What does it mean to hold fast (Deuteronomy 10:20)?

The second point is perseverance. This is expressed in verse 8: ‘but ye shall cleave unto Jehovah your God, as ye have done unto this day’. To cleave to someone means to cling to him and to not let him go. In the language of the New Testament, it is dedication, devotion and commitment to the Lord Jesus. A striking example is found in Acts 11 when Barnabas comes to Antioch and sees the work of divine grace in the comparatively young believers from the heathen world. In verse 23 we read: ‘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’.

To abide in Him, then, supposes not only the practical surrender of our wills, and distrust of ourselves, but clinging to Him in love, depending upon Him in our weakness, and communion with Him in His thoughts as made known in His word.

Observe again, it is to the Lord they were to cleave: not to duty, or law, or ordinances (though these are good in their places), but to the Lord. He knew how treacherous the heart was, and how soon it would put anything in His place. You will have to learn what is in your heart. Abide with God, and you will learn your heart with Him, and under His grace; else you will have to learn it with the devil through His successful temptations. But God is faithful, and if you have been getting away from Him, and other things has been coming in and forming a crust round your heart, and you want to get back again, God says, What is this crust? I must have you deal with it, and get rid of it. Remember, Christ bought you with His own blood, that you should be His, and not the world's. The denial of this fact is an artifice of the devil. Do not let the devil come in between you and God's grace. However careless you may have been, however far you may have got away from Him, return to Him: doubt not His joy in having you back; count upon His love; look at the sin which led you away with horror, but do not wrong Him by distrusting His love, any more than you would an affectionate husband or wife, by throwing a doubt on their love if you have been for a moment ungracious. Hate yourself, but remember how He has loved you, and will love you until the end. Mistrust not His work: mistrust not His love. God had also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life (v. 18). All is of God.

But there are other means of retaining their blessings besides obedience to the word, and to these Joshua directs their attention. The second is "cleaving to the Lord" (v. 8); the heart and affections must be set on the Person of Christ. Do you often think, beloved, of that verse in Psalm 43? "My soul follows hard after thee, thy right hand upholds me." Do we not feel — there is a heart which has given itself wholly to the Lord, and is able to tell Him so? for these are not experiences which one would display before the world. It is a soul captivated by the beauty of its object, entirely surrendered to Christ, and discovering a power in Him to lift it above every difficulty, and preserve it from all danger. "Thy right hand upholds me." It is the same in our chapter (vv. 9, 10); in cleaving to Him, the people experience the strength of Jehovah. Oh! may we in our troublous days realise more of this close cleaving of soul to Christ; may we have hearts that seek and desire nought save Himself, which do not make a show before the world of their feelings or of their consecration to God, which do not say, "I am rich and have need of nothing," but which say to Christ in the silence of His own presence, and in accents which His ear alone can hear: "I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me," and also on account of Thy matchless beauty; oh, inimitable Pattern, some traits of whom, however feeble, I would fain reproduce! "My soul follows hard after Thee."

The nations that remained among Israel (ver. 7), weary of constant opposition, had accepted the fact of conquest, and thus were more dangerous to Israel's prosperity than they had been in their days of open war. The smile of the world is more deadly than its frown. Its right hand, outstretched in fellowship, is more fatal to Christian prosperity than its right hand outstretched with the sword. "The friendship of the world is enmity with God" (James 4:4). For Israel to "cleave unto the Lord (their) God," and also "to cleave unto these nations that remained" among them was an impossibility. No new path of prosperity and success could open before them, for there was but the one for them, the only path of success for God's people — obedience to His word. It is a delusion and a snare to think the world has changed because Christianity is tolerated, or to suppose that the word of God is of different application to the Christian after years of hardship for Christ from what it was on that first day when the Lord called him to be a soldier. And in view of the present-day spirit of trifling with infidelity, and of feebleness in decision to obey the Scriptures, these last words of Joshua should be laid to heart.

In respect to trust, Hezekiah had no equal among the kings of Judah. This trust is inseparable from obedience: "He clave to Jehovah, and did not turn aside from following him, but kept his commandments, which Jehovah commanded Moses" (v. 6). Let us beware of so-called trust in God which links itself to disobedience of His Word. If I trust in Him, I will cleave to Him; if I cleave to Him, I will keep His Word, and I keep it just as He has confided it to me at the beginning, just as Hezekiah kept "his commandments, which Jehovah commanded Moses." One may find, no doubt, trust in Him mixed with much ignorance, but ignorance is not disobedience. Only, from the time one's soul is brought into relationship with the clear revelation of the mind of God, and yet prefers its religious forms to it — its high places and its Nehushtan — it will never have true trust in God. Yes, trust, cleaving to the Lord and obedience are things that are inseparable. The result of Hezekiah's faith is soon apparent; "Jehovah was with him; he prospered whithersoever he went forth" (v. 7). What a happy circle of blessings! God's favour and spiritual prosperity accompany faithfulness. May these blessings be ours, dear reader! Amen.

To cleave is the term used by God at the beginning of human history to express the undivided and unchanging affection that a man should maintain for the wife of his choice (Gen. 2:24); this love is so intimate and unifying that by cleaving the "two shall be one flesh" (Eph. 5:31). Moreover, cleaving is expressive of the loving obedience and worshipping service which should mark the people of God, and six times the children of Israel were exhorted by Moses and by Joshua to cleave to Jehovah their God (Deut. 10:20; Deut. 11:22; Deut. 13:4; Deut. 30:20; Joshua 22:5; Joshua 23:8). It is significant, therefore, that in recording Ruth's decisive step towards Bethlehem, it is said that she "clave" to Naomi. Her choice sprang not from a mere whim of her friendly emotions, but from a rooted conviction of her soul. Her eye was upon the God of Israel rather than upon the mother of her dead husband.

Faith is next exhorted to, in view of Jehovah's faithfulness. The soul may be pastured upon this, and dwell secure; — the peaceable fruits of righteousness being thus encouraged. Let the heart cleave to the Lord in love, and love will be sure to respond, and the requests of the heart so purified be fulfilled.

Precious words! They set before us, most blessedly, the secret spring of that life which we, as Christians are called to live, from day to day — the life of simple, implicit and unqualified obedience, namely, a heart fearing the Lord — fearing Him, not in a servile spirit, but with all that deep, true, adoring love which the Holy Ghost sheds abroad in our hearts. It is this that delights the heart of our loving Father. His word to us is, "My son, give me thine heart." Where the heart is given, all follows, in lovely moral order. A loving heart finds its very deepest joy in obeying all God's commandments; and nothing is of any value to God but what springs from a loving heart. The heart is the source of all the issues of life; and, hence, when it is governed by the love of God there is a loving response to all His commandments. We love His commandments because we love Him. Every word of His is precious to the heart that loves Him. Every precept, every statute, every judgement, in a word, His whole law is loved, reverenced, and obeyed, because it has His Name, and His authority attached to it.

Again the Lord lays emphasis on the commandments He was giving to Israel, that they should be careful to observe them with all their heart and soul. They themselves declared that the Lord was their God. Let them be therefore true to Him by keeping His statutes, His commandments and judgments, being fully obedient (vs.16-17).