Cleaving or Leaving
But ye that did cleave unto the Lord are alive. (Deuteronomy 4:4)
Deut. 4:1-14; Num. 25:3-5; Ps. 106:28; II Tun. 4:18; Heb. 13:6
What Is God Saying?
The story of God's jealous anger against those who forsook Him to worship Baal of Peor does not make pleasant reading. Those who ceased to cleave to Him, who played fast and loose with His commandments and thought that compromise wasn't all that bad, met with death.
The impact of this faithlessness on Israel was so significant that other portions of Scripture cite it. Hosea refers to the time when some in Israel "consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved" (Hosea 9:10). Psalm 106:28 describes how they attached themselves to the Baal of Peor and provoked the Lord to anger. A plague followed. But while many followed Baal on a trail to death, others did cleave to the Lord and lived to tell the story.
How Does This Apply To Us?
Today, we recognize that there are idols, some of them pretty shameful, who are competing with God for our time, interest, and energy. We cannot avoid evil’s deceitful lures unless we stay close to God, loving His Word, seeking to know Him better, and doing His will more perfectly. That's cleaving to Him, and that's why to cleave to Him is to live. That is why leaving Him is to head down the path whose end is death. Cleaving to God is best accomplished by listening and then praying. The way is clear, and the choice is urgent.
Pray With Me
Spirit of God, I would follow Your leading and accept Your grace to know the unbroken joy of cleaving unto the Lord! Forgive me, Lord, that in weakness, I am sometimes more ready to leave You than to cleave to You. I often insist that my way is better. I hesitate when I can follow the way that leads to life.
My yearnings for the way of your love are too feeble. My desire for your fellowship is too sporadic. I am too willing to drift into that pleasant and easy way in which there is neither life nor freedom of spirit. Deal with me, Lord, in Your perfect wisdom.
• Let there be disappointment on the human level if it means fulfillment in Your eternal kingdom.
• Let there be loss in material things if it means gain in riches that can never be lost, stolen, or wasted away.
• Let me submit to Your temporary no if it is the key to Your eternal yes.
• Let Your kindness be stern discipline if it brings me to You.
Make me willing to be willing to cleave to You and be alive. Make me willing to be unwilling to leave You for the ways whose end is death.
In the name of the True Vine in whom I would always abide. Amen.
Moving On In The Life Of Prayer
Let us keep on cleaving and enter God's blessings. Let us accept His discipline and love and see how His plan is better than ours. Through prayer, we can learn to accept His perfect will and walk in the path to life. He loves us too much to let us go without a restraining hand. In prayer, the hand that restrains is the hand that sets us free.
