- [Tim] If you tried to describe what God is like,
it could be difficult or daunting.
But when the people who wrote the Bible
pondered the mystery of God,
they consistently describe God's character in this way.
"Compassionate and gracious, slow to anger,
overflowing with loyal love and faithfulness."
We're going to look at this fourth phrase, "loyal love."
It translates the Hebrew word "khesed,"
which is hard to translate into any language
because it combines the ideas of love,
generosity, and enduring commitment all into one.
Khesed describes an act of promise-keeping loyalty
that is motivated by deep personal care.
Like in the story of Ruth.
Ruth is a foreigner married to an Israelite man,
but tragically her husband dies
along with his brother and his father.
All Ruth has left is her widowed mother-in-law, Naomi,
who has nothing to give her.
Naomi tells Ruth she should go back to her people,
but instead Ruth promises to stay by Naomi's side
and take care of her.
And as other people watch Ruth keep this promise over time,
they call it an act of khesed.
Notice that Ruth's khesed is not conditional
or based on Naomi's worth.
Rather, it's an expression of Ruth's character;
she just is a generous and loving person
who keeps her word. That's khesed.
Now Ruth's loyal love is truly inspiring,
but the one who shows the most enduring khesed
in the Bible is God.
Like in the story about Jacob,
who is a treacherous liar even to his own family.
But despite that, God chooses him
and repeats the promise he made to Jacob's grandfather,
Abraham, that he would have a huge family
through whom God would restore his blessing to the nations.
And so, 20 years later,
when Jacob realizes how undeserving he is, he says to God,
"I'm not worthy of all the khesed you've shown me."
And he's right, but God's khesed
was never about Jacob's worth in the first place.
It's a display of God's generous loyalty to his promise.
God's khesed continues
into the story of Jacob's descendants, the Israelites.
When they're enslaved by Pharaoh in Egypt,
we're told that God remembered his promise
to Abraham and Jacob, so God defeats Egypt
and raises up Moses to liberate the people
and lead them into the promised land.
And in the story this is called an act of khesed
because it was about God keeping his word.
Now, on their way to the promised land,
the Israelites are scared of the nations around them,
and they doubt that God can protect them.
So the people threaten to kill Moses
and appoint a new leader to take them back to Egypt.
God is understandably hurt and angry,
but Moses steps in and says,
"Forgive the sin of these people
because of your great khesed."
Notice that Moses asked God to forgive
not because the people deserve it
but because it's consistent with God's own character.
And God agrees, and he recommits himself to a people
that don't want to be committed to him.
In the Bible, God is loyal and loving
for no other reason than it's just who God is.
Of course he wants his people to respond
with khesed in return, but even when they don't,
God's khesed remains.
The prophet Hosea compared Israel's khesed
to a morning mist that's here one moment and gone the next.
But God's khesed is enduring.
Like in the celebration of Psalm 136
that opens by saying,
"Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,"
and then 26 times repeats "His khesed is forever."
And so after centuries of Israel
betraying their commitment to God,
and after humanity's long history of violence and death,
God still kept his promise in a dramatic and drastic way
by becoming human and binding himself to us
in the person of Jesus.
And the people who followed Jesus of Nazareth said
that in him they encountered the God of Israel
who is full of loyal love and faithfulness.
Jesus is the ultimate loyal and loving human.
And in his life, death, and resurrection,
God opened up a new future for all of us
and for all of creation.
And God did this because it's just who God is:
generous, loving, and eternally loyal to his promises.
And when we experience
the purity and power of God's loyal love
shown through Jesus, it compels us
to reimagine why and how we can show khesed back to God
and to the people around us.
This is what it means to say
that God is overflowing with loyal love.
(gentle music)