I love this name of God.
This name of God is one that brings me peace and hope and relief…
The name we will be looking at today is Jehovah-tsidkenu.
We discover the meaning of Jehovah-tsidkenu in the book of Jeremiah. Now when the prophet Jeremiah was having the words of God written in a scroll it was dark in the days of Israel. It was a time when the people had forgot God. Oh they still did their sacrifices and they had their feasts… and they had them right along with their Baal services and Asherah festivals…
They had convinced themselves that as long as they kept the rituals and traditions they were fine. They did not listen to the prophets of God. They ignored Isaiah and they ignored Jeremiah. Instead they chose to listen to the prophets that told them what they wanted to hear.
Now judgment was coming.
However, even in this coming judgment God gave the remnant hope.
Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD,
“When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch;
And He will reign as king and act wisely
And do justice and righteousness in the land.
“In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell securely;
And this is His name by which He will be called,
‘The LORD our righteousness.’
Jeremiah 23:5-6
You see, many in Israel had decided that they were good enough because of their works, their deeds. They thought that keeping the law would be enough to satisfy God. They thought their tradition keeping would be enough.
Then the Lord said,
“Because this people draw near with their words
And honor Me with their lip service,
But they remove their hearts far from Me,
And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote
Isaiah 29:13
It wasn’t.
It wasn’t because the system was never put in place to simply be a routine tradition. The whole point of the law was to draw the people’s hearts to their God and to make them aware of their need for Him as they became aware of their sinful state… but the people began to think that these traditions made them holy instead of their God. They had forgotten that we can never do enough good stuff to make us good enough to stand in the presence of God.
For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
Isaiah 64:6
All our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment… all of them. And that filthy garment is actually the term used for a females used menstrual cloth… yeh… that’s as good as your best deeds get… so good luck getting to heaven on that.
But now apart from the Law
the righteousness of God has been manifested,
being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
even the righteousness of God
through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe;
for there is no distinction;
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
being justified as a gift by His grace
through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
whom God displayed publicly
as a propitiation in His blood through faith.
This was to demonstrate His righteousness,
Romans 3:21-25
Praise God! I don’t about you but I am ever so grateful that my salvation is not dependant upon my own righteousness nor my ability to perfectly keep the Law… I would never make it.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ,
as though God were making an appeal through us;
we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
He made Him who knew no sin
to be sin on our behalf,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:20-21
Christ came and He traded His righteousness for my sin. I give Him my sin and He gives me His righteousness. It makes absolutely no sense to me why He would do this… I mean really… that is soooo not an even trade! But He knew there was no other way… and He simply loves us that much.
Now when I stand before God on my day of judgment because of the cross, because of the work of my Jesus, I will be able to cry as David cried…
Judge me, O LORD my God, according to Your righteousness,
And do not let them rejoice over me.
Psalm 35:34
Even in my salvation as I live and breathe in this world… as I try to live a life worthy of my calling and worthy of His death… I fail so often. In these failures and stumbles I am able to go to my God and ask His forgiveness and I appeal not to any righteousness of my own, but to the righteousness of my Christ, my righteous Branch, my Jehovah-tsidkenu.
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