Chesed - kindness

Chesed, chen, rachamim – kindness, mercy, favor


Balthasar goes on to describe the nature of the OT covenant. He does it by using several Hebrew words that in some cases give the concept a flavor that has been altered or nuanced differently through translation. One of these words is chesed.

Quoting from pages 159 and 160:

“Chesed belongs primarily to the sovereign Lord who establishes the alliance, in this sense the word means … benevolence, grace, love; but following on from this, the inferior partner who enters the covenant must live in accordance with the favor which has been bestowed on him, he must … reflect it back and order his general behavior … in keeping with chesed.”

This conduct appropriate to the favor bestowed must be based on the root of the covenant being “a personal, benevolent, loving attitude that indicates and opens up a sphere of mutual trust.”

“Naturally, in the alliance between God and Israel, it is only God who can show chesed … God offers man his grace like a gift to a bride so that the only possible response of man to God is the free gift of his heart.”

“… chesed cannot be thought of without the idea of reliability and truthfulness, (emeth), and … salvation and pacification (shalom)” these are closely related to chesed. “To appeal to God’s chesed does not mean merely to cry out to his grace, but also to remind him of his covenantal fidelity by giving signs of repentance and conversion which allow God to see that one still stands by this covenant of faithfulness. One dares to remind God of his fidelity to the covenant and to depend on this as something that is already present by grace … the entire mutuality of the alliance rests on the originally one-sided initiative of God’s grace … especially when the man who has sinned has once seen that he has no right to God’s mercy (rachamim) … a new and free bestowal of God’s grace is necessary in order for the relationship of chesed and emeth to be restored.”

I find the warmth, protection and love offered by God in his covenant very comforting. Being a sinner though, I might be a bit sheepish about reminding God of his promised faithfulness.