Part 3 of 3: “God is not a Big Bad Meany” series
Once you embrace the truth that God is NOT a Big Bad Meany, you’ll start to see evidence throughout scripture.
Old Testament God?
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people use the phrase, “Old Testament God.” It is as if God used the years between Malachi and Matthew for rebranding. Those same people will argue that God never changes, and that Jesus is God. So if God never changes and Jesus is God, can there be a so-called “Old Testament God” who is radically different from the New Testament Jesus?
Chesed
Absolutely not. That means there must be evidence in Genesis through Malachi of a Jesus-like God, right? Right.
The Hebrew scriptures (most Christians call this the Old Testament) do testify to God’s compassion. The love of God in the Hebrew Scriptures is often expressed using the word חֶסֶד (transliterated chesed, hesed, or khesed). Usually translated “steadfast love” in the NRSV, chesed is much more than fondness or warm affection.
Dr. Katharine Sakenfeld on chesed
In fact, Old Testament scholar Katharine Sakenfeld argues that chesed is part of God’s liturgical, or formal, name.1 Picture an announcer at a party introducing each person who enters. In comes God. The announcer quotes Exodus 34:6-7 saying: “. . .The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation . . ..” Wow! Let’s pause here and imagine how many mistakes would have been avoided if Christians always introduced God this way. Yeah. It’s a lot.
God’s name is unchanging despite humanity’s behavior
Sakenfeld says, “This phrase is used only of God and expresses the overflowing greatness of that love that surpasses any human comparison.” She notes that this name is repeated throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, emphasizing the truth that God’s character is defined by chesed. Almost more importantly, Sakenfeld notes that God identifies as this name at times when the Hebrew people are not acting particularly godly.1
In fact, the initial announcement of God’s liturgical name in Exod 34 follows the great apostasy of the golden calf. The liturgical name is also used in the context of Israel’s unfaithful desire to return to Egypt rather than move forward toward the promised land (Num 14). Because of God’s abounding steadfast love, God simply cannot give up on this people.1
Chesed shows up over and over in the Hebrew Scriptures
So chesed. It’s a big part of who God is. Once you become aware of this chesed, you’ll start recognizing it all through the Old Testament. In Genesis 39:21, Joseph, following his imprisonment by Potiphar, recognizes God’s chesed when the jailer shows him favor. Moses sings of God’s chesed when God parts the waters and delivers the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians (Exod 15:13). Another example appears in the time of Ezra. It shows up when the Hebrews worship at the temple for the first time since its restoration. They “sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, ‘For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever towards Israel’” (Ezra 3:11; emphasis mine).
Isaiah also proclaims God’s chesed. Recall the rich, familiar words of chapter 55, which point to the abundance of God’s love and declare its life-giving power.
Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. (Isa 55:1-4; emphasis mine)
Again, in Micah 7, the prophet follows an aching lament with proclamation of chesed. Micah speaks of his own pain and the pain of the people of Israel and then God responds. Micah answers the response. He says, “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity, overlooking the sin of the few remaining for his inheritance? He doesn’t hold on to his anger forever; he delights in faithful love” (7:18, CEB; emphasis mine).2
Chesed in the Psalms
Of all the times chesed appears in the Hebrew Scriptures, almost half (127) are in the Psalms. Repeatedly, the psalmists declare God’s love.
In the 23rd psalm which many Sunday schoolers have memorized, chesed—translated as goodness and mercy—pursues the psalmist, relentless in its quest.
In Psalm 51:1, when confessing grief over his sin with Bathsheba, David calls upon God’s chesed. He pleads, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love.” David understands that his sin is so great, that only God’s great goodness could “blot” it out.
This theme continues in Psalm 86, a petition for help in time of trouble. Here, the writer expresses both personal need and confidence in God’s willingness to help. Verse 13 reads, “For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.” Even though this psalmist is faced with “a band of ruffians,” faith in God’s love sustains. “But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Theologian Walter Brueggemann says of this text, “The cluster of terms—merciful, gracious, slow to anger, steadfast love, faithfulness—together express Yahweh’s resilient, reliable commitment to Israel.”3
Walter Brueggemann on chesed
Brueggemann believes that the proclamation of Yahweh’s chesed is “Israel’s most extreme witness about God, and that this affirmation, or something like it, is everywhere assumed in the Old Testament.”4 Sakenfeld agrees that chesed is central to God’s character. She even suggests it is the prime motivator in God’s commitment to the Hebrew people. She says,
In sum, God’s steadfast love is foundational to God’s persistence in covenant relationship with Israel. It is intimately associated with help in any time of individual or communal distress, and in its abounding nature it is the fountain from which flows divine mercy and forgiveness.5
God’s people forget about chesed
As obvious as chesed is, don’t think for one second that God’s abiding love remained in the forefront of the minds of biblical people. Oh no! God’s own people forget about chesed with predictable regularity. Humanity is quick to call God out when it seems to them that God has fallen short of divine love. The Bible is full of complaints calling God to account when humans fail to see evidence of chesed. They cry out to God,
- “Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Ps 10:1) or
- “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Ps 13:1)
- The psalmists remind God of pending consequences: “To you, Lord, I call; my rock, do not refuse to hear me, for if you are silent to me I shall be like those who go down to the Pit. Hear the voice of my supplication, as I cry to you for help, as I lift up my hands towards your most holy sanctuary” (Ps 28:1-2).
- They suggest ways for God to proceed such as “Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me! Take hold of shield and buckler, and rise up to help me!” (Ps 35:1-2) and
- “Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the scheming of evildoers . . .” (Ps 64:1).
Honesty before God
On our best days, we might be shocked by the audacity of these writers. But let’s hold off on the indignation for a minute. Walter Brueggemann’s points out that when a psalmist rants against God
It is an act of bold faith on the one hand, because it insists that the world must be experienced as it really is and not in some pretended way. On the other hand, it is bold because it insists that all such experiences of disorder are a proper subject for discourse with God. There is nothing out of bounds, nothing precluded or inappropriate.6
Being honest before God is not something the average psalmist seems to avoid. Yet, after they share their frustration with God, the lamenters usually return to proclaiming God’s true character. Note Psalm 35:24 where the Psalmist says “Vindicate me, O Lord, my God, according to your righteousness . . .” (Ps 35:24). The writer knows that God’s righteousness is trustworthy and appeals to that characteristic for salvation.
For example, Psalm 10 which began so bleakly (above), closes quite differently. “O Lord, you will hear the desire of the meek; you will strengthen their heart, you will incline your ear to do justice for the orphan and the oppressed, so that those from earth may strike terror no more” (Ps 10:17-18). Psalm 13 does the same thing. “But I trusted in your steadfast love [chesed]; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.” (Ps 13:5-6). Out of their sorrow and despite their weariness with God, psalmists still speak what they know to be true: God’s chesed endures, even when circumstances suggest otherwise.
Jesus: the embodiment of chesed?
So does Jesus also embody chesed? Of course! But the record of Christ’s love for humanity is written in Greek, not Hebrew, so we’ll need a whole new vocabulary. More on that in the next series.
Really! God is NOT a Big Bad Meany
- Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, “Love in the OT,” New Interpreter’s Bible Dictionary (Nashville: Abingdon Press): NP.
- Curiously, the NRSV translates chesed in this verse as “showing clemency.” The CEB renders it “faithful love,” the NIV “showing mercy,” and the NKJV “in mercy.”
- Walter Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 2005), NP.
- Brueggemann, Theology, NP.
- Sakenfeld, “Love,” NP.
- Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms (Minneapolis: Augusburg Publishing House, 1984), 52.
