The strongest horse in the world is the Belgian draft horse. Primarily used for pulling, plowing and general farm work, the Belgian is a beast to behold with the eyes. Horses are measured from ground to withers (top of back) using the old English span of four inches. Called a hand, the measurement was established by none other than Henry VIII around 1540 AD. The average Belgian is 17 hands high (5 ½ feet), and currently the tallest horse in the world is Big Jake, a Belgian that stands a whopping 20.2 hands, which is almost 7 feet to the top of his back. But the really astonishing thing about Belgians is not just their tremendous stature, but their tremendous strength.
One Belgian can pull 8,000 pounds. Astonishing considering a new 2020 Ford F-150 equipped with a 2.7L EcoBoost Twin-Turbocharged V6 can pull 9,000 pounds. Yet the truly amazing fact about the Belgian is what it can do with another Belgian as a teammate. You would think that if one could pull 8,000 pounds, that two would be capable of pulling 16,000. Simple logic and math, right? Think again. Two Belgians that have never pulled together can pull a whopping three times as much, 24,000 pounds. Wow. But as the infomercials always promise…wait, there’s more! If you train two Belgians to work together, understand each other, and adjust to each other’s pulling style, how much do you think they can pull? I would still guess 24,000 pounds. And I would be wrong. Two Belgians trained to work together, equally yoked and sharing the burden amongst them, can pull a staggering four times as much as one horse…32,000 pounds. Simply amazing.
This amazing plowing factor would not have gone unnoticed as Jesus walked the Earth, so it’s no wonder that the term “unequally yoked” appears so much in God’s Word. But instead of only focusing on two perfectly matched animals, Jesus prefers to look at what happens when two animals are mismatched under the yoke. Consider now what it would look like if I hitched up a Belgian with an old milk cow. The results would be catastrophic and all together frustrating for the Belgian, the milk cow and the poor farmer that had the disastrous duty of walking behind them. Plowing behind two like animals is one thing, but two very different animals will cause chaos, lost productivity as well as countless other problems. And it is for this reason that God is so interested in who we plow with.
We see tragic examples of unequally yoked couples all throughout the entirety of God’s Word. The story of Samson is no exception, the message here sticks out like a sore thumb. Samson of course is a Jew, an Israelite born into the tribe of Dan. (that’s my name!) Going all the way back to the fifth book of the Bible, God had Moses inform the people of the importance of marrying within the faith and not taking a spouse that refuted the things of God.
“When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves, and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.” Deut 7:1-4
But to study Samson’s life is to study pride and ego. The first thing he does is lust for a gentile woman and marry her, despite his parents objection based on the above book of Deuteronomy. But Samson is young, rash and filled with hormones. The woman is beautiful and in Samson’s words, “get her for me for she looks good to me.” As a result, we see his decision cause countless problems, strife, tension and even death.
It was on his way to arrange this very marriage that Samson was tempted with the vineyard and the honey from the lion’s carcass, both violations of the Nazarite vow he had taken with God. Strike one. It was at the wedding that Samson challenged his guests with a riddle that they just could not figure out. Since the wager was high, the guests tricked his wife out of the answer and Samson had to pay up. He killed 30 men to pay off on the bet. Strike 2. As a result of his new wife betraying him by giving away the answer, Samson’s anger burned hot against her. So he left her, and her dad gave her away to Samson’s best man. (sounds like Jerry Springer) Strike 3. Samson later goes back to get his wife and she is shacked up with the best man. Samson blows his top and burns the fields of the Philistines using, believe it or not, 300 foxes that he apparently just easily rounded up in the woods. The Philistines retaliate by burning the house of his ex-wife and her father…with them in it. Huge strike 4. This leads up to Samson in Gaza where he meets Delilah, another gentile. We all know where this relationship ends, not in a good place as Samson pulls down the temple on himself as well as 3,000 Philistines enemies. Samson jumped from one unequally yoked relationship to another and the results were, well, far from ideal.
The idea of Christians only being allowed to marry other Christians is a hotly debated topic today. I routinely talk to people that claim to know better than God on the topic and pick a spouse regardless of God’s wisdom. It always hurts me when the relationship results filter in. Just this week I talked to a friend that was heart broken when he and his long term girlfriend called it quits. She was of another religion that did not focus on the personal salvation of Jesus Christ. Unequally yoked animals will not pull together, but pull apart.
Folks, God knows what He’s talking about. Life is the most complicated, difficult, heart-wrenching thing you will ever encounter. Death, heart break, stress, kids, work, finances, and untold difficulties will all pile problems into your lap that you don’t want to either acknowledge, much less deal with. God knows this and He has someone for you in this life that will shoulder this tremendous burden alongside you. He has another Belgian for you that will step into that heavy yoke and pull equally as hard as you do. And to do this you both need Jesus. You see, the only strength we really possess in this life is the power of Jesus Christ. We can do nothing in our own power. Success can be taken away. Power, wealth and prestige can vanish like a wisp of smoke on the breeze. Joy, happiness, and freedom can be robbed from us, the thief stealing all that we value. Our normality can be rocked, our relationships, home life and foundations of life, gone in mere minutes. But the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Jesus Christ is our continuity in life. He is our rock. And if your spouse carries this promise within their heart as well, that is where you’ll see yourselves not pulling 24,000 pounds, but the full 32,000.
Unequally yoked versus equally yoked. God is clear on the subject. But will you listen or will you believe that you are immune to His law? I pray today that if you are seeking a husband or wife, you will pray that God delivers a man or woman that worships at the feet of Jesus Christ. For it is in this, that you will find the one that God desires for you.
“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:14-18
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