Devotional Tuesday: Steadfast Love?
Devotional Tuesday: Steadfast Love?
Love, God, and the Old Testament?
Often, I read the Old Testament and see writers and Psalmists describe God with this phrase—steadfast love.
Maybe your Bible says love…
Psalm 136:1–2 (ESV): 1Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
2 Give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
Genesis 24:26–27 (ESV): The man bowed his head and worshiped the Lord 27 and said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master.
Deuteronomy 7:12 (ESV): 12 “And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers.
Jonah 4:2 (ESV): 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.
I was reading my daily psalms this week and that word stood out to me in several places.
We have the benefit of knowing God’s plan and incarnate love through the story of Jesus Christ.
The Jews and writers of the Old Testament were not so fortunate.
They did not have this beautiful context in which to understand God’s love for us.
They did not understand that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son…
Their understanding of steadfast love was outside the context of Jesus and his stoning sacrifice.
This prompted me to question, “did they actually think YHWH—the LORD—was a God of love.
When I read the Old Testament, I see GOD full of power, justice, judgement, and faithfulness, and love seems to be lower in the list.
Why then do they talk about God’s love so much?
What causes them in the midst of so many problems and disasters to point out God’s love?
The word translated love is the Hebrew word “hesed” (חֶ֫סֶד). When I took Hebrew in college this word was a frequent part of our translating and learning.
It’s a very common phrase in the Old Testament. It’s used hundreds of times.
One of the difficulties in our faith today is understanding how our view of love differs from other cultures.
We think of love romantically or erotically.
Love is the feeling we have toward people we care about.
This is partially why we have a hard time seeing how God loves us.
For the biblical writers, God love is more about his faithful and caring love. They saw God’s continued support, guidance, salvation, and mercy as evidence of his love.
Even as full of judgement and power displayed in the pages of the Old Testament, they understood that it comes from a place of Love.
How much more so can we understand God’s love though the revelation of Jesus and his life.
Today, may we find comfort in seeing love from God in its many forms.