Leave and Cleave

I heard a message awhile ago which mentioned that all of the troubling things going on in the world right now serve to loosen our hold or attachment on the world, and the things of the world, making us long for Home.

Then, I was reflecting on a verse in Genesis 2:24, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.”  (Also reiterated in Mt. 19:5)  It struck me that there is another wedding coming up, where Christ takes His Bride.  Jesus “left” the Father and gave up His own life to come and claim a bride, and cleaves by sending us His Spirit while He prepares a place for us to join Him.

As the Bride of Christ, we too, are being called to “leave” the world, and all that we have come from, and to “cleave” to our Bridegroom.  This leaving and cleaving means to become separate from, and to attach to, or identify with.  It is interesting to me to note that this is a picture of the meaning of holiness.  The Hebrew word kadosh, meaning holy, contains within it the idea of separation and sanctification, a distinguishing between the common and the holy.  Marriage, itself, is an exclusive relationship, forsaking all others, while uniting in a unique relationship, free of defilement.

Consider some Biblical examples:  Rebecca was willing to leave everything behind, including her family and country, in order to go forth to meet and marry Isaac.  Lot’s wife was not willing to forsake her past life…Sodom still held attachments in her heart.  A Jewish bride goes through a mikveh before her wedding, to wash off and cut off all of her life that was before, and prepare herself for her new life with her groom.  We see a similar picture of this when the Israelites went through the Red Sea, putting their Egyptian life permanently behind them, and in Christian baptism.

Cleaving to the Lord needs to be our focus in these times, finding Him to be our shelter, safe hiding place, and joy.  Paul said in Phillipians 3:8, “Yes, certainly, I count everything as loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have forfeited the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ,”.

Our heart needs to loosen from the love of the world, and the things in the world.  We are not only leaving all, but cleaving, to the One our heart adores.