There are times I come across someone’s writing and think, “I just can’t say that any better myself.” I recently read a devotion by one of my favorite Bible scholars, Skip Moen, and thought this exact thought. He is a man who has studied, beyond measure, the Hebraic thought pattern and choice of wording behind the scriptures, and he presents his writings from that very perspective. He is intelligent and incredibly educated, but mostly, he is a man of God, searching to know more of Yeshua and desiring to share that insight with others. I know this because my husband, Anthony, and I have had the opportunity to get to know Skip beyond his website and daily, email devotionals.

Leverage, the title of the devotion below, has so much meat, so much truth, so much “gosh, that’s good stuff”, that I knew it was pointless to try to recreate the wheel. Instead, I just chose to re-present the wheel.

“What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” Matthew 19:6

“Joined Together – Every translation I checked has the same wording, “joined together.”  But that doesn’t quite capture the overtones of this very unusual Greek verb (syzeugnymi).  The verb literally means “yoked together.”  It is found only twice in the LXX (Ezekiel 1:11 and 23).  Both are translations of the Hebrew verb havar.  When Yeshua spoke about the purpose of marriage, he must have used this Hebrew verb.  It isn’t just about “joining.”  It’s about pulling the load together.  Joining is what I do with lumber, committees and pipes.  But yoking implies work to be done.  No one hitches two animals in a yoke without having an objective in mind.  Yoking is about pulling in the same direction in order to accomplish the same purpose.

Two people who are joined together in an agreement for mutual pleasure, protection and provision are not necessarily yoked.  To be yoked is to share the same task.  This is the purpose of marriage as God sees it.  My spouse and I must share in the same God-given objective.  Without this, we are joined but not yoked.  Of course, that doesn’t mean we do the same job.  We may both have different tasks but we have the same objective.  What is that?  It is to live in yoked harmony, recapturing what it means to be one again in a display of perfect redemption.

In case the imagery wasn’t clear enough, we might look at the homophones of havar.  The consonants are Chet-Bet-Resh.  Changing the vowels from a to e produces a word that means a company, a band (of brothers) and a magic spell.  The concept behind all three is binding, whether by association or incantation.  Altering the vowels again produces haver, the Hebrew word for friendship.  Obviously, being yoked means more than a tandem work team.  It is closely associated with the deepest kind of community.

Finally, let’s take a glance at the pictograph.  Chet-Bet-Resh is the picture “a fence around a person in a house.”  Marriage is the fence around the house.  It binds husband and wife so that nothing and no one can interfere in the exercise of God’s prime directive for “one-flesh” union.  Oh, that’s doesn’t mean sex.  The prime directive is to act as regents of the heavenly kingdom here on earth so that His name may be glorified.

OK, here’s the bottom line.  Yoked means pulling together, not pulling apart.  Yoked means deep friendship, anchored in common commitment.  Yoked means not being alone.  Yoked means holding hands while we travel the path of God’s purpose in a broken world.  Yoked means not letting go.

Lots of couples are married, inside and outside the church.  Few are yoked.  Those who aren’t know they aren’t.  Those who are can’t imagine what it would be like not to be.” [Skip Moen]

And because this has been said with such conviction and passion, I’ll leave the words to settle on your heart without adding my own.

*If you want to read more of Skip’s writings, please visit his website at www.skipmoen.com.

Babs Coppedge