MONDAY 19th
Deuteronomy 30:20
NIV – ‘and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life and he will give you many years . . .’
ESV – ‘. . . loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, . . .’
We come again to these verses and our third point:
That we hold fast.
The KJV has here, ‘ . . .that thou mayest cleave unto him: . . .’ In the KJV, the word cleave is used seven times in the book of Deuteronomy. (4:4, 10:20, 11:22, 13:4, 13:17, 28:21, 28:60, 30:20)
The word cleave is a word that can mean 1) to cut apart or 2) to hold together, two opposites using the same word! Can I suggest it is a good word to use about our Christian experience, for we need to cleave or cut away from our lives the old ways, the ways of the flesh, and then we need to cleave to the new that is available to us by the Spirit of God. And here in our devotion we are being encouraged to cleave to God, cling to him, or to hold fast to him.
In Deuteronomy 4:4 it is used to show that cleaving or holding fast to God is the way of guaranteeing life, ‘But ye that did cleave unto the LORD your God are alive every one of you this day.’ (KJV) In the same way eternal life will only be granted to those who come to the Lord Jesus Christ and cleave or hold fast to him, a Scriptures here, first from the KJV and then from the ESV.
Acts 11:23
‘Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.’
‘When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, . . .’
In Hebrews 10:23 we are encouraged to hold fast, ‘Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.’ This is a Scripture that should cause us to take stock and to ensure that we are holding fast, both to the confession of our hope and to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to use the KJV language again to ensure that nothing comes between us and our Lord that would try to cleave us away from him, but rather we do all we can to cleave to him!
I will use an acronym to help us
C – Confession. We must never be afraid to come before the Lord with confession, to confess those things that would seek to drive a wedge in our relationship with him.
L – Listen. We must continually listen to and obey his voice.
E – Endure. We must learn to endure or to withstand anything that the enemy would seek to throw at us, knowing that Jesus endured so much on our behalf.
A – Advance. As we hold fast, we move forward in God’s will and purpose for our lives.
V – Victory. We need to continually learn to live in the victory that is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord. Learning not to allow the problems or difficulties we may face to distract or divert us.
E – Eternity. As we hold fast it will lead to life eternal.