Hesed

There is an art to translating languages. I mean how do you translate a word that is not even in another languages’ vocabulary? That is difficult, you need a mind that can think outside the box.

This is why some of the prophecy’s in the Bible seem odd to us. It is easy to dismiss them because they do not make sense to us. But what if we read them from the perspective that the writer was trying to describe something they had never seen before. Imagine it!

Let’s do a mental exercise…

Picture yourself on a grassy bank overlooking a lake. It’s a bright sunny day and the blue green water is calm. You are about to take a bite of your sandwich and your eyes look up and scan the water and you stop! Freeze! You forget about the sandwich as your eyes take in a head and a body out of the water of a creature you have never seen before nor seen any pictures of something like that.

The color is a mystery, not brown, not green, not blue but something mixed with those colors. The head is kind of dinosaur like but not really. It’s more like a cow head but that’s not it either. The neck is long, not like a giraffe but thick and solid, but not giraffe like long. The creature is moving rapidly through the water, not really swimming but more duck paddling.

Okay… do you see it? The creature in your mind? Kinda sorta but not really, right? That is because to describe it, I had to do similies: “it was like…” so as I described things, your mind went from colors that you know to dinosaurs to cows to ducks! We compare the things we know, only those with wild imaginations can come up with something they have never seen.

Why is this important? Because in translating languages we do the same. We work with what we know, and try to fit a word that does not belong into a different language.

The Bible was originally written in 3 languages. Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. The Hebrew is classified now as old Hebrew and is not traditionally spoken or written much anymore.

Kind of like sign language, there are various kinds around the world and some symbols have been changed or “updated”. If you signed to someone they would still probably figure most of it out but may need help or clarification on some signs.

Hebrew is a complicated language. The letters of the language each contain meaning. Each letter has a numerical meaning associated with it. So a Hebrew word has meaning from each letter and a numerical meaning, but also meaning from the word itself.

English is also a hard language, we have silent letters that make no sense. The word “knot” for instance. We do not say “k not”, we say “not”. But not “not” it is “k-not” but we do not say the “k”. How weird is that?

The Hebrew word hesed is an important and life changing word. Reading it here it probably means not much to you. Or maybe you heard it and have translated it as “love”. That would be accurate in some sense but not nearly what this word means.

Pronounced “he-said” more like “hea?” More like when you don’t really hear or understand someone, "hea, what did you say?"

This kind of love is a covenant love, a lifetime vow or an eternal, never ending love. It is the kind of love that only God can give and in the English language we have no direct translation for this word because we have nothing like it.

John Oswalt is quoted as saying hesed is "a completely undeserved kindness and generosity."

Isaiah in the Bible wrote, "Though the mountains be shaken, and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love (hesed) for you will not be shaken." Isaiah 54:10

This is the kind of love God has for us, it is unshakeable. You cannot wreck it, not be not good enough, or even earn this kind of love, it is a gift, an action from God Himself to you.

Hesed is not the romantic feeling kind of love, it is an actual "action". It is faithful and reliable, it is loyal and steadfast, it is a covenant love - one that cannot be broken and it is focused on others, not on self. Romantic love focuses on us, it brings out the "oh he's so dreamy I just love him so much!" reactions. Hesed does not.

It is the love of Naomi to her motherin law Ruth in the Bible that although there is no logical reason for these 2 women to be together after their husbands died - she said to her mother in law "Where you go I will go...." Ruth 1:16 That is hesed, an action of love.

So as we start the month of December remembering the "why's" of what we are celebrating. We see love in action, a love that could not be shaken, removed or destroyed. A love that was first realized in the form of a baby, a wee bairn (Scottish), an action by God to woo the hearts of mankind, to provide an example of Hesed in a real and tangible form.

Hesed is what we are celebrating this month - love that cannot be shaken, broken or destroyed. "God so loved the world (the whole world) that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

Come Lord Jesus.