The Lovingkindness of God

Hesed

We have been talking about covenants—most importantly about the covenant that God has made with His people

A covenant of love, faithfulness

A covenant promise of deliverance and reconciliation

There is one Hebrew word which does more to describe the covenant relationship than any other word.

Chesed or Hesed: It describes the mutual responsibility that the parties of a covenant had toward each other—a binding obligation

No good English translation:

goodness, graciousness, lovingkindness, love, mercy, faithfulness

Describes the every day working out of a covenant:

The normal, mundane tasks

The giving one one’s life

Example again: marriage

Small things and large things are important to show your hesed to the covenant.

In order to fully grasp hesed we have to consider 3 ideas:

Strength

Steadfastness

Love

All of these have to be there

If we emphasize love at the expense of the other two, we have a covenant that can be mushy and sentimental and falls apart when things get tough

If we emphasize strength and steadfastness at the expense of love, we end up with a covenant that can be cold, calculating and devoid of heart.

Hesed includes all three of these elements

They all have to be present, but at the heart of it all is love

Jesus said in that complete and total love for God and love for your neighbor is the basis for all the law and the prophets.

Without love, our marriages just become legal contracts

Without love, our covenant relationship with God becomes a religion of formulas and works

It is my understanding that this word hesed was used by the Hebrews to describe family relationships.

This is why in many OT contexts, you find this word linked with faithfulness.

Faithfulness is a description of how hesed is played out.

Psalm 25:10 ESV

All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

Psalm 40:11 ESV

As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!

Pslams 25:

Psalm 57:10 ESV

For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.

Psalms 57:11

Hosea 4:1 ESV

Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land;

When we talk about our marriage and family relationships, we emphasize faithfulness—the man to his wife, etc

Our covenant love is show in being faithful to each other

GOD IS HESED

When humans make a covenant with each other, we use hesed as a way to bind ourselves to each other

Why? Because we fail, right? We make promises and covenants with each other because we do not live up to our promises

Is that the way it is with God? Does God have a problem with not living up to His word?

No! He doesn’t lock Himself into a covenant because He has trouble keeping His word

He doesn’t create covenant in order to create lovingkindness, but in order to show us that His heart is lovingkindness from eternity! pg. 43-44 (Malcolm Smith)

Hesed is part of the very essence of who He is!

Exodus 34:4–7 ESV

So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Exodus 34:6 ESV

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

(ESV)

4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. 5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Exodus

4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. 5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (hesed) and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love (hesed) for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Psalm 103:8 ESV

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Even Jonah recognized who God is:

Jonah 4:2 ESV

And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

This word, “Lovingkindness” (hesed) sums up the very existence of the people of Israel.

Whatever they were going through, their highs or their lows, they knew this about God.

That He had put on Himself the keeping of His covenant.

In fact, we only exist because of his hesed

Psalm 136:5–9 ESV

to him who by understanding made the heavens, for his steadfast love endures forever; to him who spread out the earth above the waters, for his steadfast love endures forever; to him who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures forever; the sun to rule over the day, for his steadfast love endures forever; the moon and stars to rule over the night, for his steadfast love endures forever;

Because He is hesed and not just bound to a covenant, His covenant love is greater than the covenant itself.

We see this time and again in the OT, when His people would break the covenant, His covenant love would reach after them to bring them back

And I pray that you have see this in your own life—His lovingkindness bringing you back time and again

Lamentations 3:22–23 ESV

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations

Jeremiah said this even while mourning over Judah’s impending captivity to the Babylonians

Jesus Christ is the ultimate demonstration of hesed

Luke 1:54–55 ESV

He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

Luke 2:54-5

mercy=hesed

Zechariah, father of John the Baptist

Turn to : Listen to all the references to

Salvation, mercy, covenant, oath

English Standard Version Chapter 1

Zechariah’s Prophecy

67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,

68  “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,

for he has visited and redeemed his people

69  and has raised up a horn of salvation for us

in the house of his servant David,

70  as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,

71  that we should be saved from our enemies

and from the hand of all who hate us;

72  to show the mercy promised to our fathers

and to remember his holy covenant,

73  the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us

74  that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,

might serve him without fear,

75  in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

76  And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

77  to give knowledge of salvation to his people

in the forgiveness of their sins,

78  because of the tender mercy of our God,

whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high

79  to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Hesed. This is the heart, the core of God’s covenant.

Jeremiah 31:3 ESV

the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

Jeremiah 31

Everlasting Love: it started from eternity past. Before you were born, God’s love was set on you. Before you had a chance to sin or to try to win His love, it was there and it was perfect.

The things you do, don’t win His love. It was there, it is there, it will always be there.

Hosea 14:4 ESV

I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.

Hosea 14:4

God’s love is not turned aside by backsliding or apostasy (the word used here)

Not based on performance

Not based on how you look.

It is perfect, because God is love and God is perfect.

You may have said or heard people say, “God couldn’t love me” or “I’m sure God couldn’t love me like that”

That’s pride and it is calling God a liar! You are saying that God can’t possibly live up to who He is

God’s covenant love for you, in simplest terms: It is who He is.

Not based on performance

Not based on how you look.

It is perfect, because God is love and God is perfect.

It is steadfast,

It is strong

It is faithful

It is everlasting

God cannot let you down! God cannot lie!

Folks, God’s hesed is the goal of salvation.

Jesus Christ is the ultimate demonstration of hesed

Luke 1:54–55 ESV

He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

mercy=hesed

Zechariah, father of John the Baptist

Turn to : Listen to all the references to

Salvation, mercy, covenant, oath

English Standard Version Chapter 1

Zechariah’s Prophecy

67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,

68  “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,

for he has visited and redeemed his people

69  and has raised up a horn of salvation for us

in the house of his servant David,

70  as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,

71  that we should be saved from our enemies

and from the hand of all who hate us;

72  to show the mercy promised to our fathers

and to remember his holy covenant,

73  the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us

74  that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,

might serve him without fear,

75  in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

76  And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

77  to give knowledge of salvation to his people

in the forgiveness of their sins,

78  because of the tender mercy of our God,

whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high

79  to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Hesed. This is the heart, the core of God’s covenant.

Read Psalm 136