Marcus Mecum - Until The Yoke is Broke (12/14/2025)
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Drawing from Numbers 25, the preacher warns against spiritual «yokes"—bondages like sin, addiction, wrong relationships, fear, or unforgiveness—that hinder progress into God’s promises, using the story of Phinehas’s zealous act to break Israel’s yoke to Baal of Peor as a vivid illustration of how God’s anointing empowers believers to rise up, sever from complacency, and aggressively fight until yokes are broken, bringing freedom, generational blessings, and peace.
Scripture: Numbers 25
Numbers chapter 25 and verse five. So Moses said to Israel’s judges, «Each of you must put to death those of your people who have yoked themselves.» Everybody say «yoked.» It’s really what we’re going to be talking about until the yoke is broken: the importance of breaking those things that have control over you off of your life. They had yoked themselves to Baal of Peor. Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. Then Phineas, son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw this. He left the assembly and took a spear—some translations say javelin—in his hand. Same difference, I guess. He followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear into both of them, right through the Israelite man and the woman’s stomach. How many know the Bible doesn’t play? Then the plague against Israel was stopped.
It goes on to say that because of Phineas’s zeal, God made a covenant with him, a covenant of peace to him and his descendants.
What Is a Yoke?
Of course, we need to revisit this to ensure that we’re all on the same page. A yoke is a plowing instrument. I’m not trying to insult anybody here, but you would know that it’s placed on the oxen to control their direction. What’s important is that they’re pulling together, that they’re pulling in the same direction. Of course, if one ox decides to stop and the other continues to move, the plow goes in a circle instead of accomplishing what it’s meant to do. So the Bible says God uses the imagery of a yoke to speak to what happened to the children of Israel. They are right there at the Jordan, at the brink of the promised land, about to enter Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey.
The Bible says that the enemy, in order to stop them, sends the Moabites to seduce the Israelite men. And they are successful at it; they’re so successful that it led the men into idolatry. Now the Moabite women and these Israelite men are yoked together. God knows they can’t move forward as long as they’re yoked to these people, this sin, or this issue. They are right there at the brink of the Jordan but are likely going to keep seeing the promise but never entering because of that yoke in their lives. Everyone’s yoke is different. A yoke can be an addiction, your past, your fear, your upbringing, a wrong relationship, or unforgiveness.
This story is a cautionary one. It says, «Be careful who or what you yoke your life up to.» What I have learned is some people have lived so long with a yoke that they actually believe that the thing controlling them is who they are. They can’t separate themselves from their yoke. They identify with, and look at, what makes them who they are, but that yoke is literally a part of a person’s identity. I believe that God’s ability through scripture is to show you the difference between what a yoke is and who you are. Some things may have been controlling you your whole life, but that doesn’t mean that’s you.
The Bible teaches that the anointing of God, which is the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, can break that yoke of bondage off your life. Numbers 25 gives us this beautiful picture, perhaps a gruesome picture, of how the anointing broke the yoke off a nation and brought generational blessings. We know that as a result of this yoke, 24,000 men died in Israel. God made it clear that the reason for this plague is who the Israelite men are yoked up to, and that people will keep dying, as God tells Moses, as long as that yoke exists. If the yoke is broken, then the nation will continue to move forward into the promised land, and generations will benefit from that yoke being broken.
Unequally Yoked: Zimri and Cozbi
2 Corinthians 6:14 warns believers about being unequally yoked with an unbeliever. In this story, we read about two people, Zimri and Cozbi. Zimri, whose name means praise or song, was a worshiper and a part of the Israelite tribe. He met a Moabite woman named Cozbi, whose name means lie, deceit, or disguise. Zimri’s praise begins to link up and yoke up with a lie, with deception. The story goes that they walked into a church service, observing the people trying to repent and cleanse their lives of sin so that this plague would lift off Israel. But Zimri and Cozbi continued to stay yoked together.
We know the story ends with praise dying because he was unequally yoked. How many people have lost their praise or worship because they are yoked up to some spirit of Cozbi, some lying, deceiving, disguising spirit? They are yoked to deception. They are yoked to a lie. Their praise is lifeless, their worship is lifeless, their song is dead. Cozbi was targeting praise; she targeted Zimri, the one who was named to bring praise and glory to God. Always remember that praise assassins are on the loose. Praise killers are out there. What they know is that praise precedes the promise. Praise and promise are connected. If the enemy can stop your praise, stop your worship, stop your gratitude, stop you from coming into God’s house to see all the good things He has done for you, if he can stop your praise, it’s only a matter of time before you start circling.
Phinehas Rises Up
In the same way, the devil can’t get to God, so he attacks us. You are His image; you are the picture of God. You’re also a picture of what he lost. He lost his position as the worship leader of heaven; he lost the opportunity to worship and the gift that God has given us. So Zimri and Cozbi hook up and walk into the church service unashamed of the yokes they are living in. In this case, it was sexual immorality. But again, it can broaden to just the things we become hardened to, thinking God’s okay with it. It’s no big deal. We’re just doing our own thing. I checked the church box, and now I’ll go back to whatever life I was living.
At some point, if we aren’t careful, the Bible says that your conscience gets seared with a hot iron. One of the most important things you can do is to always ensure that you remain soft to God, responsive to what He’s calling you to, and that you don’t scar over in those areas where He’s saying, «No, that right there is not what I’ve called you to do. That’s not my best for you.» So they walk out, and Phineas, just a normal guy in the congregation, sees what is happening. The Bible says he rises up from the congregation. The word «rise up» means to sever or disconnect. The word «congregation» means fixture.
So notice he severs himself from the fixtures, from all the people who are stuck, not moving, just attending church. I’m glad you’re here, but he sees how everyone else is just staying the same, living the same, thinking the same. He rises up, disconnects, grabs a spear, and goes after Zimri and Cozbi. He breaks the yoke that these two have on their lives, which also breaks the yoke off a nation and a generation.
The Anointing Breaks the Yoke
I use this story, this graphic detail of them walking in with no conscience or fear or respect for God. They walk in and walk out, going right back into the yoke of bondage they had been living in. Then suddenly, a man rises up, breaks away from everybody else. He doesn’t want to be ordinary anymore. He grabs a javelin and says, «I’ve got to do something to stop the plague that’s destroying this nation and a generation.» He breaks the yoke.
I say this because it gives us an image of how the anointing works, what the anointing is like. The anointing is the thing that pushes you to remain normal, to stay seated, to fit in. You just want to live your life, be a good person, and do what you have to do to maintain a stable life. If you’ve had any crazy days in your life, you just want some normal days. But at some point, the anointing of God will say, «That’s not right. That’s a yoke. That thing is controlling people. It’s controlling you. It’s controlling your family.»
The anointing will switch something on inside of you and will cause you to rise up. You’ll say, «I’m done being a fixture. I’m done hanging out with everybody else.» You’ll rise up and declare, «I’ll do what’s necessary to fight until the yoke is broken.» Notice that no songs would ever be written about Phineas. In worship, you can sing about Moses or David, but it’d be a trip to sing about Phineas, wouldn’t it? You don’t have any songs written about him for obvious reasons. You hear very few sermons preached about him, lots about Moses, David, Joshua, and Gideon. Hebrews 11 doesn’t mention him among the great heroes of faith. But something came upon an ordinary man who rises up, disconnects from ordinary life, grabs a spear, and breaks the yoke off a nation.
No one else was moved. No one else stood up. No one else said, «I’m done living like this. I’m done with this yoke.» Everyone else was fine being stuck, being unmoved, and fixed in their way of life. But Phineas was moved. Something stirred him. Something inside said, «I can’t stay like this anymore.» And that’s the anointing. It moved him from self-protection mode to attack mode. The attack position is where he broke that yoke of bondage.
Jesus would say concerning the anointing that the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me. It goes on to describe how He preaches the gospel to the poor, heals the brokenhearted, sets at liberty those who had been captive, and brings sight to the blind. The point is this: the anointing is not something that touches your life and leaves you unchanged. It releases captives. The anointing doesn’t allow the yoke to stay in your life. That’s why we need the anointing. It can set you free; it can set families free; it can set nations free. It can generationally influence your children and your children’s children for generations to come.
Because watch this: this is what God told Phineas. «Because you are zealous for me, I make a generational covenant of peace with you and your descendants.» God said, «Because he was zealous for me, I’ll be zealous for him.»
The Church: Building and Battling
The interesting thing about the church is that when you see the image Jesus gives of the church, He says, «Upon this rock, I’ll build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.» In this verse, we see two actions: the church is being built, and there is battling going on.
Isn’t it interesting that when you preach a sermon like this, you could say, «Building is part of it, but battling is also part of it.» Many times we may not have the stomach for this stuff, but you are in a spiritual battle. The devil is not playing around. But I want you to know that the church Jesus envisioned was not trying to keep Satan out. Instead, it was the opposite: the gates of hell, meant to be defensive, illustrate that hell is trembling at the idea that God’s people understand they are builders called to fight and engage in the battles of life.
I love the image of Nehemiah: a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other. That’s how you are called to do it—hammer in one hand. If I’m not building, I’m battling. If I’m not in the battle of a lifetime, then I take a little break and can build a bit more. But it’s usually one or the other. In this room, you’re either building or battling, or guess what? You’re a fixture, sitting down, hanging out, hoping everyone else does the building and battling. At some point, you will need to say, «You know what? God gave me hands. I better put a hammer in one and a sword in the other. Rise up, sever from the fixed place I’ve been in, and let God use me to break that yoke.»
The Ermine: Bloody Rather Than Muddy
The ermine, it’s this beautiful little animal with perfectly white fur. Because of its fur, it’s very hunted and extremely valuable. What they’ve discovered about the ermine is that it’s very docile—timid and not aggressive in any way. If you were able to catch one, for example, it would not bite you; it’s a kind-spirited animal. But the hunters know that, while they may not find the ermine, they can find its den, its hole in the ground. They’ll pack that den full of mud and release their dogs to hunt after it.
The instinct of the ermine, when it realizes it’s being hunted, is to return to its den as quickly as possible. The dogs are on its trail; all it has to do is dig through the mud to be safe. In a matter of moments, it could find refuge. But the second the ermine gets to its den and sees the mud, something switches. The wise hunter knows that as soon as the ermine sees the mud, that sweet, mild, kind ermine makes a decision—not to dig through the mud but to stand up on its hind feet, snarl, growl, show its teeth, and fight to the death.
The truth is that the ermine would rather get bloody than muddy. I want to take a moment and talk to the people who love God here. You may wish that you signed up for a life where everything just fell into place, with no enemies or struggles, no weaknesses, and no yokes trying to ensnare your life. But I want to give you a warning: serving God is the craziest, most out-of-control, mentally and emotionally exhausting, brutally intense, and bloody life you will ever experience.
Saul’s Neglect
King Saul started losing his stomach for the battle when he decided to go fight the Amalekites. God had commanded him to fight this group of people and to utterly annihilate them. The reason was that after the children of Israel came out of Egypt, the Amalekites brutally attacked the weaker among them—the crippled, elderly, and children. God took note of this and said, «I will remember this.»
Years go by, and God raises up King Saul, saying it’s time to deal with the Amalekites. Saul goes to battle, but he partially obeys. He leaves the king alive and takes some sheep, cows, and oxen with him, sparing some other people as well. Strangely, the Bible states that when the prophet Samuel shows up, the first thing Saul says is, «I’ve done all the Lord has required of me.» At the same time, you can hear in the background, «Boo!»
If you fast-forward and observe Saul’s life, he is engaged in a new battle. Though he fought twelve wars, most of which he won, he suffered loss too. This story marks Saul’s last battle, providing a clue about his attitude going into it. In 2 Samuel 1:21, it is stated that Saul did not anoint his shield before going into battle. He did not die because God abandoned him, nor because God was trying to teach him a lesson. He didn’t die because his enemy was stronger. He died due to minor neglect and compromise: he did not anoint his shield.
When the enemy closed in, Saul turned to his sons and said, «If they capture us, they will torture us and make a spectacle of us. We have no choice; we must take our own lives.» So, Saul fell on his sword, as many of you know. But he was unsuccessful. While lying on the ground, the enemy approaching, he heard rustling in the trees. He called out, «Hey, whoever you are, I’m King Saul. Would you help me?»
A young man emerged from the trees. Saul said, «The enemy’s closing in. I need someone to finish the job.» This is such a wild thought, but the young man agreed to do it. Just before he plunged the sword through Saul’s body, Saul said, «Who are you?» He replied with four words, «I am an Amalekite.» You see, the enemy is always willing to get bloody. The enemy is always prepared to do what it takes to finish you off.
What God has given us is an imperative: don’t neglect the anointing. Don’t ignore that inner prompting which declares, «You must refuse to stay where you are.» The anointing isn’t for goosebumps; it isn’t to sing a song or play church. The anointing is to break that yoke off your life.
Elisha and Joash
Let me illustrate. Elisha is going to anoint Joash. Remember that Elijah gave a double portion of his anointing to Elisha, meaning that while Elijah carried out eight notable miracles, Elisha was destined for sixteen. Now Elisha is old, sick, and on the verge of death. He goes to Joash to pass on a double portion of his anointing. This means that Joash has the potential for a life of thirty-two great miracles—four times more than Elijah.
Elisha walks in, grabs a bow, and instructs Joash to grab it too. Joash does as he’s told. To mentor him, Elisha reaches around and grabs his hand, saying, «I want you to shoot this arrow.» He shoots it out the window, explaining how God wants him to finish off an enemy against Israel. Then he hands Joash some arrows and says, «With the enemy in mind—the one destroying this nation, our children, our generation—take these arrows and strike the ground.»
Joash looks at the arrows, and just like in this sermon, he thinks, «Yeah, okay.» He taps the ground a few times: tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. Is that good? Elisha watches. The Bible says something begins to rise up inside of him. Did you know the great prophet Elisha died angry? This was his last moment. He had only moments left and looked at the king, seeing that he just offered a weak, half-hearted response.
Elisha said, «If you would have struck the ground five or six times, you would have received the double portion and would have broken the yoke off this nation.» So, what separated Phineas from everyone else? God saw his zeal, did he not? He said, «Because he was zealous for me, I’ll be zealous for him.» If you are zealous for God, if you’re passionate for Him, He will be passionate for you.
The Bible says, «Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you.» There is a cause-and-effect relationship here. At some point, it comes down to how badly you want it. Elisha died angry because he observed Joash lacked fire in his belly, zeal, and passion. The key is that Phineas made the decision, «I will fight until the yoke is broken.»
Fight Until the Yoke Is Broken
Once you rip the disguise off the enemy—the thing the enemy is using—you can see that each of us has those yokes, whether they be hurts, wounds, or issues. Once you identify that yoke, like Phineas, something inside you should flip a switch in your heart, making you declare, «I would rather be bloody than muddy.» You should rise up with determination and say, «I am going to break this yoke.»
He stabbed the enemy. That is what God calls you and me to do: to think fearlessly about the enemy. Once you stab the enemy, stab him again. If he’s still not dead, drag him out into the desert, bury him in the sand under the hot desert sun. If he’s still hanging on, unleash an army of red ants on him and walk away without sympathy. Then guess what? You wake up the next day and do it again and again and again, understanding that’s what the anointing does.
The anointing never compromises. It will never let you live your life being controlled by the enemy, by your flesh, by your past, or by a weakness. God, through His anointing, wants to break that yoke off your life. Amen.
Closing Prayer
At all our locations, can we just bow our heads and close our eyes? Phineas stood up in a church service; something rose up within him when he thought about the yoke destroying his nation and family. Again, you can merely tap if you want, or you can say, «I’m not going to leave here being a fixture.» I want to leave here asking God—by His anointing, not through self-motivation or self-inspiration—for the intensity and fight needed to state, «I will not settle for this yoke. I’m breaking free of this compromise.»
Just right where you are, if you’re looking and saying, «I’ve got a yoke; something’s causing me to circle, to stay stuck, » just right where you are. Don’t be like Joash, merely giving a little to this moment. Make it a statement that you’re going to keep striking until the enemy is defeated. Thank you for the word of the Lord to us today: «Until the yoke is broken.» And once the yoke is broken, generations won’t face the same battles we did because we were willing to fight. My children, my grandchildren, will have victories handed down without even knowing it because I said, «I will fight until the yoke is broken.» I refuse to let the damage of previous generations continue into mine and future ones.
I would rather be bloody than muddy. I would rather fight and lose than sit around, allowing the enemy to have the upper hand. Just right where you are, say, «God, thank you for your anointing. Thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit.» Just right where you are, say, «God, I don’t want to be someone who is just tapping around in church, playing around. Give me the intensity to strike, to hit that area where the enemy has a yoke on my life until it breaks.»
In Jesus' name, right now, someone’s life has been controlled by fear. Thank God for His anointing that breaks that yoke. Someone else has been living under great worry about the future. But even now, the anointing is breaking that yoke off your life. Your steps are ordered by the Lord. You have nothing to be anxious about. Be at peace in Jesus' name.
For another, it is addiction that you have not been able to break free from. Let the anointing of God break that yoke off your life. No longer will you be controlled by a substance. No longer will you attempt to run, hide, or numb yourself with it. In Jesus' name, let the anointing break that yoke off your life.
For those walking in unforgiveness and bitterness, in Jesus' name, we thank you that the spirit of the Lord, as the Bible says, is upon us because He has anointed us. Right now, you are healing the brokenhearted in Jesus' name. You are setting liberty; you’re bringing freedom to the captives. You’re opening the eyes of the blind in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name.