Psalms 103:11: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;” ESV
“Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.” Mister Rogers
I always liked Mister Rogers. Sesame Street left me out of breath and besides the Muppets put me out of business as a ventriloquist. I did, however, like Kermit who was the only crossover from Sesame Street to The Muppets. I could identify with his struggle, I mean it is tough to be green. Still, Mister Rogers was my favorite, I could relax with him. When I was a Camp Director for troubled teens in Pittsburg he came to our camp one day. He taught us how tie our shoes, put on a sweater, sang some of his favorite songs and took requests. Then as he left he told us all, “I like you just the way you are.”
I usually start my studies off quoting the KJV but this time I used the ESV as I like the way it renders the Hebrew word chasedu which the KJV renders as mercy, but the ESV says steadfast love. The Living Bible renders it as unfailing love, the NASB says lovingkindness, the Holman Bible gives it as faithful love, the NET says loyal love and the Young’s Literal simply says kindness.
Some Christians have a real problem with our many different modern English translations. These are Christians who are thinking with Western thought and not Semitic thought. Western thinkers are scientific and look for precision. To them the word chasedu can mean only one thing and to suggest various shades to its meaning would be to take away from the inspiration of Scripture. However, it would also limit God. The Bible is not an instruction manual where you find the precise way to live your life like you follow an instruction manual to assemble your new bike where you do not put a screw where it does not belong. To assembly your new bike properly you must do exactly as the instruction manual says, word for word. Instead the Bible is more like your computer. There is any number of ways for me to access my MSWord to write this document. I could go to my desktop and click on the icon, I could go to my start button or I could go to my e-mail and download a document and then by using the existing document, I could open a new document. That is a bit cumbersome but I can find my way to Word from it. IT specialist could find other ways to access Word that I may not even be aware of. Yet when I go to Word I just click my icon on the desk top as that is the easiest way for me to access the program. Unfortunately, for many Christians the Bible is just an instruction manual to be followed exactly as their chosen or favorite translation renders a passage.
Yet, through the many English translations God is showing us that there are many gateways to His word, there are many shades of understanding. The Hebrew word chasedu is one excellent example. What does chased really mean? In Western thinking that is what comes to mind. Yeah, sure it means, unfailing love, lovingkindness, faithful love, loyal love, mercy, kindness and steadfast love, but what does it really mean says the Western scientific mind. The Eastern poetic mind, however, will say it means all these and much more. You see, in Hebrew, as with all the ancient Semitic languages many words have different shades of meanings and it would be impossible to offer an English translation which represents all the various shades of meanings. In Western thought we start with the flower and its many shades of renderings and interpretations and then drill down to the seed. But in Eastern Semitic thinking you start with the seed and work your way up to that many petals of the flower.
So what is this love that is higher than the heavens, how do you describe it? Just read every translation you can find (they are on the internet) and you have not even begun to understand chasedu. I, myself, like the ESV rendering of steadfast love. Perhaps you like the KJV which renders it as mercy, or maybe you like loyal love from the NET, they are all good renderings for chasedu. But if you want one definition of chasedu that embodies all of this, let me suggest a paraphrase of Mister Rogers, God loves us just the way we are. Yes, that broken, ugly sinful mess that we make out of our lives, He still loves us. He doesn’t want us to clean up our act, He wants to do it for us. If a groom should ask his bride to fix her hair a certain way that he likes and to wear that certain lipstick he likes, the perfume he likes and his favorite dress, she will do it not to win her husband’s love, she knows she has that, she will do it to please her husband.
When God asks us to repent, we do not need to do it to win His love, He loves us just the way we are. But we will repent because we know it will please Him and it will be our way to show Him that we love Him in return. There is the story in the Talmud of a king who loved his son dearly and gave him everything he wanted. But the son became disobedient. The king went to a servant and instructed the servant that if his son needed anything he was to come to the servant and the servant was to not hold back on anything he asks. The servant asked, “Why give him anything if he is disobedient.” The King replied, “I love my son, I do not desire that he be in want, but because he is disobedient I cannot look upon him so you must give to him.”
God does not stop loving us when we sin, his love is chasedu, steadfast love. But He cannot look upon us for our sins, so he sent His Son to die on a cross to tear down that wall that keeps us from experiencing the love of God. By accepting Jesus as our Savior what we are doing is allowing Him enter our hearts so that we can then return that love. Only through the finished work of Jesus Christ can our sins be removed so we are free to love God. To love God covered in our sins is like a bride not bathing for a month, dressing up in an outfit that hasn’t been washed in a year and saying, “Come on baby let me love ya.” The husband is going to say, “I love you honey, but you ain’t getting near me smelling like that. How about, maybe, a little Dove Soap?” If God’s love is chasedu steadfast, then all we need to do is allow the Heavenly Dove to clean us up with the cleansing blood of Jesus and then we can love Him in return and if we love Him in return, there is no chance in Hell of going to Hell.
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