God's Faithful Covenantal Love
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I’m going to warn you up front tonight - this will be a bit long. If you have ever wondered about how the OT narratives relate to one another, well tonight we’re going to take a high level “look behind the curtain” at one “thread” that runs through the OT - the one foundation for all other “threads” - God’s covenantal hesed love.
[ Discuss bulletin. Let them know there is so much more]
Ultimately, the big idea is God has been lovingly faithful to us, and what He asks is for us to be lovingly faithful to Him. We are going to be looking at some covenants and you are going to hear me say Edenic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic and Davidic. Those are just fancy ways of saying Eden, Noah, Abraham, Moses and David in relation to the covenants God made with them at those times. With that said,
Let me start by asking you a question, “Understanding we have rejected God, we have sinned and gone our own ways, and that God needs absolutely nothing from any one of us, Why would God save you, or me, or anyone else?” Why does God save you? Why does God save me? Why does He care? It’s a good question, right? If we aren’t needed, why bother with us - not just bother with us, but suffer on our behalf and die for us? Why? Have you ever thought about that? Why be faithful to us when we are so unfaithful to Him? Hold on to that thought for a bit...
Today we are continuing our brief study of God’s attributes and how they relate to the series we are in, Foundations for Evangelism (Go forth, confidently!) Two weeks ago Don covered God’s graciousness, and last week Tad picked up where Don’s sermon about God’s grace left off and covered God’s justice and mercy using Exodus 34 as his foundational scripture. The focus of Tad’s sermon was on how God can forgive, yet still be just and internally consistent in His nature.
This week I am going to attempt to pick up from where Tad left off. Last week was about HOW God can forgive without violating the Law or His own nature, this week we are going to look at the question of WHY - why is forgiveness even an option - what is it in God’s nature that drives His incredible grace and mercy and forgiveness.
To start, lets go back and look at Exodus 34...
Exodus 34:6–7 (ESV)
“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...”
When I saw Tad use this scripture for his foundational text last week, I was sitting down here thinking to myself - “YES, This is perfect! - Thank you Lord for messing up Tad’s plans to preach from Romans!” :)
Can anyone guess why? (I knew I was going to be preaching on God’s love)
(maybe someone guesses steadfast love)
One word - HESED!
I can be a bit of a creature of habit - there are certain concepts from scripture that I will try to drive home on a regular basis - like when I say “works don’t work” or that “most roads in Scripture lead to, or are related to, Genesis or the Sermon on the Mount” - another one is this concept of God’s hesed love.
There are those who are smarter than me who tell us the average person has to hear something at least 3 times before it can be recalled easily. This goes with the old teaching adage - tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them. So, last December I preached an entire Christmas sermon about God’s hesed love, then on Father’s Day a month or so ago, the concept of hesed love was one of my main points about being a good father. Today will be the third time - so I know you all are now going to remember “hesed”, right??
Hesed is one of the most frequent forms of the word love in the OT.
It is a Hebrew word that does not have a direct equivalent in English (or any other language). It is a Hebrew-unique word. It is difficult, if not impossible, to fully convey its meaning of Hesed in English. So, throughout the OT you will find it translated many different ways.
Love · Unfailing Love · Steadfast Love · Covenant of Love · Lovingkindness · Kindness · Great Kindness · Marvelous Kindness · Loyalty · Mercy · Faithfully · Favor · Devotion · Fidelity · Goodness
When used in relation to God, Hesed is a loving, caring covenantal-relational concept. It is emotional, but not based on emotion. It is unconditional even when conditions are associated with it (as we will see with the Mosaic and Davidic covenants). It is unwaivering, unyeilding, unequivocal - when it exists, it just is. Just like God is the Great I Am, the Great I Am’s hesed nature just is. It represents a type of loyalty or fidelity or devotion. In our Exodus 34 passage, God Himself declares:
Exodus 34:6–7 (ESV)
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, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin...
Malachi 3:6 (ESV)
For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
1 John 4:8 (ESV)
...God is love.
God’s agape love is also, in principle and practice, a type of hesed love.
OK, so how does this relate to the question of “Why would God save us?” I’m glad you asked… Let’s take a look at the story of us...
God creates the universe and us. The earth was “very good,” but God made a very special place, a place where we could walk and talk with God in person - Eden. God faithfully provided everything for us, including Himself, in return all he asked is the we be faithful to Him. This is at the heart of the Edenic Covenant - Be fruitful and multiply; with Eden as an example, go, follow my lead (I made Eden) and take Eden to the ends of the Earth. Don’t eat the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil - as I have been lovingly faithful to you, be faithful to Me. The idea is a covenant of faithfulness. (Note - Jay, it doesn’t say covenant here. Good question, hold that thought.)
We were not faithful, we consumed the forbidden fruit, decided to do things our own way, and evil, death and chaos followed.
God expells Adam and Eve from Eden - expelled them from his presence..
Yet God remains faithful; His patient, hesed - covenantal love - remains unchanging for His created image bearers - you and me.
God did not destroy Adam and Eve - or their descendants. Instead, He faithfully waited for them to return to Him, to be faithful to Him, but that did not happen and things got bad, very bad. (See Gen 6) Things were so bad that scripture says “And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” Yet, despite God’s grief and regret, He was unchangingly faithful - and Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
The flood cleansed the Earth of the rampant evil which followed our rebellion. In comes the Noahic covenant:
I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
God promises never to destroy the world by water again. Think of the Noahic covenant as Edenic covenant 2.0. Why do I say this? we are again supposed to take Eden to the ends of the Earth. Two times in the opening verses of Genesis 9, God says, be fruitful and multiply; this is a direct reference back to His command in Eden. The implication is that, just as in Eden, Noah and his children and their descendants are to, as God’s family - His image bearers - His ambassadors, be faithful to Him and go to the ends of the Earth representing Him.
There is another piece here, too - that is this concept of the ark - a shelter from God’s wrath when God cleanses the world from evil.
God says He will never do this again by water. He does not say it won’t be done by fire...
In an expression of His hesed love, God patiently waited for us to be faithful...
And what did we do? The exact opposite...
We rebelled, refused to go to the ends of the earth, gathered together and attempted to make our own "Eden" with the tower of Babel.
This was our third strike… God’s patience has run out; He introduces varied languages and expels us from Babel around the world. God gave us what we wanted - not Him - and essentially divorces humanity.
God no longer expected faithfulness from humanity as a whole - we had already had a long track record of unfaithfulness.
Yet, God remains patient and unchanging; His hesed love remains.
God begins a new chapter...
God picks Abram and Sarai - an old, barren, couple, and promises to create a people for Himself out of them - a nations from which Kings will come forth, with numerous people, who will be God's ambassadors in the world - and through Abram’s descendants all people will be blessed.
Genesis 12:2–3 (ESV)
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 17:4–8 (ESV)
Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations... I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
No longer does God tell them to be “fruitful and multiply,” no, God is taking this situation into His own hands - He says, “I will make you exceedingly fruitful and into nations.” The idea being I will make you fruitful and put you out to the ends of the earth.
The overarching theme is that through faith, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
The sign of this covenant was circumcision. If you were part of the family (and male) you were to be circumcised.
God also says Abrahams descendants are going to suffer in bondage. He knows they are going to rebel, and He is not happy about it, but His loving plan is going forward regardless. He’s telling them to be faithful, yet they are going to be faithless.
While there are “bright spots” in the remainder of the Genesis narrative, there is plenty of lying, deception and disobedience. Ultimately God used their rebellious behavior to save them (story of Joseph), but, they end up being exiled into Egypt where they suffer for 400 years.
God remains patient and unchanging - His hesed loved remains. His plan to fulfill the Edenic covenant is proceeding.
Mosaic Covenant. God picks an elderly, soft-spoken, timid, one might say cowardly, descendant of Abraham to lead his people out of captivity - Moses.
The people reject Moses (and Aaron), Pharoah rejects Moses, God intervenes with the plagues. The people and Paharoah come around and God leads His people out of Egypt. At Sinai, God makes a written covenant - a covenant that leaves no doubt - about what God expects of His people. How they should live, how they should behave - toward one another and outsiders - how they are to interact with Him.
Exodus 19:5–6 (ESV)
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’
Now we see, with this covenant, that the Israelites are to be a kingdom of priests. What is the role of a priest? To be a mediator between God and men. God is saying be faithful to me - I have this covered. If the people are faithful, they will be blessed; if they are unfaithful, they will be cursed.
But, the people, yet again, rebel and reject God. He remains faithful, they remain faithless.
God does not abandon or reject them, His chesed character remains. His Edenic plan is still in the works.
In the Book of Judges, we see how the Israelite’s faithlessness plays out. The people end up in a cycle of sin and repentance.
Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.
Eventually this culminates with the Israelites rejecting God as their King and appointing Saul to be their King instead of God.
And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.
And… shockingly, things end up going bad under Saul.
God does not abandon them, His chesed character remains. He remains faithful while they remain faithless… God’s Edenic plan still remains in place, but now God needs to correct the “king” issue. God is the only true King.
Enter (stage left) an unassuming young shepherd named David...
We don’t have time for an in-depth discussion of David, his triumphs, and his failures, but suffice it to say, David was a man who, despite his flaws, was unflinchingly faithful to God. Through David and his descendants, God is yet again going to put His Edenic Covenant plan back on track and restore the rightful Kingship.
2 Samuel 7:12–17 (ESV)
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love (hesed) will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”
This covenant was conditional - faithfulness brings blessing, faithlessness brings curse.
There were some bumps, but, in general, things go pretty good under David, and as God promised, despite an attempted coup by one of David’s sons, Solomon sat on David’s throne, built a house for God, and God was with him. But despite God’s faithfulness toward Solomon, Solomon was not faithful toward God. One of his first acts was to make a marriage alliance with the Pharoah of Egypt and he “took” Pharoah’s daughter and brought her to Jerusalem. Yet, scripture tells us that “Solomon loved the Lord.” But, later during Solomon’s life, he abandoned God,
For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.
This resulted in God tearing the Kingdom away from Solomon’s descendents, save one tribe - Judah - for the sake of David and God’s promise to him.
After this point, things go downhill quickly. The Kingdom divides into two - the northern tribes, now the kingdom of Israel, going their own way (a very bad and rebellious way) and the one tribe left for David’s descendants, now the kingdom of Judah, doing the same thing. They continue their downward spiral (like what happened during the time of the judges) which ultimately leads to their being conquered and exiled into Babylon.
Still, God does not abandon them, His chesed character remains. He remains faithful while they remain faithless...
In Hosea we see this:
Hosea 6:4–7 (ESV)
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love (hesed) is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love (hesed) and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.
It is at this time we seen the entry of the prophet Jeremiah. Things are tumultuous during Jeremiah's time, to say the least.
Edenic covenant, broken
Noahdic covenant, broken
Abrahamic covenant, broken
Mosaic covenant, broken
Davidic covenant, broken
Note - all of these were covenants with faithfulness at their core.
All were broken by human unfaithfulness.
BUT GOD… one of the most awesome phrases… BUT GOD… enter the New Covenant! All of a sudden we have prophets speaking the Word of God hearkening back to what Moses alluded to in Deuteronomy
And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
(Go read all of Jeremiah 31)
Jeremiah 31:3 (ESV)
I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness (hesed) to you.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Wow… This is like God saying, “I’ve been faithful, I’ve been patient, you haven’t, so I’m going to radically change things up - we’re going to have a new covenant that isn’t going to rely on you - it’s going to be Me. I will fulfill it with myself to open the way for you, a way for you to be faithful to me. If someone chooses to be faithful to me, I’m going to write my law in their hearts (what does this remind you of? maybe the indwelling of the Holy Spirit?). I’m going to forgive their iniquity (those who are faithful). I’m going to forgive their sin (those who are faithful). They aren’t going to need to say to one another - know God - because they already will - no matter who they are.
The implied message here is that God is going to have His faithful family who will be his ambassadors, who will be His nation of priests to the whole world. Who will be led by a King from David’s line. A people who will be fruitful (love, joy, …) and multiply.
This all sounds great! But how???
By this point we have a very consistent, horrible, track record when it comes to faithfulness. There is not a single covenant of faithfulness that we have kept.
BUT GOD - God is faithful… and can assuredly stay faithful to Himself...
Luke 3:23–38 (ESV)
Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, ... the son of David... the son of Abraham... the son of Noah... the son of Adam, the son of God.
The New Covenant spoken of by Jeremiah is fulfilled by Jesus and satisfies all the prior covenants:
Davidic Covenant Fulfilled: God ruling on David’s throne. (remember problem of Saul - that’s fixed)
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
The Mosaic Covenant Fulfilled: A nation of priests going out in the world.
Hebrews 2:16–18 (ESV)
For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he [Jesus] helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he [Jesus] had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
1 Peter 2:9–10 (ESV)
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his [Jesus’] own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him [Jesus] who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
The Abrahamic Covenant Fulfilled: Blessing of the families of the world through faith.
Galatians 3:5–9 (ESV)
Does he [Jesus] who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
The Noahdic Covenant Fulfilled: Salvation by God to reinstate the Edenic covenant.
Ephesians 2:8–10 (ESV)
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his [Jesus’] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
And, last but certainly not least, the Edenic Covenant… This one we are still waiting for...
knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Revelation 7:9–10 (ESV)
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb [Jesus], clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Revelation 21:1–5 (ESV)
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He [Jesus] will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he [Jesus] who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
So, this New Covenant upholds all of the prior covenants - covenants we violated by our rebellion, our sin, but that were faithfully satisfied by Jesus.
Maybe you are saying to yourself, “that’s kinda neat, but so what?” To that question I would respond, “What was at the heart of all of the prior covenants - from Eden to David?” This concept of Hesed love and faithfulness.
Proverbs 19:22 (ESV)
What is desired in a man is steadfast love...
What was God’s complaint in Hosea
Hosea 6:4 (ESV)
What shall I do with you? ... Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away.
God wants our hesed love - that is what He wanted in Eden, with Noah, Abraham, Moses and David- all of these covenants were directed toward our returning to God with hesed love - hesed loyalty - believing loyalty. This is the New Covenant - remember, it is conditional, our forgiveness is conditioned on returning to God in faith (like the Prodigal son)- it is about our believing loyalty.
You and I access the blessings of the New Covenant by having hesed toward Jesus. By believing Him and in the work He did on our behalf at the cross. By believing He rose from the grave defeating death. By valuing Him above all else. By trusting in Him alone. By placing our eternal hope in Him. That is how you are saved - returning to God through Jesus with believing loyalty.
If you’ve never done that, I invite you to chose Jesus - not your own works, not your belief that you are somehow a good person - recognize that you are a rebel, a sinner, and that you stand guilty before a Holy God. Trust in Jesus - that He satisfied the penalty for your guilt - and turn to Him in faith and follow Him loyally (not perfectly - loyally) for the rest of eternity.
So… to answer the question, “Why does God save us?” Because He is a God of unchanging hesed love who doesn’t allow us to thwart His plans. His original intent was for a global Eden where He dwelt with His people, and He is going to have His global Eden where He dwells with His people. We were part of God’s plan from the beginning, and God does not change, so we are saved, despite our sin, because of the:
consistent, ever-faithful, relentless, constantly-pursuing, lavish, extravagant, unrestrained, furious hesed love of God.
Last week Tad explained how God can save us while satisfying both His justice and mercy; Now we know why God saves us. And it is all about the hesed love of God.
Pray scripture back to God - Heavenly Father, we thank you that your...
1 Corinthians 13:4–8 (ESV)
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
Amen.