CHESED AND THE COMPASSION OF GOD
The Rev. Harold Shepherd, CD, M.A., S.T.M., LL.B., LL.M., Ph.D.
Sermon from October 2, 2005

-Exodus 15:13: According to the Song of Moses after the exodus: “In your steadfast love you led the people whom you redeemed; you guided them by your strength to your holy abode.”
-Deuteronomy 5:10: God says that he shows “steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
-Joshua 2:12: After Rahab saves two spies, she says: “Since I have dealt kindly with you, swear to me by the Lord that you in turn will deal kindly with my family.”
-Judges 8:35: After Gideon’s death, Israel relapsed: “they did not exhibit loyalty to the house of Gideon in return for all the good that he had done to Israael.”
-Ruth 1:8: Naomi says to Ruth after her husband’s death: “Go back to your mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you...”
-Ruth 3:10: Boaz says to Ruth when she offers to marry him because he is her late husband’s next of kin: “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter, this last instance of your loyalty is better than the first; you have not gone after young men...”
-Joel 2:13: “Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”
-Proverbs 3:3: “Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and of people.”
-Isaiah 54:8: “In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer.”
-Isaiah 54:10: “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.”
-Zechariah 7:9: “Render true judgements, show kindness and mercy to on another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor, and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.”
-Micah 6:8: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness [chesed] and to walk humbly with your God?”
-Micah 7:18: “He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in showing clemency.”
-Examples of Hesed can be found in the passages dealing with “God’s preferential option for the poor”::
-Those permitted to eat from municipal store houses are: Levites, resident aliens, orphans and widows (Deuteronomy 14: 29).
-Deuteronomy 10:18: God “executes justice for the orphan and the widow and loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
-Deuteronomy 24:27: “You shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice; you shall not take a widow’s garment in pledge. Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there, therefore I command you to do this.
-Deuteronomy 24:19: “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings.”
-Hebrew teaching about Chesed underlies New Testament theology. Examples include:
-James 1: 27: “This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows -in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
-The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)
-Mark 12:30-31: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is ths, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
-There is no legal or contractual obligation to act, nor does one receive reward. .The obligation to act is moral. .

R. Bultmann in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament: [Chesed] denotes an attitude arising out of mutual relationship, e.g. between relatives, hosts and guests, masers and servants, those in covenant relation. It is an act rather than a disposition, with trust as the basis and loyalty as the appropriate attitude. An element of obligation is thus intrinsic, e.g. between ruler and subject. On the part of a superiors, hesed also includes grace.