The word, “Hesed” is used three times in the book of Ruth. It can be translated to mean “loyal love.” It is rich in meaning and reflects the kind of love God has for us. Hesed is power-packed with commitment and devotion. It is fierce. It is action-oriented. It goes the distance and spans the challenges of time. It has little to do with feelings and everything to do with an act of someone’s will. It involves a covenant. It is a “no matter” kind of love. Probably the closest we get to “Hesed” in our culture is in the traditional marriage vows, “For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others until we are parted by death.” “Hesed” love seeks to live for the good of the other person, even when the other person has nothing to offer them in return.
As the story of Ruth opens, we are given a look into the life of three women who are grieving the loss of their husbands. Here’s the backstory: A man, his wife, Naomi, and their two sons, left the town of Bethlehem during a famine and went to live in the country of Moab. That is the modern day country of Jordan. Well, while they were in Moab, the man died, leaving Naomi as a widow. Still, she was surrounded by her two sons and the women they had married while in Moab. Those women were Orpah and Ruth. However, tragically, sometime after that, both of her sons died, leaving Orpah and Ruth also as widows.
When Naomi heard the famine had ended in Bethlehem, she decided to pack up and go home to Bethlehem. And here is where we see the first use of the word, “Hesed” in chapter 1:8: Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show kindness (Hesed) to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me.
Naomi was saying, “You were good to my sons, and you have been good daughters-in-law to me, but you are now free to go and choose a different life, a life disconnected from mine. You are free to pursue your own happiness, your own dreams.”
And Naomi continued in verse 9: May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them and they wept aloud.
Orpah decided to do as Naomi encouraged and go back to her home. However, Ruth clung to her mother-in-law (Vs. 14). (“Hesed” love is a clingy kind of love.) “Hesed” is an I’m not letting go of you kind of love.
Ruth made this bold and determined declaration: “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.” (1:16-17)
What I see first here is that Loyal Love is sacrificial. What was best for Ruth was to go home and find another husband. It wouldn’t be easy for Ruth to live in Bethlehem. She had no roots there. She was leaving the familiarity of her country and access to her family to adopt a family she had never met. She wasn’t Jewish. She would be perceived as an outsider. She was sacrificing what was best for her to support her mother-in-law.
In addition to all that she would give up, she would willingly take on a new level of relationship with Naomi who wasn’t exactly the life of the party by this point. Naomi called herself “bitter” in verse 13 and in verse 20. She wasn’t going to be easy to live with. Naomi was only focused on herself, her pain, her grief, on what she had lost. She couldn’t even acknowledge that Ruth was also grieving. It would be a big sacrifice, and it was going to be 24/7 because they were going to live together!
Loyal Love is provisional.
Not only was Ruth going to sacrifice her old way of life, but she was going to take on new responsibilities which included going to work to provide for herself and for Naomi. It wasn’t going to be a glamorous position. Her plan was to go to a field and walk behind the harvesters. Whatever they would drop or miss, she would bend down and pick up so that she and Naomi would have food to eat. There were actually OT laws that allowed for the poor to make use of this practice. People who love with loyal love are willing to roll up their sleeves in order to make life possible for those whom they love.
Loyal Love is attractive.
The story of Ruth gets pretty interesting in chapters two and three as romance enters the picture. Boaz, the owner of the field where Ruth is gleaning, takes notice of her. He sees the devotion she has for her mother-in-law and the extra effort she willingly gives to provide for her and it attracted him to her. He assured her that she would be safe in his field. He gave his male servants orders not to touch her. When she heard about it, verse 10 says, She bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me–a foreigner?” 11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband–how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before.
He could see the “Hesed,” the Loyal Love she had been expressing. He liked it. It caught his eye. It made her stand out. When Ruth went home with all of the grain she had collected, Naomi was shocked. She asked whose field she had been working in and when she told her his name was Boaz, we see the second reference to “Hesed.” It is chapter 2:20: “The LORD bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness (Hesed) to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers.”
Kinsman-redeemers were important. These were male relatives who, according to various OT laws had the privilege or responsibility to act on behalf of a relative who was in trouble, danger or need, or in this case, deceased. It is someone who would cover and protect and care for the members of the deceased family member, who in that culture, couldn’t adequately care themselves. It was a way to preserve family names and lineage. Naomi, the bitter one, was actually able to see God’s “Hesed” love to her family through the help of Boaz.
In chapter 3, with some prompting from her mother-in-law, Ruth sort of proposed to Boaz, and he basically said, “Yes, I will accept the proposal.” We see the last reference to “Hesed” in chapter 3:10. Ruth 3:10-11 10 “The LORD bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness (Hesed) is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor.
Apparently, there was a decent age difference between the two, and Boaz was quite flattered that Ruth would consider him. She reached out to him and initiated a love contract with him when she could have been with someone maybe more youthful or socially suitable for her.
Boaz promised to take care of her and to reciprocate her love. He talked about her impeccable character which obviously flowed from her “Hesed,” from her loving-kindness, her steadfast commitment to others when she could have made a different choice. They had a few legal things to work out in chapter four, but it was nothing that loyal love couldn’t overcome.
Loyal Love is transforming.
Ruth’s commitment to “Hesed” changed her life. She could have lived bitter herself. She had many reasons to be bitter. She had been a young widow and gave up her country to live in a foreign land. She could have gotten to Bethlehem and thought, “This wasn’t what I thought it would be or hoped it would be, and I can’t do it anymore,” but she didn’t. She could have chased her own dreams instead of taking responsibility for someone else. But she chose “Hesed” for Naomi’s sake. She elevated Naomi’s needs and desires over her own, and as a result, Ruth’s whole life was transformed. Look at Ruth 4:13-17 13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.
From widowed to marriage to motherhood intertwined with a beautiful love story and crazy marriage proposal. Her life went from distressed to blessed. Even greater, perhaps was the transformation seen in Naomi’s life:
14 The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”
Maybe that’s when Naomi realized the incredible “Hesed” her daughter-in-law had shown her. Even though her husband and sons had died, God had still made a way for her to be “Hesed.” The women of the town could see it. They said that Ruth had been better to Naomi than seven sons. Naomi didn’t deserve all Ruth did for her. Her life had gone from bitter to blessed. God had loved her with an everlasting love through Ruth’s incredible commitment. Naomi’s whole life had changed because of Ruth’s loyal love because that’s what “Hesed” does. It changes people from the inside out.
16 Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son.” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
God’s loyal, faithful love is all over this story. Boaz redeemed the family inheritance of Naomi and preserved the family line. The son he and Ruth had was named Obed. Obed wound up being the grandpa to David. Do we remember who descended from the house and lineage of David? Jesus, the epitome of “Hesed.”
Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice for us when He willingly left where He was, to leave Heaven to come and be with us in our bitter and broken state. In loyal love God comes to us daily to provide for our needs. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided! Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.
Naomi added nothing to Ruth’s life when Ruth committed to her. Ruth was the one who took it on the chin, who bore the responsibility on her shoulders, who hung in there with Naomi when others walked away. Listen, we add nothing to God. He receives no benefit from being in a relationship with us other than it is the desire of His heart because He created us for fellowship with Him. “Hesed” love isn’t an equal relationship. It’s one party making the decision to covenant to care for, protect, help and transform the life of someone else who can’t return the favor. Jesus took all of the responsibility for us on His shoulders and He promises to hang around and come around and stay around when nobody else might want anything to do with us. Have you experienced the tenacious, committed, devoted, relentless, kind, patient “Hesed” of God?
