Grace in the Tanakh
Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; Exodus 34:6 NASB
Abounding in lovingkindness– Let’s consider the big picture. In order to do that, we must first step away from the narrower perspective. So let’s move back from the idea that the Bible is about salvation, in particular, that it is a book about how to get saved and get to heaven. While salvation does play a role in the biblical story, it is only one small part of the much bigger picture. The bigger picture encompasses everything from Genesis to Revelation. Its theme does not change when we insert an artificial separation between the testaments. In fact, the bigger picture can almost be summarized in one word: hesed. We’ve spent a lot of time investigating this word over the years. We discovered that its multiple meanings are uniquely Hebraic and cannot adequately be captured in any one English expression. We know that this particular word appears twice in God’s self-definition and that it is essential for the covenant relationship. In terms of the bigger picture, it expresses the fundamental biblical perspective that the Kingdom of God is relational, reciprocal, transitive and active. All of this is readily apparent in the Tanakh. But we have been taught that the Kingdom is a “New Testament” idea and that “grace” in the New Testament stands in opposition to the “law” of the Old Testament. It’s time to correct that idea. Notice what Scot McKnight writes:
“ . . . in antiquity a gift implicated the person who received the gift to respond with some kind of gift given back to the original giver. Of course, the receiver of a gift responds by beginning with gratitude, but ideally gratitude turns into a reciprocal gift. . . . grace in the New Testament fits this pattern: God’s superabundant, prior gift is granted without regard to our relative worth, but the reception of God’s gift demands a return gift from us, a response of grateful discipleship marked by allegiance to King Jesus.”[1]
Whether or not McKnight realizes it, he has just described hesed in New Testament terms. What this means is that once we leave behind the truncated picture of grace as a saving action, we discover that the Kingdom in the New Testament is based on hesed in the Tanakh. McKnight shows us that hesed is a thoroughly New Testament idea. It’s just called cháris in Greek.
hesed (cháris) is the action word of all Scripture. More than any other term, it describes the character of the God of Israel, and in so doing, it establishes the biggest picture of the Bible, that is, that God exhibits hesed (cháris) toward His creation. That’s the real Bible story. God is bringing His Kingdom back to its intended fullness and hesed (cháris) is the way it is happening.
Topical Index: hesed (cháris), lovingkindness, grace, Exodus 34:6
[1]Scot McKnight, “Forward,” p. xi, in Matthew Bates, Salvation by Allegiance Alone (Baker Academic, 2017).
Could this be why Yeshau referred to the kingdom being in the midst in Luke 17:21
Compassion and grace are only present when our thoughts become actions or as Paul said we are saved by grace through faith. Eph 2:8-10
I assume that would amount to when the grace or compassion is revealed to us in our mental tacid brain we do the deeds thereof and that is the true faith which saves. Not worship or praising but doing deeds associated with showing grace and mercy… This is the same view James had about faith with no deeds as being dead.
Skip, I found the PDF of Gabor Mate’s book, In The Realm Of Hungry Ghosts. It is a very good book. Y’all, if you need to understand a victim of substance abuse in your life, this is a very good way to do it.
Mate’ writes with compassion about his patients: the ‘lost’ of Vancouver, and how they were so uncomfortably like himself, the child of parents who survived the Nazis, and of grandparents who didn’t survive Auschwitz. But he also describes how, at the end of all pretense, they had an uncanny awareness of the compassion or harshness of others. They also exhibited true community towards each other, even as they fought, used and abused, lied and stole from each other. I think the need for hesed, and the awareness of it, lies at the very bottom of our existence, and defines the core of what it means to be human. When a person is insensate to everything else, they still can respond to hesed (AND give it!).
In it, he, in the process of describing the addicts in his world, also finds a way to describe the rest of us, and in the process of defining why addiction occurs, puts a finger on the emptiness that lies at the bottom of all of us.
In it he writes “Misplaced attachment to what cannot satiate the soul is not an error
exclusive to addicts, but the common condition of mankind. It is this
ubiquitous mind-state that leads to suffering and calls prophets,
spiritual masters and great teachers into our midst. Our designated
“addicts” march at the head of a long procession from which few of us
ever step away.”
He states that the search for (or avoidance of our awareness of) our need for hesed, drives not only the addict, but all of us. To understand hesed is to understand why we are who we are, and to understand what makes us sin, we have to understand that, in the end, all we ever wanted was hesed. Sin is just the promise of hesed in the wrong way, at the wrong time, and from the wrong source. If it ever promised anything else, we would not be interested. This is why sin is a liar. To the extent that we believe the lies is the extent we all suffer brain/soul/body damage, and it is also the extent that we are crazy, for only a crazy person would look for love in all the wrong places. But, sadly, because we have all been damaged, we all do, for without the experience of hesed, we die. Sin promises us that experience via other routes, but, because we want to live, we listen. Sin is the crazy attempt to stay alive – by trying to reproduce the experience of hesed – from other sources. And, we all do it. So let’s talk about hesed!
Shalom and thank you Laurita! With this quote (below) it would seem that we (mankind) would benefit from reading the ‘rest of the story’. Resonate. Oh yes, it does. From the tiniest attachments to the “oh so big” ones too. The stepping away and giving up (die to self) becomes the condition of the battle… overcome or be taken over. Mercy! A deeper discussion so worthy of the effort… wud ‘ya say?
“Misplaced attachment to what cannot satiate the soul is not an error
exclusive to addicts, but the common condition of mankind. It is this
ubiquitous mind-state that leads to suffering and calls prophets,
spiritual masters and great teachers into our midst. Our designated
“addicts” march at the head of a long procession from which few of us
ever step away.”
Geeze I am only a third through the book. Do you do speed reading Laurita. Nicely summarized from what I have read so far
I am going to send this pdf to some police friends who may learn something as all law enforcement does is apply the law when addressing the cuase is never further than burning and distroying plantations… A good read indeed.
Wow. Powerful. I can certainly testify to that. I volunteered and lived in a drug rehab for eight months through a church I used to attend. The group of guys and myself would sit in a collective position in the sanctuary. They were referred to among the congregation as “the addicts”. The way I saw it it was that we were all in one degree or another “addicts” . .. all looking to find love in all the wrong places and all the wrong times and in all the wrong spaces! My heart broke for those guys because I could relate, I too struggle with my own addictions! I wouldn’t exchange that experience for anything. I got to see the love of God first hand and it changed a lot of my perceptions. Sadly I left that volunteer position because the leadership had no interest in doing anything differently. I could so strongly relate to everything you’re saying Laurita! The whole idea of shortcuts that we choose to believe are the answer but we’re drinking out of an empty cup or tainted water. My question is “after detox, then what?”. It’s one thing to get free it’s another thing to stay free. We will always be dependent upon His hesed, but one of our difficulties comes in our feelings of unworthiness, so we retreat to the fig leaves !
Larry Reed, I hope you are well. I have been a part of a congregation (on and off for many years) who also designate a section to “the addicts”. Was the congregation located in the state of Virginia? Please feel free to dismiss this question if you are not comfortable answering it.
Thanks for asking. Glad somebody else can relate. No it’s located in the state of Washington. Peace !
Skip, “McKnight shows us that hesed is a thoroughly New Testament idea. It’s just called cháris in Greek.” I’m confused. Grace (hesed) is a thoroughly “OLD Testament” idea, lost because of the wrong paradigm, lost because charis “replaced” it – that’s where I thought you were going. Please clarify. And thanks in advance.
Clarification: hesed is an OT idea. But McKnight describes charis in the same terms that would apply to hesed. Therefore McKnight treats charis AS IF IT WERE hesed. His idea of charis IS hesed, in Greek terms. What this means is that our ordinary GREEK description of charis needs to be replaced with the Hebraic idea of hesed.
Thank you for clarifying!
True, biblical hesed is what needs to be taught in all homes, churches, synagogues, Sunday schools and Shabbat schools around the world. Were that the case, the world would be a much better, safer, God honoring place and could begin healing. Unfortunately, I doubt that will happen until the millennium Kingdom arrives.