Speaking of KINDNESS…

This past week I was invited to speak in Nova Scotia on the Biblical understanding of kindness. The talk focused on three Hebrew words, so I thought it would be fitting to share with you this week.

I always appreciate the chance to speak to a group of people. It’s good to keep up my public speaking skills and it allows me to make a personal connection, which is sometimes challenging with an online ministry. Seeing faces and connecting with people is healthy for a background person like me. It’s good to get out from behind the keyboard once and awhile.

Before the talk, the following two Bible passages were read:

Psalm 86:11-17

Teach me Your way, YHWH; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name. I will give thanks to You, Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forever. For Your graciousness toward me is great, and You have saved my soul from the depths of Sheol.

God, arrogant men have risen up against me, and a gang of violent men have sought my life, and they have not set You before them. But You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy and truth. Turn to me, and be gracious to me; grant Your strength to Your servant, and save the son of Your maidservant. Show me a sign of good, that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed, because You, YHWH, have helped me and comforted me.

Genesis 1:26-31

Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every animal of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

I began the talk with a thank you to my friend Deborah Fox for the invitation to speak. I’ll spare you those details, other than to say it really is wonderful to have a friend like my friend Deb! A kinder example of humanity couldn’t be found!

The talk: Monday, July 8, 2024 (Truro, Nova Scotia)

I understand your focus, this year, has been a theme of kindness. To me, Deb (the friend who invited me to speak) has always emitted kindness and so it is a fitting theme for you all this year… and it’s a Biblical theme which is of great interest to me.

I am a Biblical scholar with a focus on the Hebrew Bible (or, Old Testament) and how it points to Jesus/Yeshua in the New Testament. So your invitation here is a chance for me to “Nerd-out” in front of a crowd, and social norms allow me to have a captive audience for the next 20 minutes, whether you like it or not.

So today, you’re going to learn some Hebrew. Are you excited?! You’re going to learn two words for LOVE in Hebrew and the word for IMAGE. 

So… why am I not teaching you the word for KINDNESS? Well, it’s because there isn’t one… at least not one that stands alone. The Hebrew word that best encapsulates kindness is khesed.

It’s one of those great guttural sounding words that Hebrew is known for… khesed.

But this word, khesed, isn’t just kindness, it’s literally kindness wrapped in love and so it’s often translated as lovingkindness… although some translations use mercy, loyal love, or loving devotion. This expression of lovingkindness makes sense, because every time you are expressing kindness, you are also expressing love… Kindness is love in action. You cannot separate khesed-love from kindness, they are a package deal.

There are actually two Hebrew words for love: khesed and the other is… a’hava.

Ahava is a kind of desirable love. It’s the kind of word you use when you say “I love pizza” or “I love shopping”. This kind of love is comparable. You might say, I love watching rugby, but I love watching figure skating even more (actually that’s me. I’m a huge fan of the Welsh rugby team, but I’m an even bigger Canadian Figure Skating fan!) Again, ahava is a comparable kind of love, for example, you might say, “I love my spouse, but I far prefer chocolate”. 

Hmmmm… if that’s how you feel, you may have a problem.

Ahava is love based on feeling. You might love Christmas because you get to see your family, and you get to eat Gramma’s infamous turkey stuffing, and you get gifts, but that love is based on what you get out of it and how it makes you feel.

Khesed, on the other hand, is INcomparable love in action. This is the kind of love that gets translated as lovingkindness. It drives you to express love… in action… towards others. 

Which of these two love words do you think is used to describe God’s attributes?

Yep, it’s khesed! Earlier we read… 

Psalm 86:15

YHWH is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in khesed (lovingkindness).

This phrase, that describes God’s character, can be found repeatedly in the Bible, not just here, but elsewhere in the Psalms, as well as in Exodus, Numbers, Jonah, Joel, Hosea, Nehemiah… They all repeat the same attributes to describe YHWH: He is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in khesed.

God’s love is not described as ahava love. The love God shows is always khesed. It’s wrapped in action.

So that’s great. God is kind. But what does that have to do with us?

We also read earlier the Creation narrative expressing that we were all made in God’s image.

Genesis 1:26-27

Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Now if your first thought is, “who is this Us and who is the Our in this passage”… then you might want to talk to me about becoming a Biblical scholar! This is one of those great, hotly debated, questions, which we, sadly, do not have time for. (Although if you’re really curious, find me later and we can have a lovely chat!). Our question today is simply this…

What does it mean to bear the Image of God? 

It actually has nothing to do with what we look like. Think of it this way:

Pretend you work for a company and there’s a conference in your field of work. Your company sends you to the conference. They pay for your flight, your hotel, your meals and your conference fee. While you are at the conference, you bear the image of your company. You’re their representative. So if you go and get drunk at the conference banquet and make a fool of  yourself by dancing on the tables, it reflects very poorly on the company you work for… because you’re not just there for yourself.

To bear God’s image means that we are His representatives on earth. We were created to fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule. In other words, we were made to be the world’s care-takers. We were made to help the world, and all that is in it, grow and flourish. Our behaviour should be in line with the mission that God has given us. In the Ten Commandments we are given a warning about how important this is:

Deuteronomy 5:11, Exodus 20:7

Do not take the LORD’s (YHWH’s) name in vain. 

You may have been raised to believe that this commandment is all about swearing. I’m here to burst that bubble, (which we Bible scholars love to do). This commandment has nothing to do with swearing, cursing or cussing.

The word “take”  (“do not take”) is actually the Hebrew word for “carry” or “bear”. You don’t carry the name of God on your shoulders like it means nothing. Every action you take, as God’s representative, should reflect God’s character. When it doesn’t, you’re carrying His name “falsely” or “in vain”… and that’s near the top of God’s “do not do” list.

There’s a reason that God gets really really angry, in the Bible, when the people make idols that bear the image of a god and worship them. This happens over and over again in the Old Testament.

This brings us to our third Hebrew word for you to learn. In Hebrew the word IMAGE is tselem. 

…Tselem…

Humans bear the tselem of God. The word for idol-statues in Hebrew is also tselem. It’s the same idea. God is essentially saying, “why are you carving a piece of wood into a god-image? I have already placed God-images all over the world and it’s YOU… HUMANS!”

WE bear the Image of God, not a carved rock or a carved piece of wood. There’s no life in those things, but humans that bear God’s image are full of life and capable of great love and kindness.

Made in God’s Image means that we are the idols He placed on earth… we bear the image of God and that means we are supposed to reflect YHWH’s attributes to everyone… EVERYone… around us. 

What are YHWH’s attributes that we are to emulate?  We need to be gracious and compassionate to others. We need to keep our anger in check and remain calm and focused and, finally, we need to express khesed.. Lovingkindness… by showing overwhelming love by our actions.  

And what does that look like?

Psalm 146:7-9

(God) executes justice for the oppressed; and gives food to the hungry. YHWH frees the prisoners. YHWH opens the eyes of those who are blind; YHWH raises up those who are bowed down; YHWH loves the righteous. YHWH watches over strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow.

As a widow, I have experienced, first hand, what it means to receive khesed from God’s image bearers. The people of my church family came to my rescue in beautifully expressive ways when my husband died suddenly of a heart-attack at the age of 50: they brought me food, mowed my lawn, took me out to lunch, prayed alongside me, and sent me letters of encouragement. 

They were the face of God to me, being gracious, showing compassion and expressing boundless love by their actions. 

They showed their love by their actions. This is khesed. This is the kind of KINDNESS we were literally made for!

Yeshua put it this way. He said:

Matthew 25:31-40

“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left.

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 

Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You as a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 

And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me.’”

This is your job as a caretaker of the earth and as God’s representative on this planet: care for those in need because they also (just like you) bear the image of God: the prisoners, the hungry, the homeless, the widow, the lost,  the neglected, the depressed, the misunderstood, the accused, the abused, the sick, the orphan, the marginalized, the bullied, the refugee, the oppressed, the needy. We need to be the face of God to those people. We are His reps and we must act like it.

This world celebrates and loves power, wealth, and fame… and because only a small margin of humans have these things, much of the world feels unloved and unworthy. What the world loves is not what we should love; what the world desires, is not what we should desire:

Mark 10:42-45

So Jesus called [his disciples] and said, “You know that those regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their superiors exercise authority over them. But it shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

And that’s exactly the kind of love Yeshua exemplified. His life wasn’t about power and money and fame… He was a penniless, on-the-road, Rabbi, and He humbly laid His life down in order to save humanity. It was the ultimate act of khesed… love in action.

Your assignment, to show kindness to every single person on the planet, regardless of race, sex, financial status, or creed, is a Biblically-based mission. Kindness is love in action and it’s what God placed you here to do. My understanding is that you all have taken up the challenge to show acts of kindness in your communities. I pray that you continue, this year, to show God’s love to the world… not an “I love pizza” kind of love, but an “I set aside my own desires to serve others” kind of love. That’s the type of kindness that can… and will… change the world.

Next week: COUNCIL