The Bride
Book Excerpt
Haceed Unfortunately, the English language doesn't give us a good way to express the concept of love. We only have one word, where Greek has five words. So, where we might use love to describe the feelings we have for different people, or use it to describe our feelings for a favorite food, Greek doesn't have that problem. There is one word for physical sexual love, another for a brotherly affection, and even another for God's type of love. It is much easier to clearly understand what someone is saying when there is this type of clarity in the language. Let's look at it for a moment in Hebrew, the language of the Jews. There is a word "haseed" in their language; this is a specific type of love. It defines the actions of people who make a decision of unconditional love towards another person. Unfortunately, we don't have a direct translation for this word in English. The word haseed is used in the Bible to describe God's attitude towards us. When we look in scripture, we see this word translated as either "tender mercy" or "loving kindness." Actually, that's a rather wimpy translation compared to the original meaning. If you entered into covenant with someone, you would make a decision to act with haceed toward them. No matter what they did, your decision was already made, you would love them unconditionally. You would put their needs before your own, even to the point of having a strong desire to look for ways to meet their needs. Every action you would take, and every thought you would have, would be expressed in your giving to that other person. Nothing would give you greater pleasure than to give of yourself to your covenant partner. Let's look at a couple of scriptures that use the word haceed to show God's actions towards us:
Every time mercy is written, we should replace it with haceed. Mercy has a connotation that God doesn't give us the bad that we deserve. But haceed has a positive connotation, that God desires to give to us. It puts a whole new light on scripture when we see these scriptures in the light of the way they were originally spoken. This word, haceed, is the same word in Hebrew as Agape is in Greek. So, when we say that "God is love," what we are really saying is that "God is haceed." God is literally the very embodiment of haceed. His nature, more than anything, is described by this one Hebrew word.
Haceed needs to be expressed; it can't just be held inside. God created man because He needed someone to pour His haceed out onto. Since He created man in His image, that included the capacity to express haceed. So, man has this most God like of qualities contained within him. That means that just as God needed someone to pour His haceed out onto, so does man. When God created woman, He was fulfilling that need, giving man someone to pour his haceed out onto. Adam recognized this, saying:
Marriage is the act of bringing the two back together, so they can be "one flesh."
It is considered a commandment, not an option, in the Jewish religion that all people will be married. It is only through this relationship that they can serve God in the fullness of His plan, and experience all that God desires to bless them with. It is only as we become the true Bride of Christ that we will experience all that God has for us. We cannot be apart from Him and experience all the blessings that He desires to pour out on us. Likewise, we serve no purpose as His agents in this earth, without His power and haceed flowing through us. It is through the marriage of the church to the Lord that His plan comes to fruition in this universe. |
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Continued in the book "The Bride"
Copyright © 1998, 2001 by Richard A. Murphy, Maranatha Life. All rights reserved.