Props: on screen images of the pictographs for shepherd’s staff, ox, and yoke (both together)

What do you get when you cross a shepherd’s staff and an ox?

A yoke, of course!

At least, that’s what you get in Paleo-Hebrew, the pictographic forerunner of the Hebrew language and image-rich metaphorical roots of the Hebrew scriptures.

[Put the symbols on screen if you can. Show people the symbols for staff and ox….together they mean "yoke."]

So, a Yoke is something that "guides" and "harnesses" the ox –two oxen in fact! Although you "could" harness one, typically, a yoke is a two-headed harness –a frame in which two oxen are joined.

[Show a photo of a yoke and oxen.]

Within the yoke, an experienced ox is always paired with a young inexperienced ox, so that the stronger, older ox can lead…