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Chesed

In today’s western religious culture we hear much about the character traits of hwhy. We especially hear much about his goodness, kindness and faithfulness. Yet it seems that we primarily hear about these character traits as being something ‘new’, as in new with the coming of the Messiah. As believers in the Messiah of Yisrael who are seeking to return to the Hebrew roots of our faith we need to be studious to inform ourselves what the Bible has to say about these character traits in hwhy.

I’d like to expound upon one of the words used in the Tanak that describe an aspect of the Father’s character, chesed. From this Hebrew word we derive the English words goodness and kindness.

dsx (Chet-Samech-Dalet)

chêsêd

BDB Definition:

1) Goodness, kindness, faithfulness

1. A reproach, shame

Part of speech: Masculine noun

From the Hebrew shoresh(root):

dsx (Chet-Samech-Dalet)

châsad

BDB Definition:

1) to be good, be kind

2a) (Hithpael) to show kindness to oneself

2) to be reproached, be ashamed

1a) (Piel) to be put to shame, be reproached

Part of Speech: verb

Kindness

Gen 24:12-14 And he said, “hwhy, Elohim of my master Abraham, please cause her to meet before me this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham.“See, I am standing here by the fountain of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. “Now let it be that the young woman to whom I say, ‘Please let down your jar to let me drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and let me water your camels too,’ let her be the one whom You have appointed for Your servant Yitzhak. And let me know by this that You have shown kindness to my master.”

When Abraham sent his long-time trusted servant and friend Eliezer to Charan to find a wife for his son Yitzchak, his servant seemed to feel intimidated by the prospect of finding a wife for his master’s son from a people he had not known.

What else was there to do in a situation like this but to follow his master’s example and call upon the Mighty one of Abraham and seek His favor in this matter? Notice that this servant never forgot his station; he did not seek favor for himself, but rather asked the Master of Abraham to show His servant Abraham chesed – or kindness – once again, as he had seen hwhy do so many times before.

Exo 20:6

…but showing kindness to thousands, to those who love Me and guard My commands.

Here we see hwhy making a clear statement about the chesed – or kindness – aspect of His character. Please note the last part of that statement, that directly relates loving hwhy with guarding his commands.

Exo 34:6-7

And hwhy passed before him and proclaimed, “ hwhy,, hwhy, an El compassionate and showing favour, patient, and great in kindness and truth, watching over kindness for thousands, forgiving crookedness and transgression and sin, but by no means leaving unpunished, visiting the crookedness of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

Goodness

Psa 25:7

Do not remember the sins of my youth, and my transgressions; According to Your kindness remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O hwhy.

King David is appealing to the goodness aspect of the character of hwhy in seeking forgiveness for his past sins. This is similar to – and is probably inspired from – Moshe’s intercession on behalf of Am Yisrael to stay the hand of hwhy from destroying His people, beseeching the Father for the Father’s sake, so that others who are observing the interaction of the Father with His chosen people won’t draw the wrong conclusion about the character and motives of hwhy in bringing His people out of Mitsri bondage.

Psa 33:5

Loving righteousness and right-ruling; the earth is filled with the goodness of hwhy.

In this passage of scripture we see that the earth itself and all that it contains testify of the goodness or loving-kindness of the Father. For He sustains all things, recreating or maintaining our environment so that it is habitable and relatively safe to live here!

Messianic Application

Luke 11:39-41

And the Master said to him, “Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is filled with greed and wickedness. “Mindless ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? “But give in kindness of that which is within, and see, all are clean to you.

The above passage from Luke is an example of the application of the verb chasad, the shoresh (root) of chesed. We are being admonished here to prioritize kindness or chesed above the outward acts of piety.

Gal 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness trustworthiness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no Torah.

Commentary

As believers in the Hebrew Messiah, we find that – to paraphrase Melech Sh’lomo, ‘…there is nothing new under the sun.’ Chesed is used throughout scripture to denote the kindness – even loving-kindness, mercy, and goodness of the Father. Since the Father is the same yesterday, today and forever, we can believe and trust that the character that the Ivri word chesed denotes has been part of the Father’s character from the beginning.This understanding was deeply ingrained into the hearts of Yehoshua and His talmidim, and is reflected throughout the writings of the Brit Chadasha.

Considering that the root of chesed is a verb or action word and means to show kindness to others, we as followers of the Ivri haMashiach are to emulate this character of hwhy in our dealings with each other in the assembly of Yisrael, as well as in our dealings with those outside of the faith. In so doing we shine the light of our Messiah in a dark and dying world.