GOD AS DOER OF HESED
It was mentioned that two-thirds
of all the references to hesed speak of hesed that God has done,
the general recognition that God continues to do hesed, or the hope that
God will perform hesed in the future. . . .Other references specify different
acts of God’s hesed as one of deliverance from harm, the most famous
being God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt.
As early as the Song of Moses,
recorded in Exodus 15:13, we find God’s hesed described as an act of
redemption: “Thou in thy hesed (mercy) hast led forth the people which
thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy
habitation.” Later, while in the wilderness, Moses relied on God’s hesed
to save the people from themselves after they had provoked the Lord, eliciting
his declaration that he would destroy them and raise another, more righteous
Israel. Responding to this, Moses intervened by relying on God’s history of hesed
acts: “Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according to the
greatness of thy hesed (mercy), and as thou hast forgiven this people,
from Egypt even until now” (Numbers 14:19). In Psalm 106:7 we are told that
Israel did not remember God’s acts of hesed in Egypt, nor in the
wilderness, again demonstrating that ancient Israel understood that their
deliverance from Egypt was the quintessential act of hesed.
God’s hesed as an act of deliverance
is also attested to in a more general manner. In Psalm 143:12 the Psalmist
prayed, “By thy hesed (Of thy mercy) cut off mine enemies, and destroy
all of them that afflict my soul.” In one of the communal lament psalms, the
Psalmist cried out, “Arise, for our help, and rdeem us for the sake of thy hesed
(for thy mercies’ sake”) (Psalm 44:26). In 31:7-8 the Psalmist declared, “I
will be glad and rejoice in thy hesed (mercy): for thou hast considered
my trouble . . . and hast not shut me into the hand of the enemy.” Psalm 85:7
reads, “perform for us thy hesed (Show us thy mercy), O Lord, and grant
us thy salvation.” Similarly, Psalm 109:26 includes the plea “Help me, O Lord
my God: O save me according to thy hesed (mercy).” Finally, at least one
psalm rejoices in the protecting power of God’s hesed that he has
already performed: “But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy
hesed (mercy) in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge
in the day of my trouble” (Psalm 59:16).
The Old Testament also describes
God’s spiritual deliverance of the individual act of hesed. We have
already seen in Numbers 14 that Moses recognized God’s hesed as the
means by which he forgave Israel. Similarly, in Psalm 86:13 we read, “For great
is thy hesed (mercy) toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the
lowest hell.” Though the term hell brings up certain images, the Hebrew
term is sheol, the most common Hebrew term for the abode of the dead.
Thus the Psalmist recognizes his deliverance from the spirit world as God’s hesed.
Elsewhere God’s hesed is recognized in forgiving sin. In Psalm 51:1 we
read, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy hesed (lovingkindness):
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions,”
and in Proverbs 16:6 the connection between forgiveness and divine hesed
are explicitly tied together: “By hesed (mercy” and truth iniquity is
purged.” In light of these references, divine hesed is always an act of
deliverance, but is of greater magnitude when it delivers man from death and
hell, and as such reflects the understanding of the Atonement as described in
latter-day scripture and revelation.
Divine hesed also
incorporates the recriprocation found in the moral experiences of hesed.
Yet, although mortal to mortal hesed acts lead to the deliverance of one
mortal to another, one cannot respond in kind to God’s acts of hesed; in
other words, man cannot deliver God. Instead, the expected mutuality arising
from divine hesed is manifested in one’s obedience to God’s word. In the
Decalogue, we are told to “not bow down [before idols]. . . . for I the Lord
thy God . . . enacting hesed (showing mercy) unto thousands of them that
love me, and keep my commandments” (This phrase was carried down through the
generations. It was still part of the priestly recital, which was recorded
almost a thousand years later [Nehemiah 9:32]) (Exodus 20:5-6). In Deuteronomy
7:12-13 Moses promised Israel, “If ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and
do them, that the Lord thy God shall
keep unto thee the covenant and the hesed (mercy) which he sware unto thy
fathers: And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee.”
The same relationship between obedience
and hesed (exists in texts outside the Pentateuch. Psalm 103:11 we are
told, “Great is his hesed (mercy) toward them that fear him.” Psalm
25:10 tells us, “All the paths of the Lord are hesed (mercy) and truth
unto such as keep his covenant.” Psalm 36:10 records, “O continue thy hesed (lovingkindness)
unto them they know thee.” The same principle is taught in Proverbs 14:22: “Hesed
(mercy) and truth shall be to them that devise good.”
At least three references suggest
that this obedience is ultimately demonstrated by performing hesed on
others. In Micah 6:8 we read his rhetorical question: “He hath shewed thee, O
man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly,
and to love hesed (mercy), and to walk humbly with thy God?” Similarly,
in Zechariah the righteous are exhorted, “Execute true judgment, and perform hesed
(show mercy), and compassions every man to his brother” (Zechariah 7:9). Moreover,
as we obey the Lord, not only can we expect an act of divine hesed in
return, but more importantly, we will comprehend the nature of hesed: “Whoso
is wise, and will observe these thingss even they shall understand the hesed
(lovingkindness) of the Lord” (Psalm 107:43) (The verse ends Psalm 107, a psalm
that begins with an exhortation to thank God for the eternal nature of his hesed
and then goes on to recount the great acts God has done on Israel’s behalf,
interspersed throughout within the refrain: “Oh that men would praise the Lord
for his hesed [goodness], and for his wonderful works to the children of
men”). Finally, as we shall see, hesed includes the intent and not just
rote action as Hosea explains, “For I desired hesed (mercy), and not sacrifice;
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (6:6) (In his study “ON the
Use and Meaning of Hosea vi.6 in Matthew’s Gospel,” New Testament Studies 24
[1977], 107-19, David Hill suggests that the concept of eleos/hesed is a
common theme in the arrangement of Matthew’s Gospel). In other words, the
intent, the mental state one is in, is as much a characteristic of hesed
as the act itself. (Daniel L. Belnap “’How Excellent Is Thy Lovingkindness’:
The Gospel Principle of Hesed,” in Approaching Holiness: Exploring
the History and Teachings of the Old Testament, ed. Krystal V. L. Pierce
and David Rolph Seely [Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City:
Deseret Book, 2021], 55-57)
With respect to the comment that “the intent, the mental state one
is in, is as much a characteristic of hesed as the act itself,” one is
reminded of a passage in the Book of Mormon:
For behold, God hath said a man
being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth
unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing. For
behold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness. For behold, if a man
being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto
him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil
before God. And likewise also is it counted evil unto a man, if he shall pray
and not with real intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth him nothing, for God
receiveth none such. (Moroni 7:6-9)
