Hesed

"Hesed" is another one of those biblical words, in this case a Hebrew word, that translators have struggled to capture in English, and yet it's vital for understanding the way God relates to his people. It occurs some 250 times in the Old Testament. In different versions of the Bible you may see it translated as "mercy", "kindness", "goodness", "faithfulness", "loyalty". There's no single English word that quite gets it, which is why some translators have used more than one word - steadfast love, loyal love, loving kindness. Usually, as one scholar puts it, the word describes something that happens within an existing relationship, whether between two human beings or between God and man. In human relationships "Hesed" implies loving our neighbour, not merely in terms of warm emotional feelings, but in acts of love and service that we owe to the other person, simply because he's part of the covenant community. You hear that sense of the word in verses such as Micah chapter 6 verse 8. What does the Lord require of you? But to do justice and to love kindness, "Hesed", and to walk humbly with your God. And by the way, Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan shows that we're obliged to extend this kind of love to all as we have opportunity, not just other believers. But we can only love like this with "Hesed" loving kindness, when we know at the core of our being that this is how God loves us. As 1st John chapter 4 verse 19 says, "We love because he first loved us." That's why it's vital to understand the extent of God's "Hesed" love for his covenant people. Listen to Exodus chapter 34 verses 6 and 7. "The Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, Hesed, and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love, Hesed, for thousands." What's even more remarkable about the Lord's assurance of "Hesed" here is that he says these words shortly after his people have committed the grossest idolatry by worshipping and sacrificing to a golden calf. "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases according to the writer of Lamentations, not even when his people rebel against him. Even then they can appeal to his Hesed. His mercies never come to an end," he writes. "They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness." All the more stunning when you consider that he writes these things as Jerusalem was being destroyed in 586 BC as a judgment on their wickedness. "But," says the writer, "if his people turn back to him, the Lord will not cast off forever. He will have compassion according to the abundance of his Hesed, steadfast love." Read Psalm 136 and you begin to see just how deep and wide God's Hesed loving-kindness is. According to that Psalm, in which every phrase ends with "His Hesed endures forever," God even made the heavens, the sun, the moon and the stars because of his Hesed. He gives food to all flesh for the same reason. He delivered his people from slavery over through kings who opposed them and gave them land to live in all because of his Hesed. He remembered his people in their low estate because of his Hesed. And Christ went to the cross because of his Hesed. His loyalty to his people, his kindness and mercy toward them, was so unshakable that he endured the very worst that we could devise for him, so that we could be clothed in his perfect Hesed faithfulness and be credited with it as if we have lived out his perfect life of Hesed ourselves. Having entered a covenant relationship with his people, God binds himself to act toward them with Hesed and he's utterly faithful to his own self-commitment. To put it another way, our hope that God will love us to the uttermost and forever is not founded on our ability to keep his commands, but rather it's founded on God's ability to keep being God. Are you confident that God can do that? If you've trusted in Christ alone, turning from sin to faith in him, then you can be sure that the Lord's goodness and Hesed will follow you all the days of your life and you shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Simply Put is a podcast from Ligonier Ministries. If you like the show, please subscribe or write a review on your favorite podcast app. And by the way, if you do like this show, check out another one of Ligonier's podcasts, Five Minutes in Church History, a weekly podcast hosted by Dr. Stephen Nichols that provides an informal and informative look at church history.