When a Burden is a Rest

“Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens: And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.” (Ge 49:14-15 AV)

 

Of this prophecy of Jacob, Joseph Benson writes, “The men of that tribe shall be strong and industrious, fit for and inclined to labour, particularly the toil of husbandry; like the ass that patiently carries his burden. Issachar submitted to two burdens, tillage and tribute”.  John Gill pens, “…it is a notion of the Jews, that this tribe were skilful in the doctrines of the law, and the intercalation of years, &c. from 1Ch.12:32…”.  The scripture reference noted reads, “And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.” (1Ch 12:32 AV)  The word intercalation means, “placing information or inserting new information is a series”.  In other words, the nation saw Issachar as a laborious people who were taken with the industry of husbandry, but also, a people who used that time of hands-on labor to study and meditate upon the law so as to understand how it all worked.  In other words, Issachar was a simple tribe who busied themselves is basic life skills.  However, this basic life opened up opportunities to truly understand wisdom.  In other words, Issachar may not have been the most scholarly of the tribes, but they were one of the wisest.  This is not the thought for this morning, however.  What the Spirit spoke of this morning is how Issachar viewed their lot in life.  It was called a rest.  He bowed his shoulder to the double burden of tillage and tribute and called it a rest.

The LORD has allowed me to be in several situations in which I managed people under me.  In fact, that has been true most of my entire adult life.  Whether as a manager of a restaurant, a maintenance supervisor of an eight-story office building, or a machine operator with supervisory responsibilities, the LORD has asked me to oversee others with more basic duties than my own.  I always appreciated those employees who were content to do what was required of them no matter how menial it might seem.  One such fella was Rudy.  He was a WWII vet who had no skills.  The company hired him because they respected how he had served in the marines and was part of the storming of Normandy.  He wasn’t with me to help as much as he was there to do anything he could do.  It didn’t matter if it was dusting, mopping, or polishing brass.  Rudy was completely content to do what he could when he could do it.  The winter was particularly hard.  Rudy was in his seventies.  Yet, there he was, out in the cold with me, clearing the snow all day long.  We were responsible for two other properties as well.  These were within walking distance of our central location.  I would send him to one and I would go to the other.  We would meet back up when we were done.  There were times we sat, chatting about his life and WWII.  Rudy was a man of a simple mind.  But he was a man of many experiences and wisdom of life.  The point is, Rudy was completely content in his calling of life no matter how simple it may appear to others.

We live in a discontented generation.  Nothing is ever good enough.  Even if we have it really well as compared to others, it still isn’t good enough.  We cannot be at rest with the burden of life which the LORD has assigned because we will not accept that burden.  In reading about donkeys, I have learned they accept the burden placed upon them without the need to break them.  They have to be taught the what and why, but once learned, they accept whatever task assigned.  They are also referred to as the philosophers of the farm.  They are highly intelligent yet humble in their acceptance of their role.  No wonder Jacob compared Issachar to donkeys.  It is a perfect comparison.  A tribe that considers it a rest to accept the role God has for them and in return, is given wisdom that other tribes do not have.  The application is obvious.  The more we fight the role God has for us, the more unrest we will feel.  Accepting the burden not only gives us rest of mind and heart but even more so, gives us wisdom which others do not have.  The Spirit spoke to my heart this morning in accepting the calling he has given me more so because of the times in which we live as opposed to the duties which are required.  Now is the time to find one’s rest in accepting the circumstances of life and our role in them rather than to waste a whole lot of emotional energy in fighting something we cannot change.