The
Weight of the World
On the Sunday before Christmas, one of the scripture passages
in my Sunday school book was Isaiah 9:5.
It reads,
“For a child has been
born to us, a son has been given to us, and the government will be upon his
shoulders;”
My teacher stopped and asked, “What do you think it means
that the government will be upon his shoulders?
There was quite a bit of discussion and the lesson went on with the
usual Christmas reading from Matthew and Luke of the Christmas story.
Think about that question for a moment? All the English translations say shoulders,
but the Hebrew translation says shoulder.
Hmmm, interesting. I have thought
a lot about that in regard to things we say.
I even looked up modern day quotes that use the word shoulder and here
are some of the things we say with that word in it:
Shoulder responsibility
Shoulder to cry on (or
lean)
Shoulder to the wheel
Chip on your shoulder
Look over your
shoulder
Standing shoulder to
shoulder
He has broad shoulders
to fill
And finally, she is
carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.
Is that how you feel at this moment? Has life dealt you so much that you feel you
can’t shoulder another thing? Just today a facebook post came through from
a friend that said, “ I can’t take any more bad news. I just received a phone call that a cousin
killed herself. A friend yesterday and a
cousin today.”
There are times when the world just seems to come crashing
in and we feel as though the weight of the entire world has been laid on our shoulders. We feel like our feet will go crashing
through the floor from all the weight. It
even becomes difficult to pick one foot up to take a step. Perhaps we seem to find one part of our life
straightening out while another crashes down.
I’ve been there. In
the fall of 2000 my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer. The day he was scheduled for his first chemo
treatment, my mom was scheduled for eye surgery 3 ½ hours away. I stayed in town with Daddy and my brother and
sister-in-law went with Mother. Fourteen
hours into the day we were informed that the surgery was unsuccessful. Twenty-four hours later my mom still wasn’t
fully out from under the anesthesia (we were almost certain she had suffered a
stroke, but the doctors said no) and 36 hours later her blood pressure had sky-rocketed. She was, however, released less than 48 hours
after the surgery with blood pressure back under control.
I wish I could say the saga was over at this point, but
no. This was only the beginning of six
long years. Four years of in and out of
the hospital with my dad before his death was followed by two years of the
ravages of breast cancer with my mom before her death. We had four months of chill time in-between
his death and her diagnosis.
During that six year
time period, my oldest son earned his driver’s license, started dating, graduated
high school, started college and yes, he even got married. My dad ended up in the hospital just five
days before the wedding and I forgot to plan a dessert for the rehearsal
dinner. My mother-in-law had four
bypasses on that same son’s 18th birthday. She has also had her carotid arteries cleaned
out in her neck and has survived breast cancer herself, all during the same six
year period my parents were going through their illnesses.
Believe me, I have
even more I could add, but there really is no need. I do want you to know something, when the
doctors could not get to the problem in my mother’s eye, the problem got much
worse. Her eye literally looked like the
button area of the cushion on a couch.
The white part was puffed out around the iris. As I left the hospital one evening and picked
up my son at work, I cried out, “God, we just can’t take all of this at one
time. Please help us and heal Mother’s
eye.” The next morning her eye was back to normal
and it stayed that way the rest of her life.
No other explanation, but God!
Now let me get back to that Sunday school lesson. As we neared the end of the lesson, my
teacher’s wife said, “Let me read something for you. I have a note written in my Bible from, I
guess a sermon or a Bible study at some point that says, we don’t have to carry
the weight of the world on our shoulders.
‘It will be on that
day that He will lift the affliction from your shoulders, and his yoke from
upon your neck, and the yoke will be broken because of the oil.’ Isaiah 10:27”
I think several of us just sat there engrossed deeply in the
words she spoke and read at that moment, because no one said anything. We were letting those words sink in. As soon as Church was over, I went to her and
asked for the passage and we began to talk about it. She replied how she felt so strongly the need
to read those words that morning, because so many people looked as though they
were carrying heavy burdens. I know I
was one of those. I needed those
words. There were people I also needed
to share those words with, but there is a much greater lesson here so let me
explain.
This scripture in Isaiah is written in regard to King
Hezekiah who came into power after his dad, Ahaz. Ahaz was a horrible king who did everything, except
worship the Lord God. He was evil from
the get-go. Hezekiah, on the other hand,
was a Godly king beyond measure. He
tried to reconstruct the nation of Judah into a Torah nation. He tore down the idols and the temples used for
the worship of them, he restored the Holy temple and reinstated the
festivals. One of the greatest feats he
accomplished was to bring back the study of Torah. At one point he was surrounded by the
Assyrians and cried out to God. God heard
him and guess what? The next morning, 185,000
of the Assyrians were dead and the Judeans had not lifted a finger. God had obviously been walking through that
camp! That verse in Isaiah 10:27 says it
is because of the oil. The commentary in
my Tanach (the Orthodox Hebrew translation) says this:
“The Sages comment
that Hezekiah earned the miracle of the destruction of the Assyrian forces
because of the copious amounts of oil that he used to keep lamps burning in the
study halls so that the people could learn Torah late into the night.”
You see, we can’t just go about business as the world does
and expect God to deliver us or take the weight off our shoulders when things
start piling up on us. I am afraid too
many Christians think they can live like the world and expect God to deliver
them from the world. That is not it at
all. The point is this; if we will
devote ourselves to studying His Torah (His Word), I mean really studying it,
not just reading a little passage every day, then He will devote Himself to
us. How do I know this? The verse says: “that the yoke will be broken because of the
oil.”
And do you know what else is really, really neat about this
whole thing? The more we study Torah,
the more God lifts off our shoulders and takes on His. The more we study Torah, the more we learn
about God which causes us to see things from a different perspective. This in itself causes us to worry less and
trust Him more. We then begin to see a
bigger picture and by doing so it allows us to stop looking through a keyhole
and stand instead, on top of the mountain where we can see a clear view. We can
now enjoy the beauty of the forest while
looking at the trees.
And this is the bestest part! When Yeshua came to earth, He had already
been given all the power and authority on His shoulder. When he took that cross with the penalty for
all the sin of the world on His shoulder, the penalty had to lay on top of that
authority and power!
Aaaaannnnnnddddd the power (authority
and dominion) was there to rest (stay – the authority will rest upon His
shoulder, remember the verse from Isaiah?), but the penalty had to go!!!!! Hallelujah!
He was the only one with the authority to overcome the penalty for the
sin of the world!!!! I can’t do it and
neither can you, but He could and He did!
He paid the price FOR you!
“And you are not your
own, for you have been redeemed at infinite cost. Therefore glorify God in your
bodies.”
1 Corinthians 6:20 Weymouth New Testament
As you begin this New Year, why not make this verse your daily meditation. Let it really sink in that YOU were redeemed at an infinite (immeasurable, countless, inestimable, interminable
–[perpetual, never-ending]) cost. Let
2013 be the year of new perspectives on your life, the life of others and on
your relationship with the one who paid an infinite cost for you. May this be the year that your blinded eyes
are opened to see the great and mighty and wondrous things He has in store for
you, my friend!
“For the Lord, your God, is God of
gods and the Lord of the lords, the great mighty and awesome God,”
Deuteronomy 10:17 Tanach
(Orthodox Hebrew translation)
What a
mighty God we serve!!!! Happy New Year! SHALOM!
‘2013’
HAPPYNEW
YEAR!
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