LOVING KINDNESS OR STEADFAST LOVE OF OUR GREAT GOD.
In grievous, adverse circumstances, as in Genesis 39:21, Joseph enjoyed the Lord’s favour while being unjustly confined to an Egyptian prison. Previously, he had been relegated into the slave segment of Potiphar’s house, yet the Lord made all that he did to prosper. This same Lord lavished His ’checed ’or favour upon this godly young man. God’s generosity is unlimited where His children experience trials and suffering . Millions of the Lord’s people are imprisoned or restricted due to their faith in our Lord Jesus. If you are cramped or constricted, be strong inwardly, recalling God’s lavish care for Joseph. Think on this.
The following verse revealed the practical blessing which Joseph enjoyed, ‘The keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing.‘ Asah, a Genesis, creative expression, describes Joseph’s activity as related to the Lord’s doing. ‘The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s hand, because the Lord was with Him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.’ (v23) Oh, what a delightful illustration of the checed of the Lord.
In Genesis 24:27, Abraham commissioned his chief servant, Eliezer, to seek a bride for his beloved son, Isaac. Distant relatives would show mercy ( checed ) to Abraham in his old age. When Eliezer objected, Abraham responded, ‘The Lord God of heaven , who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred who spoke to me and swore to me saying, to your descendants I give this land, he will send His Angel ( that is the eternal Lord Jesus )and you shall take a wife for my son from there. ( v7) Eliezer trusted his God, ‘Let it be that the young woman to whom I say, ‘Please let down your pitcher that I may drink- let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I will know you have shown kindness ( checed ) to my master. (v14) This is a beautiful type of our Lord Jesus, in sending his Holy Spirit into the far country, that is, the world, to search for HIS bride. We are slow to learn even where the Lord favours us. Do you constantly delight in Him ?
Rebekah overflowed in joy, having prepared food and water for the camels, causing Eliezer to praise the Lord for His faithfulness. He bowed his head and worshipped. ’Blessed be the Lord God of my father Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy ( that beautiful ‘checed’ again) and his truth to my master.’ Please notice how mercy and truth are married. Indeed, ‘mercy and truth are met together: (Psalm 85) Walk in the Truth and His mercy will sustain you. ‘Then his delightful testimony, ’As for me, being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren:’ (v27) an astonishing feat from one nation and culture to another. Learn that when we are in the way, the Lord accompanies us and pours out His rich, treasured mercy. Expect miracles!
Hari Budaja joined the Indonesian teachers in the study of English in our home.
He pushed his bike 16 kms in a tropical downpour for the book about the Lord Jesus. He devoured it in 3 days. Hari repeated his reading in another few days. The Lord poured checed into his life. He pastored the Jakarta Baptist church.
Oxford Thesaurus defines ‘mercy’ as leniency (a lighter view); compassion (feeling of closeness ); forgiveness ( pardon demanding sacrifice ); pity ( gentle feeling); also forbearance, mildness, tenderheartedness, tolerance beneficence.
Exasperated, Moses climbed Mount Sinai with two tablets of stone, on seeing the idol worship of his people, ( Exodus 34:6,7) and dashing the first to the ground. Majestically, ‘The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord, by revealing some marvelous attributes to Moses. ‘The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful ( compassionate ) and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth; keeping mercy ( checed ) for thousands ( and individually for us ) forgiving iniquity and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and fourth generation.’ In recording His glorious attributes, compassion, favour, longsuffering, abundant virtue and truth, forgiveness of wrong-doing, and prolonging judgment to the third or even the fourth generation, His mercy ( checed) shines brightly. Who is a God like our God? Adore Him.
Daniel and associates were prisoners in Babylon’s heathen environment. Their noble behaviour would ever magnify their Lord- surely not by exotic foods and intoxicating wine. The eternal God watched over them, increasing faith and jealously preserving them. The bible records, ‘Now God had brought Daniel into favour (checed) and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs,‘ who approved and commended Daniel. Where our conduct satisfies our seniors, they regard us favorably . Promotion, increased trust and responsibility, relaxed attitudes, openness to the Christian message follow. Checed! This eternal principle should dominate our lives. Day after day, the Lord blessed our South East Asian hospital in Muslim territory, so that the Regent and his staff warmly accepted us.
The account of Ruth’s acceptance by her kinsman-Redeemer Boaz is a gripping love story in God’s word. (Ruth 2:20) When Boaz saw Ruth, he was attracted to this beautiful, noble woman. ‘Boaz said to her at meal-time, come here and eat of the bread, and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar‘. Did he realize her potential? She would become David’s great grandmother, and in direct human line of our Lord. Ruth was awakened to pray for David. My dear wife is a great grandmother times over- and how she prays for her dear ones! Just like Ruth.
The romance continued as ruth slept at his feet, discreetly covering him, preserving her chastity. Then boaz covenanted with her,
‘ Blessed are you of the Lord my daughter! You have shown more kindness ( checed is family loyalty) at the end than at the beginning. You did not go after the young men, whether rich or poor.’ do not fear. I will do for you all that you request. For all the people of my town know you are a virtuous woman.’ i will perform the duty of a kinsman. ( goel is kinsman redeemer. ) Boaz foreshadowed our Lord jesus’ seeking His bride. Christ is hidden in these precious chapters.
One of the bible’s great chapters, where the people nation-wide, heartily confess their sins is Nehemiah 9:32, and the governor exalts the Lord. ’Now therefore , our God, the great, the mighty, and awesome God who keeps covenant and mercy ( checed ), let not all the trouble seem little before You.’ Keeping Covenant includes ‘signing a treaty, creating an alliance or giving a pledge.’ Nehemiah pleads for the Lord’s honorable faithfulness, while performing mercy to those who have wronged their Lord. God’s character is stable.
The Oxford Thesaurus defines ‘covenant’ as a contract ( between eternal God and the receiver ) a treaty (as a cessation of rebellion); a pact ( peace offered); accord ( harmony as in political disputes ); a settlement ( legal conclusion); agreement ( dispute settlement ); pledge ( or intimate bond );warrant ( as a manufacturer’s guarantee ); undertaking ( promised supervision). This broadly portrays our covenant- keeping Lord, dispensing His mercy. His promise is sure.
The Lord showed His kindness to Esther in many ways before she had been accepted as King Ahasuerus’ wife. For example, her mentor, uncle Mordecai, had been carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon as in Esther 2:9,17. She had been nurtured in the faith of her fathers under the watchful eye of her godly uncle. Additionally, Esther was naturally favored, being ’lovely and beautiful’. God had prepared her for acceptance by the king. ’When the king’s command and decree were heard, and many young women were gathered at Shushan the citadel, under the custody of Hegai, Esther also was taken into the care of Hegai,’ the eunuch guardian of the women.’ Nobly, he had a protective role.
‘Now the young woman pleased him, and she obtained his kindness ( checed )so he readily gave beauty preparations to her, besides her allowance. Seven choice maid servants were provided for her from the king’s palace. And he moved her and her maidservants to the best place in the house of the women. God showed kindness through this steward of the women. ‘Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal palace in the tenth month.‘ The world’s greatest emperor showered ‘Checed’ in accepting her. ‘The king loved Esther more than all the other women and she obtained grace and favor ( checed ) in his sight more than all the virgins, evidenced by the royal crown upon her head, proclaiming her queen instead of Vashti.
Mordecai exposed the plot to execute the king; while Esther warned of the imminent danger of annihilating the Jewish race. The Lord’s checed. Our beloved Saviour liberated us from sin’s inevitable outcome in becoming our Substitute on Calvary. Such royal checed flowed to us from Calvary.
In his thanksgiving prayer, Solomon wrote of the steadfast love of his Lord in 2 Chronicles 7:3,6 . ‘When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering, and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. Understandably, the priests were overwhelmed for ‘They could not enter the house of the Lord , because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house’ Yes, it was unforgettable. Then God made known His character, ‘When all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord rested on and filled the temple, they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshipped and praised the Lord, saying, For HE is good, for His mercy ( checed) endures forever.’ A king’s face in the dust.
Notice how the Lord made Himself known: heavenly fire descended; the Lord’s Shekinah glory shone; prayer prostrated them to the earth; followed by their reverently owning God . Then His mercy (checed) reinforced their faith. The unchanging God did this for King Solomon. He will repeat this wonder when holy lives call on the Lord’s Name, adoring and magnifying His glorious Person.
Several Bible versions translate ‘checed’ as unfailing love, steadfast love or kindness as in Ezra 7:28. The former, ‘unfailing love’ is appropriate for King Artaxerxes has written half an entire chapter, releasing and equipping Ezra to proceed to and rebuild Jerusalem, the city of the great King. Remember a heathen king lavishly provided for a former slave to return home, and reconstruct a once-enemy city. ’Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, and has extended mercy (checed )to me before the king, and his counsellors, and before all the king’s mighty princes.’ God’s mercy, poured out from a heathen king, liberated Ezra, even when those rulers had captured the people of God. Ezra wrote, ’ I was encouraged as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me; and I gathered chief men of Israel to go up with me‘.
The steadfast love of our Lord has upheld many faithful servants, persecuted or tortured- and He will sustain you. Prove Him - as Ezra trusted Him.
The Oxford Thesaurus offers the following for steadfast love : Loyalty as a partner; faithfulness as a friend; devotion as an associate; committed as a true teacher; dependability as a guide; steadiness in attachment; staunchness as an ally. While our English language limits understanding of the word ‘checed‘, God’s checed is boundless.
Ezra testified on the gentle hand of the Lord, (9:9)‘ We were slaves . Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but he extended ’checed’ ( loving kindness in several versions ) to us in the sight of the kings of Persia to revive us, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. God’s nature in extending His hand will never be withdrawn despite slavery or poverty: He will revivify God’s people, purify God’s house, reconstruct ruined lives, and grant separation against ungodliness.
Our Lord told of Jonah and his incarceration in the belly of the great fish as a type of our Lord’s death, burial and rising again on the third day. (Jonah 2:8) Meanwhile Jonah warned the city of Nineveh to repent within forty days before divine judgment fell. He sulked while a conscience- stricken king and all his citizens repented. Such a mass turning from idolatry had not been previously recorded in God’s word. When the Lord prepared a gourd for his shelter from blistering heat, and while awaiting God’s devastating judgment to fall, a worm nibbled at his shelter. At loggerheads with his Lord: Jonah needed to repent.
‘It displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.’ God rage: becoming more observable ! He wanted to die rather than see these heathens bow to the living God. I’m glad Jonah called on the Name of the Lord. ‘Ah, Lord ‘, seeking to justify his sulkiness,‘ Was not this what I said when I was still in my country. Therefore, I fled earlier to Tarshish, (no shame for his rebellion ) for I knew that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in ’checed’, loving-kindness, one who relents from doing harm.’ (4:2) God’s Spirit included this huffiness in holy scripture. The prophet knew the character of God, but stubbornly rejected the Lord’s clear command: and then reluctantly evangelized the people of Babylon. We may know our Lord’s character: grace, mercy, not easily provoked, overflowing kindness; yet we often defy the Lord: so dangerous to play with God’s kind heartedness. No room for sullenness.
Hosea was shattered to find that his wife had been unfaithful to him, craftily concealing her prostitution ; her children were sired outside of their marriage. The Lord illustrated Israel’s faithlessness in such a personal way. In the midst of this infidelity, our Lord showed His trustworthiness, ‘It shall be that in that day, you will call me ‘My husband and no longer call me ‘My master.’ Trust-worthy, God covenanted with him. ’I will betroth you to Me for ever: yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice , in loving-kindness (checed) and mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.’ (2;19) Our Lord’s pure loyalty penetrated this sordid, miry atmosphere. In our western generation where 50% of marriages fail, we must discover in Christ His steadfast love: expressed in premarital chastity and marital faithfulness. Last generation, principal Alan Burrow, at medical peril, preached on this great theme at EBC. .
Micah asks ‘Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams (a lavish sacrifice) or ten thousands rivers of oil ( how pretentious to suggest)? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Only God’s dear Son could fulfill His demands ( as He did on Calvary ), dying for our cleansing and pardon. Then the prophet Micah unveils the purpose of his God, ‘ He has shown you, oh man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you- but to do justly, to love mercy, (checed) and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
‘Being justified by faith (as Martin Luther courageously trumpeted) is our only hope of doing justly. We can only love mercy when he has opened His treasure chest of checed , steadfast love or loving-kindness to enrich ourselves.
In the New Testament Greek, ‘mercy’ is near to the meaning of ‘checed’ of the Old Testament, translated as mercy, kindness or goodwill.
2 Timothy 1:16-18 expresses this truth 'The Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains ( would you and I shy clear of Paul, embarrassed by his clanging chains?) But when he arrived in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me. The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that day - and you know very well in how many ways he ministered to me at Ephesus.’
Onesiphorus showed God’s mercy when he displayed kindness ; bestowed goodwill on the apostle Paul; when he reinvigorated him, was unashamed at his handcuffs; when he sought out the apostle; and was reunited with him. These are practical evidences of ‘checed’ in the life of each believer in our Lord Jesus.
In Zechariah’s remarkable prophecy, he prophesied that his son, the Baptist, would b e called the prophet of the highest; he will go before the face of the Lord, to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of sins, through the tender mercies of our God, by which the Dayspring from on high has visited us. Tender mercies is a medical term, linked with the spleen, speaking of compassion, bowels of mercy, benevolence and pity. The mercies link with the visitation of the Dayspring, our beloved Lord.
When Paul challenged us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God as our reasonable service, he appealed to the mercies of God.
God has a right to possess our bodies as Creator and a deeper right as our Redeemer. We are not our own, we are bought with a price. Yet, he gently displays heart compassion, emotion and longing to vindicate His stand.
Paul’s Ephesian letter tells of being rich in mercy; possible only because God is wealthy in Christian virtue and eternal possessions. The opulent are often unmerciful. It depended on his great love, with which he loved us- indeed that tenderness took Him to Calvary. God’s overflowing mercy has resurrection overtures for it made us alive together with Christ even when dead in trespasses. It also links with heaven’s throne room for, raised together with Him, He has made us sit together with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. From riches in mercy to exceeding riches of his grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. ( Ephesians 2:4-7) His mercy endures forever.
2 Samuel 9 tenderly relates the loving-kindness of King David for Mephibosheth. a crippled son of his well-loved Jonathan, David summoned Ziba from Saul’s house. The king asked, ‘Where can I show the kindness of God to him?’ (v3) Chesed is ‘benevolence, goodwill, favour, mercy, loyalty, unfailing love, or covenant love.’ Jonathan’s nurse had dropped his son, who was crippled by the fall; as the fall in the garden of Eden spiritually handicapped every man and woman. David searched, ‘Where is he‘? ‘He is in the house of Machir,( meaning sold as a slave, without rights,) who was the son of Ammiel, meaning the people of God;’ how much we need His checed. ‘He lived at Lodebar‘, meaning ‘without pasture and crops’, drought-impaired, downcast, despairing of life. Check the meaning of bible names, and unearth hidden treasures. Checed is his only hope and our’s.
Terrified, He fell at David’s feet, sprawling clumsily in obeisance. (v6) David consoled him, ‘Fear not. I will surely show checed, ( loving kindness) to you for Jonathan, your father’s sake and will restore you all the land of Saul, your father; and ’you shall eat bread at my table continually.’ I will shower my loving-kindness on you and restore your property by inheritance. Mephibosheth’s heart leapt. So should our’s.
Our Lord has shown ’checed’ in cleansing us, adopting us into his family and giving us spiritual rights and privileges, which God’s people may disregard or ignore. Mephibosheth, a ‘dead dog’, awkward still, yet received royally.
Peter reinforced this truth, ‘You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people: to show forth the praises of Him, who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.’ (1 Peter 2:9)
Bill was a card-carrying Communist, until he met the risen Christ at a Billy Graham rally. When told he was only a beggar, passing on stale bread to a starving wretch, the Lord strengthened him with this glorious truth from 1Peter. Bill became one of God’s competent soul-winners. How do you stand with my Lord?
Finally, prince Mephibosheth is home in Jerusalem, eating continually at the king’s table; despite being ‘lame on both his feet.’ At the resurrection, he would be perfectly restored I’ll look out for him in heaven. ‘Mephibosheth!’
Are you a king and a priest? Or a pauper or beggar?
Have you entered into your inheritance in the Lord? Does your Lord feed you His special morsels daily? Do you have rich fellowship in prayer, moment by moment? Do you live in His loving-kindness: and daily experience the living Christ? Yes: or no?
You are a child of the King. Heaven is your’s.