Hesed- A Portrait of God

While I was tending the garden at Little Portions Monastery, I heard a voice from above. I expected that the voice might say, "Robert...Robert" but instead the voice said "What was your name again?" No, it wasn't God but John Michael Talbot showing Christian singer/songwriter Michael Card around the construction of the new monastery. Once John Michael had been prompted to recall my name, he told me I should go to the retreat that Michael Card was leading at the Little Portion Retreat Center on the other side of the mountain. Michael Card and John Michael Talbot had met several years ago and recorded an album "Brother to Brother". Since that time, Michael Card has been doing retreats at the Little Portion Retreat center. I heard that there was good food. Friday was fast day at the Monastery. And I had heard a voice from above. So I went to the retreat.
The topic was "Hesed- A Portrait of God" and it was a combination of Michael Cards singing and teaching. I was hooked on the first night and stayed at the retreat till Saturday afternoon. Michael Card's premise is the Hebrew word that is used to describe God throughout the Old Testament, 'Hesed', testifies to the same gracious God revealed in Jesus Christ in the New Testament. 'Hesed' literally means "Steadfast love". It is that unmerited, undeserved, un-earnable love that we call grace. It is "hesed" that allows God to continue to be in relationship with us through the covenant even when we continually break the covenant. It is "hesed" that allows Jacob to return and be reconciled with his brother Esau. It is 'hesed' that the psalmist is speaking of when he says "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love (hesed), according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgression." (Psalm 51:1) Michael Card defined 'hesed' as "when the person from whom I have the right to expect nothing gives me everything.
Michael Card then took the idea of 'hesed' in the Old Testament and traced it through to the New Testament in the Gospel of Luke. The Greek word 'eleos' which is most often translated as 'mercy' is the most frequent translation for the Hebrew word 'hesed'. 'Charis' which means 'grace' is also a Greek rendering of the Hebrew word 'hesed'. So the stories about the Good Samaritan and the Loving Father/Prodigal Son are really stories of God's 'hesed', undeserved yet steadfast love. Michael Card then argued that it is not only a word that describes God's action with regard to us but also describes the very person of God.
It got me thinking that if 'hesed' describes the very person of God as Father and Son, then it must also be an accurate way to describe God the Holy Spirit. To the Corinthins, Paul writes, "Now there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are a variety of services, but the same Lord; and there are a variety of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." (1 Cor. 12:4-7) Indeed the triune God who shows steadfast love (hesed) to us in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, is in God's very person the embodiment of that love.