Hebrew Highlights 003 - Cling

Shalom, Today is May1st, and this is Yuval Shomron, live from Jerusalem.

DEU 10:20 "You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name.

These days in Israel we are very much clinging to the Lord. Let’s look at a promise in DEU 11:22-23 "For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you, to do it, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him; then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.

One person in Israel’s history who managed to live by this principle for at least part of his life was King Hezekiah.

2KI 18:5-6 He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. For he clung to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.

Of course, we can also cling to the wrong things, as in the example of King Solomon in 1KI 11:1-4 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, "You shall not associate with them, neither shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods." Solomon held fast to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. For it came about when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.

The Hebrew work for “clung” or “held fast” is davak. Other words from the same root are davik, or “sticky” and devek, or “glue”.

In English, the word “cling” might bring to mind a picture of a small child holding to his father’s hand as they walk down the street. In Hebrew, it has the added property of stickiness. In other words, it would be hard for the child to let go of daddy’s hand, even if he wanted to.

Try to imagine entirely wrapping yourself in cling wrap, over your clothes, your shoes, and even your head. It is hard to see the beginning and the end of the plastic covering in order to take it off. If you walked around in public this way, most likely everyone would notice.

When you walk out of church, are you wrapped up with God so thoroughly that everyone sees Him? Are you stuck to Him, and Him to you? Is His influence in your life difficult to remove, or like the cheaper brands of cling wrap, does it just fall off when you begin to move?

Another word from the same Hebrew root is “medabek” or contagious! God’s love and presence in our lives should be infectious to anyone we touch or talk to. Sometimes, all we have to do is smile and say a warm “shalom” to someone we pass in the mall, or to a co-worker, and they are infected with the love of God. Of course, if we’re crabby, that can also be contagious.

If you cling to God, He will stick to others you shake hands with or speak to. His love will spread like a plague. Go ahead, be contagious. Pass the glue please.

Shalom, Shalom from the heart of Jerusalem!