Cleave and Do Not Leave God

UV 4246/10000 Cleave and Do Not Leave God But you who held tightly to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you. Deuteronomy 4 v 4 The King James version uses the word “cleave” in lieu of “held tightly”. We should not leave God but cleave to Him in any situation and at all times, good and bad. Just as God is faithful to us, we need to prove that we are faithful to Him and we do so by cleaving to Him, His name, His presence, His word, His promises, His commands. The only other context the term ‘cleave’ is applied in scripture is to describe the marital relationship- the wife leaves her parental home and cleaves to her husband. That image reinforces the need for us to cleave to the Lord as a woman cleaves to her husband. We cannot cleave without leaving something behind even as the bride leaves her parents. Hence, we need to leave the world behind and cling to the Lord. The biblical context the above uni-verse is written is the travails of the Israelites during their travel through the wilderness of Egypt and adjoining lands till they reached the promised land, now called Israel. Those who strayed away from the God of Israel did not survive while every one of those who cleaved or remained faithful to the Lord lived on. The latter are the ones who proved God’s word to be true that He is near to them whenever they call on Him. He delivered them from battles, diseases, hunger, thirst, reptile and scorpion bites, attacks of nearby marauding tribes and so on. In the eighteen month global pandemic’s context, the above uni-verse remains true. As we cleaved or held on tightly to the Lord through this deadly pestilence that killed millions of people, the Lord God has preserved every one of us who are alive today. Every one of us is a survivor today who are living in this world. This testimony should be told to future generations who might not be aware of our experience. We should pay close attention and watch ourselves so closely that we do not forget the things we have experienced so far- the great deliverances the Lord has wrought in our lives. We should obey the laws of the Lord faithfully and not allow our faith to be adulterated or corrupted in the rest of our lives.