Hesed
The Character of God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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12 Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ 13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” 14 And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Now, this is an interesting phrase, which we have been exploring, “show me now your way, that I may know you”.
We have seen quite alot on how we cannot know God.
Knowing God cannot be based on my experience
Knowing God cannot be based on someone elses experience
Knowing God cannot be based on general assumptions.
Let Us examine a text concerning this;
11 I returned and saw under the sun that— The race is not to the swift, Nor the battle to the strong, Nor bread to the wise, Nor riches to men of understanding, Nor favor to men of skill; But time and chance happen to them all. 12 For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, Like birds caught in a snare, So the sons of men are snared in an evil time, When it falls suddenly upon them.
Now quite interesting that sometimes, we think the world in itself is the way we think of it.
Maybe if I am swift, I will win the race,
Maybe if I am stronger, the battle becomes mine to win
We have created sequence of events, concluding that at the end of the day, that is what we would receive, then, the reality simply is, when we look through life and we are honest, LIFE DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY. It is much more complex, sometimes, not even clear.
We see a world that is not dancing to the tune we have in mind. That is the reality.
So, the observation of life is that it seems not to be the way we planned it, or the way it ought to be. Hence, all of these has led man to different conclusions;
Maybe there is no God
If there is one (or many), they simply do not care about us
For believer’s most times, well, we know there is a God, but we can’t be sure of his actions.
Why? In the contemplation of life itself, HOW DO I TRACE THIS GOD WITHIN THE STORY OF LIFE?
This is what led us to seeing, “This very subject”. WHERE IS GOD IN THE STORY CALLED LIFE?
Let us find his actions more;
6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
Now, we want to explore one of these characters of God, “goodness”.
Loyal Love — חֶסֶד (ḥesed)
Loyal Love — חֶסֶד (ḥesed)
an unfailing kind of love, kindness, or goodness; often used of God’s love that is related to faithfulness to his covenant
Quite an interesting phrase which is about an unfailing kind of love, yet within a relationship. Let us explore this abit more;
Notice it is said to be within his covenant.
11 Then the Lord said to Moses: “How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them? 12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.” 13 And Moses said to the Lord: “Then the Egyptians will hear it, for by Your might You brought these people up from among them, 14 and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, Lord, are among these people; that You, Lord, are seen face to face and Your cloud stands above them, and You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. 15 Now if You kill these people as one man, then the nations which have heard of Your fame will speak, saying, 16 ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring this people to the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the wilderness.’ 17 And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying, 18 ‘The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’ 19 Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”
Now, the term here is greatness of your mercy. The word mercy there is the word “Hesed”, it has to do with the greatness of his loyal love, i.e. it is the kind of loyalty and love shown even in the face of betrayal.
Look at the words of Hosea to describe the “Hesed” of God’s people.
4 “O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud, And like the early dew it goes away. 5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of My mouth; And your judgments are like light that goes forth. 6 For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Faithfulness — Hesed
Meaning, while the response to God’s loyal love ought to be loyalty, what we have with Israel is a fleeting loyalty to God, that means, they have a form of loyalty that is not consistent, and cannot be trusted.
Hence, for you to have “loyal love” as a character, it would require that I am also faithful.
Hence, what you will find with God is that he doesn’t just show loyal love, he is consistently doing that.
6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,
Truth — Emet (faithfulness)
We studied this word alot in the teaching series “Faith in the faithfulness of God”, we will come back to it soon;
Denotes constancy, permanence, stability, and dependability
Alright. Let us then dive deep into WHY IS GOD SHOWING CONSISTENT LOYAL LOVE TO ISRAEL?
This is not because of the people per say, it is something rooted in his covenant with Abraham.
Genesis 15:6-20
18 On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—
So, this covenant with Abraham, means that God is bound to bringing this to pass. Notice something, Abraham won’t be on the scene again, he was definitely going to be dead at that time (even though yet alive), but God is going to have to display loyalty in that friendship, in that covenant.
Abraham’s response in this covenant;
16 Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way. 17 And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, 18 since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”
What you will find here is quite interesting, Yahweh said, he will command his children and his household “that they keep the way of the LORD”.
So, we have Abraham showing loyalty to Yahweh and his ways.
1 There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar. 2 Then the Lord appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you. 3 Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 4 And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; 5 because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
Notice verse 5; Isaac comes into carrying on God’s promise, not because of himself, but because of verse 5; Abraham didn’t break God’s covenant, God is bound to carry out his oath which he swore to Abraham your father.
13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”
Notice again, “the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give to you and your descendants”. We have Jacob then, becoming a recipient of God’s plan, howbeit, not based on his own actions, not based on his covenant, but because of God’s oath to Abraham. “Through you, all the earth will be blessed”.
Hence, we get to Exodus, many generations later, it became quite clear;
23 Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. 24 So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.
So, if you notice something carefully, the action of God here has nothing to do with the descendants, it was mainly because of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob , and even carefully tracing this, Abraham was the anchor, the one with whom the covenant was to, and yet, re-stated to his descendants.
So, this brings us to something very vital,
God’s loyal love is not abitrary, it is not sentimental love, it is covenantal love, God has sworn, and His word binds Him to act faithfully.
9 “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
Mercy — Loyal Love (Hesed)
Notice, he keeps the loyal love for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep his commandments.
Notice, this is a direct quotation of Exodus 34; what you will see is that “God keeps the loyal love for a thousand generations”
Meaning, even if their descendants aren’t faithful, God is bound to yet work out his plan with same said people. The words of his oath with those who aren’t deserving.
So, even in their rebellion, God would still bring them to that land. Even in the rebellion of this people Israel, God would still reach the whole world through them.
This is his HESED at work, You see it in that he would faithfully keep his word.
Hence, Moses can say, because of the Loyal love, “forgive these people”.
Wrong Application
Wrong Application
Now, we might be tempted to think a pattern here for you and I, maybe when we serve the Lord, then, our children and their children won’t experience this or that, but that is quite wrong for some reasons;
God initiated that covenant with Abraham, and;
The covenant is geared towards God’s plan to redeem the world. (Through you, all the earth shall be blessed).
We should seek to understand the whole story first.
WHERE DID THIS HESED AND FAITHFULNESS OF GOD LED TO?
8 Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers,
Truth — ἀλήθεια (alētheia)
Lexham Theological Wordbook ἀλήθεια
Indicates the quality or state of being real or genuine
The promises made to the fathers, God has done it in Christ Jesus. All of the earth is reached in him.
God has faithfully kept his word and promises made to the fathers, in Christ Jesus.
So what does it mean that God loves me? His love is to all, it is in Christ Jesus fully revealed, it is unto all, he has kept loyal love for thousands of generations, that loyal love is unto all men, at all times
