. 26:39-46); hence, He asks us to learn from Him:
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The believers copy the Lord in their spirit by taking His yoke—God's will— and toiling for God's economy according to His model—11:29a; 1 Pet. 2:21.
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The Lord, who was submissive and obedient to the Father throughout His life, has given us His life of submission and obedience—Phil. 2:5-11; Heb. 5:7-9.
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Christ was the first God-man, and we are the many God-men; we have to learn of Him in His absolute submission to God and His uttermost satisfaction with God.
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God is doing in us that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ that we may be able to do His will (13:20-21); God operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).
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To be meek, or gentle, means not to resist opposition, and to be lowly means not to have self-esteem; throughout all the opposition the Lord was meek, and throughout all the rejection He was lowly in heart.
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He submitted Himself fully to the will of His Father, not wanting to do anything for Himself or expecting to gain something for Himself; hence, regardless of the situation He had rest in His heart; He was fully satisfied with the Father's will.
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The rest that we find by taking the Lord's yoke and learning from Him is for our souls; it is an inward rest; it is not anything merely outward in nature.
Ⅰ
We learn from the Lord according to His example, not by our natural life but by Him as our life in resurrection—Eph. 4:20-21; 1 Pet. 2:21.
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The Lord's yoke is the Father's will, and His burden is the work of carrying out the Father's will; such a yoke is easy, not bitter, and such a burden is light, not heavy.
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The Greek word for easy means "fit for use"; hence, good, kind, mild, gentle, easy, pleasant—in contrast to hard, harsh, sharp, bitter.
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If we take the Lord's yoke (the Father's will) upon us and learn from Him, we will find rest for our souls; the yoke of God's economy is like this; everything in God's economy is not a heavy burden but an enjoyment.
Morning Nourishment
Matt. 11:25-26 At that time Jesus answered and said, I extol You, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for thus it has been well pleasing in Your sight.1 Pet. 2:21 …Christ also suffered on your behalf, leaving you a model so that you may follow in His steps.
It is the Father’s pleasant will to hide the contents of His economy from the wise and intelligent, the worldlings, and reveal them to infants, the Son’s believers.
In His prayer the Lord extolled the Father, acknowledging the Father as Lord of heaven and of earth. To extol is to praise with acknowledgment….The Lord praised the Father by acknowledging that the Father is the Lord of heaven and earth. We should learn to praise by acknowledging the Father in His economy, His will, and His doing. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” pp. 555-556, 548)
Today’s Reading
The first God-man is the Head of the Body, the prototype, and the model (Matt. 11:29a). He came as one grain of wheat to produce many grains (John 12:24). The one grain was the prototype, and the many grains are the mass production. The mass production is the duplication of the model. Peter says that Christ is a model to the believers (1 Pet. 2:21). The Greek word for model means literally a writing copy, an underwriting used by students to trace letters and thereby learn to draw them. We become the reproduction of Christ as the original writing copy. Christ is the prototype to produce a mass production and the model to produce the many duplications.Christ was the first God-man, and we are the many God-men. We have to learn of Him in His absolute submission to God and His uttermost satisfaction with God. Christ was so submissive to and satisfied with the Father and His will.
The Lord was meek, meaning that He did not resist His opponents. He was also lowly, meaning that He humbled Himself among men in His heart.
The Lord’s believers answer His call in their heart and come to Him bodily (Matt. 11:28a). To come to Him bodily means that our entire being has to come to Him. This is why Paul charges us in Romans 12:1 to present our bodies to the Lord as a living sacrifice. We have to present our bodies in a practical way by being in the meetings of the church. Since I was saved by the Lord in 1925, I have come to Him with my entire being.
The believers copy the Lord in their spirit by taking His yoke—God’s will—and toiling for God’s economy according to His model (Matt. 11:29a; 1 Pet. 2:21). The Lord told us to learn from Him. To learn from Him is to copy Him, not to imitate Him outwardly. In this way we become His duplication and mass production. The first requirement in learning from Him is to take His yoke, which is God’s will. God’s will has to yoke us, and we have to put our neck into this yoke. Seventy years ago as a young man, I took the yoke of Jesus. That yoke has protected me for the past seventy years.
We also need to be those who toil for God’s economy. All the worldly people are toiling and are burdened in many things. They are very busy. The Lord is calling those who are toiling, who are burdened, and who have no rest or satisfaction to come to Him so that He can give them the real rest with satisfaction. The rest without satisfaction is not the real rest. We take His yoke and toil for God’s economy according to His model, following Him in His footsteps.
The hardest thing is to rest in our soul. People lose sleep because their soul is bothered. The rest that we find by taking the Lord’s yoke and learning from Him is for our soul. We share in our soul His rest in satisfaction (Matt. 11:28b, 29b, 30). (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” pp. 556-557)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” chs. 12-13