“And I spoke to you at that time, saying, ‘I alone am not able to bear you,’…How can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your complaints”~ Deuteronomy 1:9;12
In this Torah portion, Moses chooses 70 judges to help him rule all of Israel because he alone cannot carry their load. What was the burden that Moshe could not bear? The problems, burdens, and complaints of the people. What was the responsibility they were collectively supposed to carry?
Deuteronomy 10:12: And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I commanded you today for your good?
Aha! Israel was supposed to carry the burden of obedience, love, servitude, and the fear of God, which could consolidate into abandoned trust in the Holy One. The Apostolic Writings admonish us to carry not only our own but others’ burdens, fulfilling all of the Torah of the Messiah. Woah, it seems like an impossible responsibility!
Galatians 6:2: Bear ye one another burdens, and in this way, you fulfill the Torah of Messiah.
Galatians 6:5: For each one will carry his own load.
When I first read Galatians 6:2, I thought, Father, I am overwhelmed with burdens. I am barely treading the waters of the brokenness surrounding me, and you want me to carry the burdens of the world? No can do. Then I looked around me and started naming the burdens that people, including myself, tend to carry. I could go on, but I will begin with financial needs, loneliness, offenses, shame, sin, regret, and expectations, those we place on ourselves and others. If these problems are too heavy for Moshe, the rockstar of the wilderness journey, then they are too heavy for little ol’ me to carry, so they must not be what the Scriptures encourage.
Micah 6:8: He has shown you, O man, what is good, And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
The Holy Scriptures tell us to carry the burden of mercy, justice, and humility. When we take on this burden, we automatically carry the load for those around us as well. We create an environment of shalom, the wholeness that comes from living by God’s instructions. When heavily laden with the wrong burdens, we do not have the strength to carry the right ones. Yeshua’s burden is light, and His yoke is easy (Mt 11.28-30). Yeshua is more than capable of enabling us so that we do not grow weary in doing perfect works, in accepting the burden of right choices for ourselves and those around us.
Galatians 6:9: So let us not lose heart in doing (perfect works), for in due time, we will reap if we don’t give up.
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