cleave to cleave

"Cleave" is an interesting word that can mean two opposite actions.

It can mean to split or to sever, as one does with a knife called, appropriately, a cleaver.

It can also mean sticking or holding fast as one does with a spouse (Genesis 2:24).

But throughout the Bible, the vast majority of references to cleave are in the second sense, in our being united strongly, being attached firmly to The Lord, as in "love The Lord your God, walk in all His Ways, and cleave to Him" (Deuteronomy 11:23) and "Barnabas exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave to The Lord" (Acts 11:23).

It seems to me that, in order to cleave to the Lord, both aspects of "cleave" need to be in play.  The Psalmist says, "My soul cleaves to the dust," for which He asks God to give him Life according to God's Word (Psalm 119:25).  There is this earthly nature about us, formed of the dust as we are, not only physically, but also morally in being dead in our trespasses and sins.  As such, we that cleave to the dust need to be cleaved from that dust if we are to be given Life in cleaving to The Lord.  And so, throughout the Scripture, we are invited to separate ourselves from our dusty nature, to put it off, so that we can be clothed with the new nature which is being renewed in knowledge after the Image of its Creator (Colossians 3:9-10).  Under the inspiration of The Holy Spirit, we can identify a few of the ways that we are "stuck" to our dustbin selves. 

However, though we can identify our being stuck in sin and death, we aren't capable of separating ourselves from it due to its supergluey fallen nature.  Paul describes both delighting in God's Law and wrestling with another law, making him a prisoner of the law of sin (Romans 7:23).  And so he and we invite The Lord to deliver us, to cut into us, to slice us away from our old selves so that we can rise into the New Self that He has created for us, the new Self, made possible only as we cleave or get "stuck" to The Lord.

So this New Year, I invite you to invite Jesus the Cleaver to cut into your self so that, at your invitation, He can separate you from your Old Nature and unite you with His.  May the newness of 2025 be accompanied by our new intentions to be cleaved so that we can cleave, by Him, to Him.