Scripture: Matt 11:29-30, 2 Cor 6:14-16, etc.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light (vv. 29-30).
Compare this yoke that we bear with Jesus with the yoke described in the following verse:
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness (2 Cor 6:14)?
A yoke is a wooden crosspiece fastened over the shoulders of two animals to pull a cart or plow the ground. Can light and darkness exert forces together in the same direction to pull something? While you, a child of light, seek to go toward the light, the child of darkness pulls you back toward darkness. The above Scripture continues saying:
What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God (vv. 15-16).
“Belial” means “without value, worthless” in Hebrew. In “The War Scroll: the War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness,” found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, Belial is the captain of the Sons of Darkness. If Christ is the King of Light, Belial, the worthless devil, is the King of Darkness. “What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?” suggests a battle between the sons of light and those of darkness as depicted in the War Scroll. However, we must know that this battle is spiritual and not a war against any nation or people.
(From Sermon Summary, “Children of Light” No. 9)
