The Problems and Potential of Preaching Ḥesed

This article was first published by the Living Pulpit (www.pulpit.org) on August 2, 2013. Special thanks to them for permission to publish it here. Individual subscriptions are free--check it out!

The preacher’s problem is two-fold: first, how to help today’s hearers understand the ancient encounters with God and, second, how to communicate the significance of those encounters in a sermon that offers, anew experience with God? When Abraham sliced farm animals in half and passed a torch and smoking pot between them (Gen 15), modern hearers struggle to sense the transcendence of that encounter. Songs and weeping over the foundation laying for a new temple may seem foreign when new churches open and close often in the United States (Ezra 3:10-13). The Psalmist’s description of God corking the waters of the sea in a bottle may cause more head scratching than heart changing (Ps 33:7). What is a preacher to do?

Preaching the Hebrew word ḥesed (say khesed) can be a problem of translation but has the potential for encountering God anew. It is perhaps best known in English as “steadfast love” (NRSV), “love” (NIV), “goodness” (KJV) and “great loyalty” (CEB) in a creed-like statement that occurs throughout the Hebrew Bible (Exod 34:6; see Num 14:18; Neh 9:17; Ps 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2): “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. The variety of English translations is a clue that ḥesed is not an easy word to convey, and, if difficult to translate, then a challenge to craft a sermon that helps hearers experience God’s Word. The abundance of the word (over 250 times in the OT), especially in these creedal formulas, suggests that ḥesed is a central characteristic of God; it is worth our time trying to understand and use it in the 21st century.

Obligation and Love
 

All uses of ḥesed go back to a concept best expressed as “obligation.” That may be a surprise for those who relate ḥesed mainly to “steadfast love”! Love may be an overused, impoverished word in English, sometimes reduced to express a sentimental feeling. But in the relationship of parent and child, the word “love” communicates more than feelings: my love for my child obliges me to act for her well-being. It is “steadfast love” demonstrated in action over time.

Four aspects are important: (1) Ḥesed describes an action within a relationship of mutual obligation between two parties whose lives are intertwined and interdependent. (2) Stronger than social ties, ḥesed refers to God and humans honoring covenantal obligations. (3) God’s faithful action begins in acts of creation. (4) While human beings may fail on their side of the relationship, but God never fails. Each of these aspects deserves a story to help us understand ḥesed.

Action not Feeling
 

Pharaoh’s cup-bearer showed ḥesed when he told Pharaoh that Joseph can interpret his dreams. Joseph and Pharaoh’s cup-bearer met in prison (Gen 40:1-15). They each displeased their masters and, as a result, shared the diet and dialog of imprisonment. Their lives became further intertwined when the cup-bearer shared his dream and Joseph interpreted it to mean that the cup-bearer will return to serve Pharaoh. Joseph requested, “remember me when it is well with you; please do me the kindness (ḥesed) to make mention of me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this place” (Gen 40:14). Joseph asks the cup-bearer to act on his behalf to demonstrate ḥesed. At first, the cup-bearer forgot his obligation but at the right time he remembered (Gen 40:23; 41:9-13). Ḥesed is the action of speaking up to Pharaoh on Joseph’s behalf. This a story that “preaches!” God may work wonders even through promises almostforgotten but finally enacted!

God and Humans Bound in Covenant
 

The strange ritual of slicing farm animals in half is all about a covenantal relationship between God and Abraham (Gen 15:1-20). Ancient kings made treaties by dividing animals and walking through them as a symbol of how the two parties’ lives were intertwined, as if saying, “If I break this treaty, let me be cut in two like these animals.” God showed ḥesed-- to Abraham by using that ceremonial act to seal the divine promise God made to Abraham.

Abraham’s servant appealed to this obligation while looking for a wife for Isaac (Gen 24). “O LORD, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love (ḥesed) to my master Abraham” (24:12). The servant did not appeal to his own relationship to God but called upon the God “of my master Abraham,” the one who received the covenant. God promised Abraham to be the father of many nations; the servant called on God to keep that promise.

God does keep promises! Abraham’s servant asked God that the girl who gives him water be the wife for Isaac. When Rebekah provided hospitality, the servant worshiped God, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love (ḥesed)…” (Gen 24:27).

God’s action also intertwined Abraham and Rebekah’s father, Bethuel. Abraham’s servant calls on this new mutual obligation when he asks Bethuel to allow Rebekah to be Isaac’s bride. This is ḥesed again, now translated as “deal loyally”: “Now then, if you (Bethuel) will deal loyally (ḥesed) and truly with my master, …” (Gen 24:49). The point is that God keeping the covenantal obligation to Abraham creates further intertwined lives, mutual obligations, and opportunities to show steadfast love.

This should sound familiar: God intertwines the divine life with the human life (can someone say, “Jesus”?), God keeps the promise that leads people to praise, and a new community is born with intertwined lives and an obligation to one another.

Creation shows God’s Steadfast Love
 

Creation itself is an expression of God’s ḥesed. Psalm 33 describes, “He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love (ḥesed) of the Lord” (Ps 33:5). How is it full of ḥesed? Because the sky and the sun, moon, and stars that dazzle mortals are evidence of God’s steadfast love: “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle; he put the deeps in storehouses.” (Ps 33:6-7). To the eyes of faith, the order of creation and limits on the forces of chaos provide evidence of the Creator’s faithful action.

God’s Faithfulness and Human Unfaithfulness
 

Human beings do not always follow through with their obligations to God. Solomon asked for wisdom (1 Kings 3:9), but forced his own people into slave labor to build God’s temple. Dissent and revolt followed (1 Kings 5:13; 12:4). He made a Hall of Justice, but also made a house for Pharoah’s daughter, a foreign bride who led to idolatry (1 Kings 7:8; 11:1-8; see Deut 17:17). Solomon was not faithful to his obligations to God or his people.

God’s faithfulness shines even brighter next to the guttering candle of the people’s leader. There is no small irony when Solomon prays, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or earth beneath, keeping covenant and steadfast love (ḥesed) for your servants who walk before you with all their heart” (1 Kings 8:23). Solomon invokes the language of mutual obligation (God keeps covenant; servants walk with all their heart) but he has not walked in that way. The refrain, “God’s steadfast love endures forever” (1 Chr 16:34, 41; 2 Chr 5:13; 7:3, 6; 20:21; Ps 100:5; 106:1; 107:1; Jer 33:11), is heard from many tongues. It is a drumbeat of the people in response to God’s mighty deeds in Psalm 136. It sounds even when Jerusalem and her temple has been destroyed because of the unfaithfulness of her leaders (Lam 3:22, 32).

Potential for the Preacher
 

The preacher can tell those stories, sound that drumbeat, and sing the song about God’s steadfast love that soared over the broken temple and promises. When Ezra returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, he and the people had a renewed sense of how their lives were intertwined with God. Laying the foundation demonstrated both God’s action on their behalf and the people’s renewed action towards God. We feel their joy and why they would sing, “For God is good! For his steadfast love endures forever towards Israel” (Ezra 3:11)!

The problem of preaching ḥesed is solved and its potential is reached by avoiding the abstract word “love” and instead telling the stories of God and God’s people in action. I’ve shared a few; more can be found in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Micah and Zechariah—and in the stories of believers today who trust their lives are intertwined with the God who made them, who is faithful even when they are faithless, who creates a community of actions that show steadfast love.