Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1291
“It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.” Lamentations 3:27.
YOKE-BEARING is not pleasant, but it is good. It is not every pleasant thing that is good, nor every good thing that is pleasant. Sometimes the goodness may be just in proportion to the unpleasantness. Now, it is childish to be always craving for sweets—those, who by reason of use have had their senses exercised, should prefer the wholesome to the palatable. It ought to reconcile us to that which is unsavory when we are informed that it is good! A little child is not easily reconciled that way, because, as yet, he cannot think and judge. But the man of God ought to find it very easy to quiet every murmur and complaint as soon as he perceives that, though unpleasant, the thing is good.
Since, my dear Friends, we are not very good judges, ourselves, of that which is good for us anymore than our children are, and since we expect our little ones to leave the choice of their diet with us, will it not be wise of us to leave everything with our heavenly Father? We can judge what is pleasant, but we cannot discern that which is good for us. But He can judge and, therefore, it will be always well for us to leave all our affairs in His hands and say, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” Since we are quite certain upon Scriptural authority that whatever the Lord sends to His people will work out for their benefit, we ought to be perfectly resigned to the Lord’s will.
No, much more—we ought to be thankful for all His appointments even when they displease the flesh—being quite certain that His will is the best that can be and that if we could see the end from the beginning it is exactly what we should choose if we were as wise and good as our heavenly Father is. Our shoulders bow themselves with gladness to the burden which Jesus declares to be profitable to us! This assurance from His lips makes His yoke easy to bear. Our text tells us of something which, though not very comfortable, is good—“It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his
youth!”
The illustration is drawn from cattle. The bullocks have to bear the yoke. They go in pairs and the yoke is borne upon their shoulders. The yoke is somewhat burdensome. If the bullock is not broken when it is young, it will never make a good plowing ox. It will be fretted and troubled with the labor it will have to do. It will be very hard work to drive it and the farmer will accomplish but little plowing. It is good for the bullock to be brought into subjection while it is young—and so it is with all sorts of animals—the horse must be broken while he is a colt. And if a certain period of that horse’s life is allowed to pass over without its being under the trainer’s hand, it will never make a thoroughly useful horse.
If you want to train a dog you must take him while he is young and teach him his work. That is the metaphor. It is just so with men. It is good for us that we are broken while we are yet young and learn to bear the yoke in our youth. If you take the text naturally as uttering a truth of ordinary life, it is still worth considering. Even apart from the Grace of God and apart from religion, it is a great blessing for a man to bear the yoke in his youth! That is to say, first, it is good for us when we are young to learn obedience. It is half the making of a man to be placed under rule and taught to bear restraint.
When young people grow older they will have to be very much a law unto themselves. There may be no father living to warn them lovingly and no mother to gently guide them. Young people will be older people and govern themselves— and no one is fit to do that till he has learned to be obedient. The proverb is, “boys will be boys,” but I do not think so— they will be men if we let them have time. And unless they learn self-restraint and habits of obedience while they are boys, they are not likely to make good men. He who cannot obey is not fit to rule—he who never learned to submit will make a tyrant when he obtains power.
It is good that every child should be broken in, delivered from his foolish self-will and made to feel that he has superiors, masters and governors. Then, when it shall come his turn to be a leader and a master, he will have the more kindly
empathy to those who are under him. Be you sure of this, that if he does not learn the drill of obedience he will never be a good soldier in the battle of life.
It is good for young people to bear the yoke, too, in the sense of acquiring, in their early days, knowledge. If we do not learn when we are young, when shall we learn? Some who have begun to study late in life, have yet achieved a good deal, but it has been with much difficulty. If you do not use the machinery of the mind in youth, it gets rusty. But if it is used from the very first and kept continually in action and well oiled, it will go on easily throughout the whole of life. Our early days are favorable to the acquirement of knowledge and every lad that is an apprentice should make the best of his apprenticeship—he will never make much of a journeyman if he does not.