The Covenantal Love: Hesed

In the October Liahona magazine, President Nelson published an article about the everlasting covenant. In it he said this: “Once we make a covenant with God, we leave neutral ground forever. God will not abandon His relationship with those who have forged such a bond with Him. In fact, all those who have made a covenant with God have access to a special kind of love and mercy. In the Hebrew language, that covenantal love is called hesed. Hesed has no adequate English equivalent. Translators of the King James Version of the Bible must have struggled with how to render hesed in English. They often chose ‘lovingkindness.’ This captures much but not all the meaning of hesed. Other translations were also rendered, such as ‘mercy’ and ‘goodness.’ Hesed is a unique term describing a covenant relationship in which both parties are bound to be loyal and faithful to each other.” One of the examples where this Hebrew word is used is in this verse: “Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9). The word “mercy” in this verse comes from hesed and it is indeed associated with the covenant of the Lord with His people. Another instance also related to the covenant is found Hosea’s words: “And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies” (Hosea 2:18-19). Here the word “lovingkindness” is hesed in Hebrew, and it is connected with the covenant that the Savior makes with us, one so strong that marriage is the symbol of it. Over and over in the Old Testament He promised this kind of love to His covenant people, and we can feel that if we will indeed keep that covenant with Him.

               In the article President Nelson also said this: “The covenant path is a path of love—that incredible hesed, that compassionate caring for and reaching out to each other. Feeling that love is liberating and uplifting. The greatest joy you will ever experience is when you are consumed with love for God and for all His children.” Ultimately this ties back to the words of the Savior when He declared what should matter most to us in this life: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). Our covenant in simplest form is that we will love God, and His promise is to give us His love, which, according to President Nelson, is the “greatest joy” we can experience in this life. Nephi put it this way: “Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things” (1 Nephi 11:22). To obtain the fruit of the tree of life which is the love of God is, we walk the straight and narrow path—the covenant path. Walking that path brings what Lehi described at the end of his life: “The Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love. And I desire that ye should remember to observe the statutes and the judgments of the Lord” (2 Nephi 1:15-16). Keeping our covenants with God—following His statutes and judgments in the gospel—encircles us in the arms of His love.

               In The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Father Zossima gave an interesting definition of hell. He said, “Fathers and teachers, I ponder, ‘What is hell?’ I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.” He continued, “Once in infinite existence, immeasurable in time and space, a spiritual creature was given on his coming to earth, the power of saying, ‘I am and I love.’ Once, only once, there was given him a moment of active living love, and for that was earthly life given him, and with it times and seasons. And that happy creature rejected the priceless gift, prized it and loved it not, scorned it and remained callous. Such a one, having left the earth, sees Abraham’s bosom and talks with Abraham as we are told in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, and beholds heaven and can go up to the Lord. But that is just his torment, to rise up to the Lord without ever having loved, to be brought close to those who have loved when he has despised their love. For he sees clearly and says to himself, ‘Now I have understanding, and though I now thirst to love, there will be nothing great, no sacrifice in my love, for my earthly life is over, and Abraham will not come even with a drop of living water (that is the gift of earthly active life) to cool the fiery thirst of spiritual love which burns in me now, though I despised it on earth; there is no more life for me and will be no more time! Even though I would gladly give my life for others, it can never be, for that life is passed which can be sacrificed for love, and now there is a gulf fixed between that life and this existence.’” Indeed, we came to earth to learn to love—to love God and our neighbor. And if we reject the Lord and His covenant, then we are rejecting His love and ultimately our own love for others. We must not let the pressures of life obscure the ultimate purpose of our mortal existence—to love God and His children and to receive fully His love—even the hesed of God—by abiding in His covenant.