Hesed as our calling

Music is one the best ways to remember something.

And I think this verse will forever be tattooed in my brain through the song Micah 6:8.

“ 🎼 He has has shown thee, (he has shown thee) Oh man (Oh man)...” for those of you who know the song, you will now have that in your head the rest of your day. And for those of you don’t, well, you can listen to it here.

Micah 6:8 is one of the more famous verses of the old testament because it lays forth a clear groundwork of what God desires in his creation.

To do justice, to love mercy (hesed) and to walk with God. 

Hesed as mercy

The last 2 days we have discussed two “definitions” of hesed: namely covenant loyalty and steadfast love.

And today we see another definition — mercy.

And it is now that I want to introduce an informal definition of this word, this character trait of God. It comes from the book mentioned on day 1 of this week, Inexpressible: Hesed and the Mystery of God's Lovingkindness by Michael Card.

And I find it beautiful.

Hesed: when the person from whom I have a right to expect nothing gives me everything.

God showed mercy to us, despite us having wronged him in every possible way. We could expect nothing, and yet he still chose to give us everything.

He chose mercy.

Hesed as our calling

And that extremely high requirement is what God asks of his people.

We often hear the phrase as Christians, ‘we love because he first loved us.’ I think a more appropriate phrasing would be:

‘we give everything to the person who has no right to expect anything from us, because God gave us everything when we had no right to expect anything from him.’

Or shorter said: We show hesed, because God first showed hesed to us. 

Our God

Mercy, steadfast love, covenant loyalty, and so much more.

This is the God whom he get to enter into relationship with.

This is the God of hesed.

This is who he has revealed himself to be, and we can trust in it.

So my prayer for you as we end this week, is that you would come to intimately know and trust the God of hesed. 

That you would believe this is who he is, not just in your head, but in your soul.

Until next time,

Be Blessed,

Aaron

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