Lamentations 3:27
It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young.
It is good
The Hebrew word for "good" here is "טוֹב" (tov), which conveys a sense of moral goodness, benefit, or well-being. In the context of Lamentations, a book filled with sorrow and lament, the use of "good" is striking. It suggests that even in the midst of suffering, there is a divine purpose and benefit. This aligns with the broader biblical theme that God can bring good out of difficult circumstances (Romans 8:28). The goodness here is not merely about personal benefit but about spiritual growth and maturity.

for a man
The term "man" in Hebrew is "גֶּבֶר" (gever), which often refers to a young man or a warrior. This choice of word emphasizes strength and potential. The verse suggests that there is a particular advantage for those in their youth to undergo challenges. In a conservative Christian perspective, this can be seen as a call to embrace discipline and hardship as a means of building character and reliance on God, preparing one for future responsibilities and spiritual battles.

to bear the yoke
The "yoke" (עוֹל, ol) is a powerful metaphor in biblical literature, often symbolizing submission, discipline, and service. In ancient agrarian societies, a yoke was used to harness animals for work, implying labor and burden. Spiritually, bearing a yoke can represent accepting God's discipline and guidance. Jesus uses similar imagery in Matthew 11:29-30, where He invites believers to take His yoke upon them, promising rest for their souls. The yoke here in Lamentations suggests a formative process, where enduring hardship under God's sovereignty leads to spiritual growth and maturity.

while he is young
The phrase "while he is young" underscores the importance of early discipline and learning. The Hebrew word for "young" is "נְעוּרִים" (ne'urim), referring to the period of youth. This is a time of learning, growth, and development. In the biblical context, youth is seen as a critical period for establishing a foundation of faith and character. Proverbs 22:6 echoes this sentiment, advising to "train up a child in the way he should go." The verse in Lamentations suggests that enduring challenges in youth can lead to a lifetime of wisdom and strength, aligning with the conservative Christian view that early spiritual formation is crucial for a life of faithfulness.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Jeremiah
Traditionally attributed as the author of Lamentations, Jeremiah is known as the "weeping prophet." He lamented the destruction of Jerusalem and the suffering of his people.

2. Jerusalem
The city that faced destruction by the Babylonians, which is the backdrop for the book of Lamentations. The lament reflects on the city's fall and the resulting hardships.

3. Babylonian Exile
The period when the Israelites were taken captive by Babylon. This event is central to the context of Lamentations, as it represents a time of great suffering and reflection for the Jewish people.
Teaching Points
The Value of Early Discipline
Bearing the yoke in youth teaches resilience and builds character. Early discipline sets a foundation for a life of faithfulness and obedience to God.

Spiritual Growth Through Trials
Trials and burdens, when faced with faith, can lead to spiritual maturity. Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth and deeper reliance on God.

The Yoke of Christ
Unlike the burdens of the world, Christ's yoke is light and brings rest. Seek to align your life with His teachings and find peace in His guidance.

Preparation for Future Challenges
Learning to bear burdens in youth prepares one for future challenges. Develop a strong spiritual foundation to withstand life's storms.

The Role of Community and Mentorship
Engage with a community of believers and seek mentorship. Sharing burdens and learning from others can provide support and wisdom.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the concept of bearing the yoke in youth apply to your current stage of life, and what practical steps can you take to embrace this teaching?

2. Reflect on a time when you faced a significant challenge. How did it contribute to your spiritual growth, and how can you apply this experience to future trials?

3. In what ways can you take on the yoke of Christ in your daily life, and how does this differ from the burdens you might carry otherwise?

4. How can you actively seek out and engage with a community or mentor to help you bear your burdens and grow in faith?

5. Consider the connection between discipline and righteousness as described in Hebrews 12:11. How can you cultivate a disciplined spiritual life that yields a harvest of righteousness?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Ecclesiastes 12:1
This verse encourages remembering the Creator in the days of youth, which aligns with the idea of bearing the yoke while young, emphasizing the importance of spiritual discipline early in life.

Matthew 11:29-30
Jesus speaks of taking His yoke upon oneself, which is easy and light. This connection highlights the spiritual growth and rest found in Christ, contrasting with the burdens of life.

Hebrews 12:11
Discusses the discipline that seems painful at the time but later yields a harvest of righteousness. This ties into the concept of bearing the yoke as a form of discipline that leads to growth.
A Sermon to Young MenW. M. Statham, M. A.Lamentations 3:27
Bearing the YokeO. T. Lanphear, D. D.Lamentations 3:27
Bearing the Yoke in YouthJohn Hambleton, M. A.Lamentations 3:27
Deferring the Yoke Leads to Regret, in After YearsAlexander Smellie.Lamentations 3:27
Good to Bear the Yoke in YouthJ. T. Davidson, D. D.Lamentations 3:27
Ideal EducationH. O. Mackey.Lamentations 3:27
On Bearing the Yoke in YouthDean Vaughan.Lamentations 3:27
On the Duty of Restraining the YoungW. Moodie, D. D.Lamentations 3:27
The Best Burden for Young ShouldersLamentations 3:27
The Discipline of YouthD. Young Lamentations 3:27
The Good of Early ObedienceM. Mead.Lamentations 3:27
The Necessity and Advantage of Early AfflictionsH. Scougal, M. A.Lamentations 3:27
The Necessity for Early Yoke-BearingJ. Thain Davidson.Lamentations 3:27
The Trials of YouthM. Dods, D. D.Lamentations 3:27
The Yoke in YouthJ.R. Thomson Lamentations 3:27
The Yoke of ReligionJ. Benson.Lamentations 3:27
Yoke BearingHomiletic MagazineLamentations 3:27
Yoke-BearingLamentations 3:27
Yoke-Bearing in YouthJ. Parker, D. D.Lamentations 3:27
Youth the Time for Taking Christ's YokeJ. Thain Davidson.Lamentations 3:27
Awaiting God's WorkingJohn Hall.Lamentations 3:25-36
God's Goodness to Them that WaitT. P. Crosse, D. C. L.Lamentations 3:25-36
Seeking and WaitingW. B. Pope, D. D.Lamentations 3:25-36
The Grace of PatienceH. W. Beecher.Lamentations 3:25-36
Waiting and Reliance Upon the UnseenLamentations 3:25-36
Waiting for GodJ. M'Cosh.Lamentations 3:25-36
Waiting RewardedLamentations 3:25-36
Hope and PatienceJohn Ker, D. D.Lamentations 3:26-36
Hoping and WaitingJ. G. Greenhough, M. A.Lamentations 3:26-36
Quiet WaitingW. F. Adeney, M. A.Lamentations 3:26-36
Quietness and HopeR. Waddy Moss.Lamentations 3:26-36
The Advantage of Hoping and Waiting for the Salvation of GodPulpit Assistant.Lamentations 3:26-36
The Advantages of a State of ExpectationH. Melvill, B. D.Lamentations 3:26-36
The Christian's Hope and PatienceR. W. Kyle, B. A.Lamentations 3:26-36
People
Jeremiah
Places
Zion
Topics
Bear, Beareth, Undergo, Yoke, Youth
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Lamentations 3:27

     4696   yoke

Lamentations 3:25-27

     5746   youth

Library
February the Twenty-Fourth Moving Towards Daybreak
"He hath brought me into darkness, but not into light." --LAMENTATIONS iii. 1-9. But a man may be in darkness, and yet in motion toward the light. I was in the darkness of the subway, and it was close and oppressive, but I was moving toward the light and fragrance of the open country. I entered into a tunnel in the Black Country in England, but the motion was continued, and we emerged amid fields of loveliness. And therefore the great thing to remember is that God's darknesses are not His goals;
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

February the Twenty-Fifth the Fresh Eye
"His compassions fail not: they are new every morning." --LAMENTATIONS iii. 22-33. We have not to live on yesterday's manna; we can gather it fresh to-day. Compassion becomes stale when it becomes thoughtless. It is new thought that keeps our pity strong. If our perception of need can remain vivid, as vivid as though we had never seen it before, our sympathies will never fail. The fresh eye insures the sensitive heart. And our God's compassions are so new because He never becomes accustomed to
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Solitude, Silence, Submission
"He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope."--Lamentations 3:28, 29. THUS the prophet describes the conduct of a person in deep anguish of heart. When he does not know what to do, his soul, as if by instinct, humbles itself. He gets into some secret place, he utters no speech, he gives himself over to moaning and to tears, and then he bows himself lower and yet lower before the Divine Majesty, as if he felt
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 42: 1896

"And we all do Fade as a Leaf, and Our Iniquities, Like the Wind, have Taken us Away. "
Isaiah lxiv. 6.--"And we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Here they join the punishment with the deserving cause, their uncleanness and their iniquities, and so take it upon them, and subscribe to the righteousness of God's dealing. We would say this much in general--First, Nobody needeth to quarrel God for his dealing. He will always be justified when he is judged. If the Lord deal more sharply with you than with others, you may judge there is a difference
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

To the Reader. Christian Reader
To The Reader. Christian Reader, This holy preacher of the gospel had so many convictions upon his spirit of the necessity of the duties of humiliation and mourning, and of people's securing the eternal interest of their souls for the life to come, by flying into Jesus Christ for remission of sins in his blood, that he made these the very scope of his sermons in many public humiliations, as if it had been the one thing which he conceived the Lord was calling for in his days; a clear evidence whereof
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Lord is My Portion. Lam 3:24

John Newton—Olney Hymns

The Disciple, -- what is the Meaning and Purpose of the Cross...
The Disciple,--What is the meaning and purpose of the cross, and why do pain and suffering exist in the world? The Master,--1. The cross is the key to heaven. At the moment when by My baptism I took the cross upon My shoulders for the sake of sinners, heaven was opened, and by means of My thirty-three years bearing of the cross and by death upon it, heaven, which by reason of sin was closed to believers, was for ever opened to them. Now as soon as believers take up their cross and follow Me they
Sadhu Sundar Singh—At The Master's Feet

How Christ is to be Made Use of as Our Life, in Case of Heartlessness and Fainting through Discouragements.
There is another evil and distemper which believers are subject to, and that is a case of fainting through manifold discouragements, which make them so heartless that they can do nothing; yea, and to sit up, as if they were dead. The question then is, how such a soul shall make use of Christ as in the end it may be freed from that fit of fainting, and win over those discouragements: for satisfaction to which we shall, 1. Name some of those discouragements which occasion this. 2. Show what Christ
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

The Practice of Piety in Glorifying God in the Time of Sickness, and when Thou Art Called to Die in the Lord.
As soon as thou perceivest thyself to be visited with any sickness, meditate with thyself: 1. That "misery cometh not forth of the dust; neither doth affliction spring out of the earth." Sickness comes not by hap or chance (as the Philistines supposed that their mice and emrods came, 1 Sam. vi. 9), but from man's wickedness, which, as sparkles, breaketh out. "Man suffereth," saith Jeremiah, "for his sins." "Fools," saith David, "by reason of their transgressions, and because of their iniquities,
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

How they are to be Admonished who Lament Sins of Deed, and those who Lament Only Sins of Thought.
(Admonition 30.) Differently to be admonished are those who deplore sins of deed, and those who deplore sins of thought. For those who deplore sins of deed are to be admonished that perfected lamentations should wash out consummated evils, lest they be bound by a greater debt of perpetrated deed than they pay in tears of satisfaction for it. For it is written, He hath given us drink in tears by measure (Ps. lxxix. 6): which means that each person's soul should in its penitence drink the tears
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

From his Entrance on the Ministry in 1815, to his Commission to Reside in Germany in 1820
1815.--After the long season of depression through which John Yeardley passed, as described in the last chapter, the new year of 1815 dawned with brightness upon his mind. He now at length saw his spiritual bonds loosed; and the extracts which follow describe his first offerings in the ministry in a simple and affecting manner. 1 mo. 5.--The subject of the prophet's going down to the potter's house opened so clearly on my mind in meeting this morning that I thought I could almost have publicly
John Yeardley—Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel

Meditations for one that is Like to Die.
If thy sickness be like to increase unto death, then meditate on three things:--First, How graciously God dealeth with thee. Secondly, From what evils death will free thee. Thirdly, What good death will bring unto thee. The first sort of Meditations are, to consider God's favourable dealing with thee. 1. Meditate that God uses this chastisement of thy body but as a medicine to cure thy soul, by drawing thee, who art sick in sin, to come by repentance unto Christ, thy physician, to have thy soul healed
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Letter xxvi. (Circa A. D. 1127) to the Same
To the Same He excuses the brevity of his letter on the ground that Lent is a time of silence; and also that on account of his profession and his ignorance he does not dare to assume the function of teaching. 1. You will, perhaps, be angry, or, to speak more gently, will wonder that in place of a longer letter which you had hoped for from me you receive this brief note. But remember what says the wise man, that there is a time for all things under the heaven; both a time to speak and a time to keep
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

Of the Character of the Unregenerate.
Ephes. ii. 1, 2. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. AMONG all the various trusts which men can repose in each other, hardly any appears to be more solemn and tremendous, than the direction of their sacred time, and especially of those hours which they spend in the exercise of public devotion.
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

Question Lxxxii of Devotion
I. Is Devotion a Special Kind of Act? Cardinal Cajetan, On the Meaning of the Term "Devotion" S. Augustine, Confessions, XIII. viii. 2 II. Is Devotion an Act of the Virtue of Religion? III. Is Contemplation, that is Meditation, the Cause of Devotion? Cardinal Cajetan, On the Causes of Devotion " " On the Devotion of Women IV. Is Joy an Effect of Devotion? Cardinal Cajetan, On Melancholy S. Augustine, Confessions, II. x. I Is Devotion a Special Kind of Act? It is by our acts that we merit. But
St. Thomas Aquinas—On Prayer and The Contemplative Life

The Mercy of God
The next attribute is God's goodness or mercy. Mercy is the result and effect of God's goodness. Psa 33:5. So then this is the next attribute, God's goodness or mercy. The most learned of the heathens thought they gave their god Jupiter two golden characters when they styled him good and great. Both these meet in God, goodness and greatness, majesty and mercy. God is essentially good in himself and relatively good to us. They are both put together in Psa 119:98. Thou art good, and doest good.' This
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Covenant Duties.
It is here proposed to show, that every incumbent duty ought, in suitable circumstances, to be engaged to in the exercise of Covenanting. The law and covenant of God are co-extensive; and what is enjoined in the one is confirmed in the other. The proposals of that Covenant include its promises and its duties. The former are made and fulfilled by its glorious Originator; the latter are enjoined and obligatory on man. The duties of that Covenant are God's law; and the demands of the law are all made
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

"Take My Yoke Upon You, and Learn of Me," &C.
Matt. xi. 20.--"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me," &c. Self love is generally esteemed infamous and contemptible among men. It is of a bad report every where, and indeed as it is taken commonly, there is good reason for it, that it should be hissed out of all societies, if reproaching and speaking evil of it would do it. But to speak the truth, the name is not so fit to express the thing, for that which men call self love, may rather be called self hatred. Nothing is more pernicious to a man's
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"Thou Shall Keep Him in Perfect Peace, Whose Mind is Stayed on Thee, Because He Trusteth in Thee. "
Isaiah xxvi. 3.--"Thou shall keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." Christ hath left us his peace, as the great and comprehensive legacy, "My peace I leave you," John xiv. 27. And this was not peace in the world that he enjoyed; you know what his life was, a continual warfare; but a peace above the world, that passeth understanding. "In the world you shall have trouble, but in me you shall have peace," saith Christ,--a peace that shall make trouble
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

No Sorrow Like Messiah's Sorrow
Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold, and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow! A lthough the Scriptures of the Old Testament, the law of Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophecies (Luke 24:44) , bear an harmonious testimony to MESSIAH ; it is not necessary to suppose that every single passage has an immediate and direct relation to Him. A method of exposition has frequently obtained [frequently been in vogue], of a fanciful and allegorical cast [contrivance], under the pretext
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate,
CLEARLY EXPLAINED, AND LARGELY IMPROVED, FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL BELIEVERS. 1 John 2:1--"And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." By JOHN BUNYAN, Author of "The Pilgrim's Progress." London: Printed for Dorman Newman, at the King's Arms, in the Poultry, 1689. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This is one of the most interesting of Bunyan's treatises, to edit which required the Bible at my right hand, and a law dictionary on my left. It was very frequently republished;
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

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