Jehovah Tsidkenu NoG8

Tonight we are looking at an interesting name for God, and thus an interesting characteristic. The name we are looking at is Jehovah Tsidkenu which means the Lord is our Righteousness. This is a name that is only used twice in our Bible; both times occurring in the book of Jeremiah.

The Hebrew root words that Tsidkenu is derived from means stiff, strait, or righteous. I feel these are good words to describe God. Our God is stiff meaning he is unbending, he does not compromise himself or what he expects from us. This name is very important for us, because in order for us to come into God’s presence then we must be righteous, because God can’t be around sin.

But our Bible tells us in

Romans 3:10  As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:.

Does this mean that we cannot approach God? Yes we cannot approach God alone, but through Jesus we can. Let us begin by looking at the passages in Jeremiah for some historical context. We will start in chapter 23 verse 1.

 Jeremiah 23:1  Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.  Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.   And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.   And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.   Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.   In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

As I am sure we know the book of Jeremiah is a prophetic work, so through Jeremiah God is revealing to Israel things that were going to happen in the future. So what is being revealed here? The first two verses are a warning from God concerning the scribes, Pharisees, and other false teachers.

If we read through the Gospels we realize that Jesus was very much against religion. What I mean by this is that the Jews had become so focused on doing everything correctly and not missing a single letter of the law that they were missing the spirit of the law.

The reason God gave us the law was so that we would see that we were sinners and can only approach God through his grace, it doesn’t matter how good we are for our Bible tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Then and now, if people tried to come to God through themselves God rejects them. The law was and is a type of a shadow pointing us to our need for God’s grace. These first two verses are a stern warning, then and now, for anyone who is in a leadership position. We must make sure that if we are leading then we are also being led by God. I know for me every time I write a lesson I am very careful to look at the passages I am using, the context of the passages, and any passages that are cross referenced in my Bible because we must not pervert the word of God.

Verses 3 and 4 are a promise from God that he will provide the shepherd for his people in the right way, but it is up to us to find them. In the last two verse Jeremiah is painting a picture of Jesus who was the promised messiah that was going to come. Jesus is our righteous. We are unable to come to God apart from Jesus, it does not matter how much you study your bible, how much you pray, how much you give, or what you do in the name of God, if you do not have a relationship with Jesus as your Lord and savior then you are not righteous and cannot approach the throne of God because Jesus is our Lord and our righteousness.  

Let us take a look at the other time this name for God is used in Bible; it is also in Jeremiah.

 Jeremiah 33:15  In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.   In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.

This once again is a prophesy that points us toward Jesus. I think this is interesting because God is telling the Jewish people in these prophesies that it does not matter how well you keep the law or how many sacrifices you make, you simply will never be good enough to come to me.  In verse 15, Jeremiah is saying that the one who will bring righteousness comes from David’s line; this a direct reference to Jesus.

Then in verse 16 is the promise that through this one person Judah and Jerusalem will be saved. We can apply that promise to ourselves as well because when we accept Jesus then it is as if we are righteous.

Since Jesus takes away our sin by his sacrifice on the cross, we are saved because God views us as though we have no sin. In the flesh we are not righteous but through our Jehovah Tsidkenu we are reckoned as righteous.

Since God is our righteousness, then what does this mean for us? What is our part of the job? Let us take a look at what Jesus has to saying about righteousness.

Matthew 5:6  Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

When I used to read this verse in conjunction with Romans 3:10, I used to be confused because on one hand none of us are righteous, but on the other we are blessed if we hunger after righteousness. These verses actually go together perfectly. We must realize that we are called to be imitators of Jesus and thus we need to be striving to be perfect like he is perfect and if we are reaching toward that goal then we are blessed. But we also have to realize that we cannot approach the throne of God ourselves because we are not perfect, we are not righteous apart from Jesus. Jesus in Matthew 5:6 is telling us that by hungering after righteousness then we will be filled, but filled with what?

 I feel that when we are striving after God then we are filled with the Holy Spirit, that is we are filled with God himself. This is pretty awesome because all of the things that we are not, God is; God is perfect, God is righteous, God knows all. By us seeking to be Christ like and by hungering after righteousness we are able to tap into Gods power.

Another large component of Jehovah Tsidkenu is that we are able to resist Satan by calling on this portion of Gods character. If we look back into Genesis and throughout the rest of our Bible we see that Satan is a tempter. But Satan does not tempt with just anything. He uses half-truths because the best temptation or con has an element of truth. I know in my life that when Satan is attacking me, he use things out of my past.

I have these thoughts such as “it doesn’t matter what you do because you remember ten years ago when you stole that candy bar, God doesn’t love you.” The half-truth in that statement is, yes when I was a little kid I did steal the candy, but the truth is that God still loves me and has forgiven me for that.

Satan tries to point out all of the ways we mess up because we are all human and we all mess up but what we have to realize is that once we accept Jesus as our savior he forgives us of all sins. He is our righteousness because through Jesus God views us as if we have no sin. Let us take a look at another scripture talking about Jesus functioning to show us righteousness.

1John 2:2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Looking at this verse the key word here is propitiation. Now what does this mean? It means atonement, it means that Jesus has appeased the wrath of God. Christ dyeing for our sins means that God sees us as righteous.

The law given in the old testament was a type or shadow to show that people needed & need a savior, and Jesus fulfilled the law for us. Let us look at Romans:

Romans 3:19  Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.  Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.  But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;  Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

Let us look at each of these verses on an individual basis. Verse 19 is speaking to us about how if we look at our lives through the lens of the law we are all guilty of breaking the law and deserve to go to hell. And that we must realize that we are guilty and there is nothing that we can do that will make us right with God. Verse 20 is explaining to us that if we did not have the law then we would not know what sin is, for being in the flesh we are opposed to God and his perfection. The Law was given so that we would have a standard to reach toward. It also tells us that no flesh, that is nobody can be justified by the law because we all fail to keep it.

In verse 21, Jesus is the manifestation of Gods righteousness on earth and Jesus did not come simply to say that we are all going to hell even though this is what we deserve. He came so that he could bring us back to the father. Jesus came so that we can be reckoned as righteous before God.

Jesus is our Jehovah Tsidkenu he is our rightounos. But all of the law and prophesies given throughout our Bible are designed to point us toward Jesus. They are designed to show us that we have a need for a savoir, that we cannot do it ourselves.

Verse 22 is assuring us of the fact that it doesn’t matter what our background is God can save us and we can be viewed as righteous before him. If we accept Jesus it doesn’t matter what has happened in our past, it doesn’t matter what country we are from, it doesn’t matter what our skin color is, God sees us all the same.

This verse was originally given to try and show the Jews that people didn’t have to be Jewish to be saved through Jesus because that was a big point of contention during the time period when this was written. We just need to know that when we accept Jesus he becomes our righteousness no matter what our background is. We already talked a little about verse 23 and it pretty self-explanatory but we are all sinners and are separated from God by that sin so we need Jesus to approach the throne of God.

Verse 24 tells us that the only way for us to be redeemed from the life of sin that we lived is through Jesus and it is not something that we have done. It a very simple process; all we must do is believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths and we will be saved.

Now this is the first step and when a person is saved then they have a change of heart and turn away from the negative things that they were doing. But all we need to do to be saved is to repent or turn away and confess Jesus as Lord, then we receive the righteousness of Jesus. We are saved through grace; that is a very simple word but it has a profound effect, that is the word that separated us from every other religion.

We are saved and go to an eternity in heaven because of the free gift God gave us, when he forgave our sins and choices to view us as righteous. In verse 25 it is talking about the blood of Jesus being our propitiation, now what does that word mean looking at the original wording it is the same word that is translated for the mercy seat on the Ark of the Convent.

See through Jesus we are forgiven from our sins. Before Jesus the Jews once a year would place blood on the mercy seat so that their sins would be forgiven for the next year. See how the mercy seat was a type of Jesus. Now Jesus is so much better at showing us righteous before God because we don’t have to kill Jesus every year to be viewed as righteous. He die once for all. That is, he died one time to forgive all sins past, present, and future. Jesus died so that we are reckoned as righteous before God. Jesus is our Jehovah Tsidkenu.