Steadfast Love

This month is all about 4 key words in the Bible. I selected these specific words because I think they each uniquely reveal a key biblical theme that helps us understand the Bible better. 

While theologians love to debate what the “main theme” of the Bible is, I could never narrow it down to just one thing. I think it’s helpful to understand that Scripture puts forward many themes for us to recognize, and one way it does this is through repetition. Specifically, it does it through repeated words.  

The purpose of this series is to observe these 4 key words in context and discuss their implications for us today. Hopefully, you’ll start noticing these words when you read the Bible and they’ll add a richness and depth to your biblical knowledge!

In Part 1, we looked at the word Lord. 

Now, in Part 2, we will turn to steadfast love (yes, this is two words in English, but it’s one in Hebrew; and please give me credit for lining this up with Valentine’s Week 🙂).

You might be familiar with the common misconception that the God of the Old Testament is angry and mean, but the God of the New Testament is loving and kind. To be fair, there is a lot of violence in the Old Testament compared to the New Testament, but God’s steadfast love dispels the idea that He is different in the Old Testament than the New Testament. Not only that, His steadfast love is one of the most important concepts in the Bible.

Explanation of Steadfast Love

The Hebrew word hesed is translated in the ESV as “steadfast love” and occurs 240 times in the Old Testament (and 129 times in the Psalms alone!). This word means, “loving kindness; steadfast love; grace; mercy; faithfulness; goodness; devotion” (Strong’s #2617).

Why so many descriptors? Because it is difficult to capture its true essence in English. Strong’s explains it this way:

“The term is one of the most important in the vocabulary of Old Testament theology and ethics. In general, one may identify three basic meanings of the word, which always interact: “strength,” “steadfastness,” and “love.” Any understanding of the word that fails to suggest all three inevitably loses some of its richness. “Love” by itself easily becomes sentimentalized or universalized apart from the covenant. Yet “strength” or “steadfastness” suggests only the fulfillment of a legal or other obligation” (Strong’s, 93).

Devotion might be the best synonym for hesed because it implies commitment and love; and marriage might be the best example of it because there is a legal and relational aspect. 

Hesed encapsulates God’s faithful and loving commitment to His chosen people. And given how many times it occurs in the Old Testament, it is an undeniably important part of God’s character for us to understand. To say He is angry and mean in the Old Testament would be a blatant disregard for what the text says. God’s steadfast love to His people both drives and explains what He does and how He works throughout the Bible. 

Very often hesed is put together with “faithfulness” as it is in Yahweh’s self-revelation (how He describes Himself) in Exodus 34:6:

“The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness’…”

This points to God’s love and loyalty toward Israel that would be shown most obviously in His covenants with them. 

Sometimes Old Testament writers also put steadfast love together with “truth” like in Psalm 57:10:

“For Your lovingkindness (hesed) is great to the heavens 
And Your truth to the skies” (emphasis mine).

This is important to show that God is not a liar. He is trustworthy and His love (and every other attribute) can always be counted on. Just look at all the promises He fulfilled, including His promise to send us a Savior.

Noting Yahweh’s steadfast love and truth is significant given John’s observation of Jesus:

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) 

Jesus perfectly reveals God, including His steadfast love (John 14:9; Heb 1:3).

Examples and Response to God’s Steadfast Love

So, we can see evidence of God’s steadfast love throughout Scripture. And as I mentioned, it culminates in His commitment to send Jesus Christ to us–

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)

To observe God’s steadfast love throughout Old and New Testaments is to recognize His eternal, unchanging nature (immutability) (Ps 102:27; Heb 13:8).

To see God’s steadfast love throughout the Bible is also to witness His faithful commitment and love in action.

David recognized that God’s love actively pursued him:

“Surely goodness and lovingkindness (hesed) will pursue me all the days of my life, 
And I will dwell in the house of Yahweh forever.” (Ps 23:6, LSB)

Commenting on this verse, Abner Chou says, 

“But while Exodus shows how the Egyptians pursued the Israelites to cause them harm, David used “pursue” to demonstrate how God’s “goodness and lovingkindness” intensely pursue us to bless us. As David understood this reality about God, he expressed absolute satisfaction in Yahweh, his shepherd. Because Yahweh is the same today, we can rejoice and rest in the truth that He is our shepherd and that His goodness and lovingkindness ever pursue us” (Wonderful Things From Your Law).

Paul described God’s steadfast love to us this way in Romans:

“And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:28-31)

This is why the right response to God’s steadfast love is praise:

“Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” Ps 107:1

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, indeed!