Genesis 49:15

He was a donkey lying down lazily between two burdens. The word translated "strong" seems mocking — literally, "bony." This is not praise of Issachar: it is the opposite. He saw that rest was good and lay down between two burdens. He is like those who live by sight and try to make this world their resting place. They find themselves carrying twice the load — spiritual duties and earthly ones. The world takes it out of him too; he becomes "a servant unto tribute."

In Issachar, we find Israel content to be the drudge of the Gentiles; one who would not endure God's yoke but accepted the yoke of men without resistance. Here, too, the name is dwelt upon: "there is reward;" ease and gain are all that is sought. How true to the character of unbelieving Israel!

The Jew has indeed proved himself to have remarkable strength. But his two burdens have pressed him down again and again. He has borne them for the sake of rest for his wandering feet and a pleasant life. He has been burdened with the labour of acquiring wealth on the one hand, and of being "a servant to tribute," on the other. Again and again he has crouched under a further burden: he must hand over, as tribute of one kind or another, much of what he had piled up.

The Gentile yoke had come as their father Jacob had long since prophesied... Israel had accepted fellowship with the Gentile, and Caesar's coin was only the sign of this. She was Gentile in heart and in way, and God had counted her where she belonged. She could not hold on to an independence which, for her, could only be another name for dependence on God. Let them give Caesar his own; but let them give God His own also. When they really do this, there will be no question at all to settle about Caesar. Not by self-assertion, but by repentance only can deliverance come for them.

But we are urged to stand fast in this liberty in which we have been made free — for the danger of getting caught in some yoke of bondage is always there. We fail in this when the heart goes after the things of the world and the flesh. Then we become slaves, and, like these sons of Jacob, we serve what we follow. That slavery hinders all service and witness; we become wretched ourselves and useless to others.

From Jacob's prophecy we see that Issachar stands for yoke-bearing. But it is clearly a slavery that speaks of indulging the flesh and the empty reward of sin's pleasure for a season. Here, however, we are to think instead of deliverance from such slavery by grace. It comes as we come to the One whose loving voice calls us to hear and find the true rest. So coming under His yoke and learning from Him (Matt. 11:29) — the meek and lowly One who stooped to bear our burden and carry our sorrows, even to death, the death of the cross — we enter a new service... finding in this way the true reward, for "If anyone serves Me, My Father will honour him." Issachar means, "There is reward."