I. It could be only in a limited sense that this praise could be given to the children of Israel; their great crime through all periods of their history was that they did not cleave unto the Lord their God. But probably during that score of years which intervened between the entrance into Canaan and the death of Joshua the Hebrews were more true in their allegiance to their heavenly King than at any other period. As yet they had everything to preserve them in their steadfastness, and there was no strength of temptation to allure them to rebellion. While Joshua lived they did cleave as fully as they ever cleaved to the Lord their God.
II. Our only safeguard in facing the snares and temptations, the malice and opposition, the craft and cunning, of the devil, the world, and the flesh is to cleave unto the Lord our God. "Keep innocency and take heed unto the thing that is right," and you will find the boldness of evil abashed and the designs of evil powerless before you. Cleave unto God quietly, but resolutely and consistently. "Take good heed to yourselves that ye lovethe Lord your God." Fearwill never induce you to cleave to Him. Love will. And if you cleave unto the Lord, none shall be able to stand before you, or to gain the mastery over you.
F. E. Paget, Sermons for Special Occasions,p. 115.