Shake Off That Yoke of Bondage


  1. Message: Rebekah manipulated her favorite son, Jacob to trick his father into giving him the first-born blessing. He blessed him by making him the master over his brother and guaranteed him an abundance of grain and wine. When Esau begged for just one blessing his father said “you will live away from the riches of the earth, and away from the dew of the heaven above. You will live by your sword and you will serve your brother. But when you decide to be free you will shake his yoke from your neck”.
  2. Command:  Live by the terms you have been given.
  3. Promise: When you are ready to be free you will break out of the bondage.
  4. Warning: You will live by your sword until you are ready for freedom.
  5. Application: I have read this story plenty of times but today something really jumped out at me! In this story we see the anguish in Esau as he realizes he lost his blessing. The blessing was built to favor Jacob and nothing was left for Esau, and even though he deceived his father to gain it, it was made very clear that the blessing was irrevocable. When Esau begged his father for just one blessing his father told him that he would serve his brother, live by his sword and wouldn’t have the grain and wine blessings, BUT when HE decided to be free he would shake his yoke from his neck. That last line says so much! As I look at my own life I see SO many things that were decided for me. Things that were done to me that I didn’t get to choose. There are also some things I naively walked into. This is true of all of us in completely different ways. We have all been victimized in some way and that has the potential to make us a slave to the emotions and limitations that come with being victimized. Like Jacob, when I decide to be free (in so many ways I already have) I shake off that yoke of bondage. Bondage can mean SO many different things for all of us but it all stems from how we respond to the people who have violated us. This isn’t to suggest that we treat the violation like it wasn’t painful or unfair. In the story the father didn’t blow it off like it wasn’t terrible. Instead he empowered his son to accept it and then rise above it. What could have held him as a slave his entire life had a new potential but the choice was all on Esau to shake off the yoke of bondage. We all have that choice too. Some terrible things have happened to most of us. Things out of our control. We can choose to focus on being a victim, or we can rise up and shake off the yoke of bitterness and unforgiveness that holds us captive. My own application for this is to pay attention to my own responses to unfair situations. I need to accept them for what they are, but not allow my response to hold me back.

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