About this episode
One of the more important Hebrew words familiar to Christians is ḥesed, usually translated “lovingkindness” or “steadfast love” in English Bibles. The term certainly conveys those ideas, but those translation options don’t convey the basis of God’s lovingkindness. In like manner, when the term is used of how people are expected to respond to God such translations don’t convey how believers are to show that lovingkindness. In this episode of the podcast, we explore some possible ways to understand ḥesed in relation to believing loyalty, a phrase introduced in Dr. Heiser’s book, The Unseen Realm (Lexham Press, 2015) to describe the believer’s salvation relationship to God across both the Old and New Testament.