The Lord began speaking the word CLEAVE to my spirit. Many marriages fail success due to this simple principle. Cleaving does not, in fact, take place.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24
*and shall cleave - dabaq - to cling, stick, stay close, cleave, keep close, stick to, stick with, follow closely, join to, overtake, catch, to cling, cleave to, to stay with, (Pual) to be joined together, to pursue closely
.,,,.l
How can two people be glued together if they are still glued to something else? Notice that scripture says, 'therefore shall leave his mother and father.' What if there is never a 'leaving'? The word LEAVE is `azab and it means: to leave, loose, forsake
- (Qal) to leave
- to depart from, leave behind, leave, let alone
- to leave, abandon, forsake, neglect, apostatise
- to let loose, set free, let go, freeo
- (Niphal)
- to be left to
- to be forsaken
- (Pual) to be deserted
Let's just say that is parenting 101...The parents are setting up the walls in their home. They are establishing them...they are adding children and training the children up in the ways of the Lord...The wallpaper being the parents, the wall being the child...It's adhered to the family. The parents have stayed close to the child, raising it up...joining together as a family.
3 By wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established; 4 And by knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches. Proverbs 24:3-4 (NASB)
When the time comes that the man is going to take for himself a wife, the wallpaper needs to be removed from the walls, so fresh wallpaper can be put up in that room. There is a lot of preparation in taking down wallpaper to prepare a wall for fresh paint or new wallpaper. You can't just pull off the wallpaper because it cleaves to the walls. It is attached to the walls. It is joined as one to the walls. You have to soak it down with water or special wallpaper removing chemicals. There is a lot of scraping and tedious work in removing every last bit of old wallpaper residue. If you go to paint on a wall that has bits and pieces of that old residue, it will mess up the new fresh wallpaper with lumps and bumps or the fresh coat of paint will look lumpy and cheapened.
A man must leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife. What would happen if a man didn't truly leave his mother or father and cleave to his wife. What would happen to a fresh roll of wallpaper if you just placed it overtop of the old wallpaper? It would look the same in the spirit as it does in the natural.
The new wallpaper would not truly Cleave to the old wallpaper. There wouldn't be a joining together. An opposite reaction would actually take place. A repulsion...A detachment. A forsaking.
When a man doesn't leave his mother or father and cleave to his wife as one flesh, he doesn't truly need the wife as much as he should. If he can run back to his mom or dad and get all the emotional support that his wife should be giving to him, he doesn't have to invest himself fully into the relationship. There's always a backdoor escape. If a woman can call on her mom or dad whenever her husband fails to meet her needs, there is a polar opposite of magnetism that happens.
So many people enter into marital unions and don't understand why joining together as one flesh never happens. You can't CLEAVE if you never LEAVE! You need to be pursuing one another closely.
Paul tells us that a man is to love his wife like Christ loves the church. What does that look like?
25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,30 because we are members of His body. (Ephesians 5:25-30)
Let me tell you something about Jesus...he left his mother and father and he cleaved to his bride...his disciples...his people...How do I know? When he was confronted about who his mother or father was, this was his answer.
As Jesus was speaking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. Jesus asked, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he pointed to his disciples and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!” Matthew 12:47:50 (NLT)
Jesus left his mother, father, brothers...He cleaved to his disciples...He cleaves to his bride. He cleaves to you and to me...How many husbands truly leave their mothers and fathers and cleave to their wives and they become one flesh...
If this principle were in effect, then people couldn't just walk away from that covenant of marriage so easily. Jesus gave up his life for the church, his bride. His bride committed adultery on him over and over and over again with other lovers. (Read Jeremiah 2)
All he wanted was for his bride to come back to their first love. He waited...He forgave. He was long-suffering. He was patient. He was kind.
“ ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown. 3Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,’ ”
4Hear the word of the Lord, you descendants of Jacob, all you clans of Israel. 5This is what the Lord says: “What fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. 6They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, through a land of deserts and ravines, a land of drought and utter darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’ 7I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land
and made my inheritance detestable. 8The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal,
“And I will bring charges against your children’s children. But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols. 12Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,”
13“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. 14Is Israel a servant, a slave by birth?
Why then has he become plunder? 15Lions have roared; they have growled at him. They have laid waste his land; his towns are burned and deserted. 16Also, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes
when he led you in the way? 18Now why go to Egypt to drink water from the Nileb ? And why go to Assyria to drink water from the Euphrates? 19Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me,”
The Lord wanted nothing but his bride to turn back to him...He knew they had forsaken him with other lovers...He didn't want a divorce. He wanted repentance. He cleaved to his people...However, they left him, they had never really left their former lives and cleaved to him. I believe that is a missing key in many marriages today. You need to LEAVE to CLEAVE!
I heard the Lord speak to my heart. When you don't Leave to CLEAVE, then you're LOCKED out of LOVE. Because the key that opens the door to love is CLEAVING. I'm not talking about worldly love that is so filled with conditions and regulations that it truly hurts to love. It's painful to love. No one can live up to the false expectations of the world's standards of love. I'm talking the kind of love that is stronger than death. The love that remains...1 Corinthians 13:4-7.
That kind of love never fails. That kind of love ALWAYS hopes! It ALWAYS Perseveres! This kind of love is mature. It LEAVES its mother and father and CLEAVES to his wife as one flesh.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 1 Corinthians 13:11
When you LEAVE and CLEAVE, a man becomes a man...a woman becomes a woman and the ways of childhood are BEHIND them! It's time to become one flesh and do life together...Not call on mommy or daddy to bail you out of every emotional, financial, or intimate dispute you have as a couple.
When you LEAVE and CLEAVE, a man becomes a man...a woman becomes a woman and the ways of childhood are BEHIND them! It's time to become one flesh and do life together...Not call on mommy or daddy to bail you out of every emotional, financial, or intimate dispute you have as a couple.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13) The Greatest of faith, hope, and love....IS LOVE!
I don't know about you, but I don't want to be locked out of this kind of love. I am thankful that God releases his keys of wisdom and understanding...
GENESIS 2:22 - And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
She was not made from his head to top him
Nor from his feet, to be trampled on.
She was made from his side, to be equal to him
From under his arm to be protected by him
From near his heart to be loved by him.
