Hallowed Be Your Name, A Study of the Names of God - Part 10: Jehovah Tsidkenu

REVIEW
 
So we have been studying the Names of God for a few months now and we are doing this not just to be able to win a theological argument and to be able to impress God or others with our knowledge. No, we are studying God’s Names in order to truly “hallow” who He is. That means that we are attempting to make who He is more holy in our eyes.
 
And for what purpose? Why is it important to have hearts that both understand and glorify His Names? It is to know Him better and have more confidence when we approach Him!
 
It’s all about knowing God, church, and no, not just knowing about Him, but knowing Him personally & intimately.
 
So that is what we have been doing – coming to know our God more so that our prayer lives can blossom and our walk with Him can go to a different level.
 
So we came to first know God as Elohim – the All-Powerful, All-Knowing Sovereign Creator who rules over all, and who is the judge over all His creation.
 
Then we looked at a few of Elohim’s descriptors –  El Shaddai, El Elyon, and El Roi. These three Names show us God as the All-Sufficient One, the Most-High God, and the All-Seeing Creator.  
 
We then turned our attention to the most accurate Name for God, the Name, Yahweh. We saw how this name describes God as the Great I AM, the self-existing One, and the one who was and is to come. Through this Name, the LORD essentially says, “I AM” and we would say, “The LORD IS.” Yes, this Name basically invites us and even teases us to know Him better by leaving an open-ended sentence of who He is.
 
So then we saw how, through this Name Yahweh (which is commonly known as Jehovah in our English-speaking Bibles), He began to reveal Himself more specifically to His chosen people and answer that question – Who is He?
 
So far, we have learned about six of His “Jehovah Names.” These Names are:  

1. Jehovah Shammah –The LORD is There.
2. Jehovah Rapha – The LORD is (our) Healer.
3. Jehovah M’Kaddesh – The LORD is (our) Sanctifier.
4. Jehovah Sabaoth – The LORD of Hosts.
5. Jehovah Rohi – The LORD is (our) Shepherd.

 
Most recently, we looked at the Name, Jehovah Jireh – the LORD our provider.


We looked at the story where this Name came from – where the LORD told Abraham to go sacrifice Isaac in Genesis chapter 22 – and a couple of our biggest takeaways were how the Lord’s nature is to be a provider and how that provision comes into our lives.
 
First of all, we learned how the LORD being called our provider should not surprise us because, in our lives, who is supposed to be the provider for us according to the flesh? It’s our earthly fathers. This is meant to be our first exposure to what provision is supposed to look like.
 
And then, after we leave our father and become one flesh with another, who is generally meant to be the provider in that next relationship? The husband. And aren’t we called the Bride of Christ? Therefore, we are married to the LORD as His body, and we can expect that same “Jireh” tendency in our covenant with Him.
 
So if the LORD is called our Heavenly Father and our Husband, then you will not meet a better provider than Him! Yes, God knows how to provide for His children and His bride. He delights in providing for His creation. He loves being the source of any and all provision – of course, first spiritually, but also in the physical realm.
 
Now like I said, another big point that was made last week is how the LORD does indeed provide, and we saw how this provision came to Abraham for several reasons:
 
Number one, he was willing to do what the LORD was asking Him to do. He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t balk. No, he rose early in the morning and went where God told him to, which is a big point in God’s provision.
 
He also believed God’s Word: We saw how from Hebrews 11:17-19 he was holding fast to God’s Word that in Isaac, his seed would be called – meaning, He believed the LORD would provide a solution. We saw that this was why Abraham said to his servants that he and Isaac would come back to them when they went up the mount together that God showed him. 
 
Then we saw how Abraham spoke out his faith further to Isaac when he said that the LORD would provide for Himself the necessary sacrifice – showing us that its important to use your words to activate the faith for God’s provision.
 
And finally, we saw how where the LORD told Abraham to go had everything to do with the provision being present because the mountain that God showed Him already contained the ram that would wind up being the sacrifice. Therefore, the pro-vision – the ability to see the need beforehand – was already at the place God showed Abraham to go to. Therefore, his provision was where he was supposed to be, not necessarily where he was.
 
Church, Jehovah Jireh is who He is. The LORD desires to provide for you. In fact, He has already made that provision. All you need to do is find out where He wants you and simply believe that He is who He has said He is. Amen!
 
JEHOVAH TSIDKENU
 
Now the next Name of God that I would like us to cover is one that is written all over your Bible – Jehovah Tsidkenu – describing the LORD our Righteousness.
 
No, this Name of God is not a phrase that you’ll find in more than a couple of places, but what I am referring to as being all throughout the Scriptures is the concept of righteousness. Yes, the term “righteousness” most certainly is a word that is laced throughout our Bibles in both the Old and New Testament.
 
You see, righteousness was what the LORD was constantly having to correct Israel about through His prophets – their inability to do what was right in God’s sight. And it was what the LORD came to restore to us through the Lord Jesus Christ and was a hot topic throughout His epistles to the church. So from beginning to end, we see righteousness as a word that is used over and over. Therefore, because the Lord speaks so much about it throughout His Word, we can see that it is in His heart in abundance – for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
 
But even though God speaks much about righteousness in His Word, there are only two uses of this Name “Jehovah Tsidkenu” in the Bible, and they are both in the Book of Jeremiah. So let’s look at both of these instances because we don’t just want to study what this Name means; we also want to look at the historical and Biblical context that this Name of God was given in.
 
The first time Jeremiah speaks of Jehovah Tsidkenu is in Jeremiah 23:5-6 when the LORD said, “Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, that I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
 
Now it’s important to understand that Jeremiah was the LORD’s prophet during a very difficult time in Israel’s history. He was the man of God that both warned Israel of what was to come and also witnessed the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian empire as well as the destruction of the Solomon’s Temple. This was the period known as the “Babylonian captivity”, when the Israelites were exiled into Babylon.
 
So Jeremiah was prophesying here to a people who were being carried away into bondage that there would be a restoration of Jerusalem through the reign of a righteous king, which I’m sure provided Israel with hope even in the midst of their difficult circumstances.
 
The second time the Name “Jehovah Tsidkenu” appears is ten chapters later where Jeremiah again makes the reference to the restoration of Israel:
 
Jeremiah 33:14-16 says, “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah: In those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David a Branch of righteousness; He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
 
So the LORD basically repeats Himself here to remind His chosen people of what He was promising to do for them.
 
Church, I don’t know if we fully realize how important it is to have truths repeated to us like this. If Jeremiah’s listeners were anything like us, they probably had forgotten what the LORD had said a couple of chapters after he said them, much less ten chapters later. Therefore, the LORD repeating things to us is most certainly necessary.
 
And here’s a good word of wisdom for us: When the LORD repeats things to us, they are truths that we need to pay special attention to. And this truth of the Branch of Righteousness who was to come is certainly the Truth that we need to hear.  
 
You see, what Jeremiah was ultimately prophesying about is this day & age that you and I are blessed to be a part of – the new and better covenant of the Christ. Therefore, when the LORD is called here – Jehovah Tsidkenu – THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS – it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is being prophesied about. So, Jesus is both the LORD of righteousness and the LORD our righteousness.
 
This is important to understand because oftentimes the Jews were looking for an earthly Messiah when it came to the bondage they found themselves in. Yes, they were looking for some sort of a king to save them from various forms of oppression they incurred. During Jesus’ day, it was their Roman oppression, and during Jeremiah’s day, it was their Babylonian oppression.
 
Yes, Israel had been through a variety of captivities – all self-induced, mind you: They had been enslaved by the Egyptians, conquered by the Babylonians, governed by the Persians and then by the Greeks, and finally, they were conquered by the Romans.
 
So by the time of Christ, there were many movements pushing for an overthrow of their latest oppressors, and they looked towards the Messiah as prophesied in the Scriptures to come and deliver them from their worldly oppressors.
 
This is where Jesus did not meet the expectations of many of the Jewish people. Instead of leading them in a political revolution, He repeatedly explained that his kingdom was “not of this world”, and that the real enemy he came to deliver them from was sin and their slavery to the devil. In other words, he was not aimed merely at their freedom from Roman rule, but at the freedom of all human beings from the tyranny of sin and death. Therefore, in the freedom that Christ brings, we can become truly righteous. And it is only through Jesus, the Savior of the world, who makes this righteousness possible. That is why he is our righteousness and why Jeremiah calls him “Jehovah Tsidkenu.”
 
Now it is important to understand that God does care about the natural oppression that people face. It’s certainly not that He turns a blind eye to it. There is just something that is more important – and that is the spiritual oppression that people are under. Therefore, their Messiah came to first deliver God’s people from their spiritual bondage to sin and not to the physical bondage they were in. 
 
We do know that the LORD does indeed care about righteousness being executed on the physically oppressed because of how He constantly corrected His people about this very thing. Yes, we see Him oftentimes referring to the virtues of righteousness and justice in regard to what He expected His people to do for the poor, the widows, the orphans, their servants, etc. So it is clear that the LORD’s pet peeve was injustice towards those in need.
 
So yes, our righteous LORD certainly cares about us practicing righteousness on the oppressed and needy. He has done this for us numerous times and He expects us to do the same for others. 
 
So for this to be repeated in Jeremiah’s Book and also to be a reoccurring theme in the rest of the Prophets, it must be a big part of God’s nature and Name because He is the LORD of righteousness.    
 
WHAT IS RIGHTEOUSNESS?
So what exactly is “righteousness”? I don’t want to just assume everyone knows this term, but want it to be clearly understood.
 
Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines “righteousness” as so – Purity of heart and rectitude of life; conformity of heart and life to the divine law. Righteousness as used in Scripture and theology, in which it is chiefly used, is nearly equivalent to holiness, comprehending holy principles and affections of heart, and conformity of life to the divine law. It includes all we call justice, honesty and virtue, with holy affections; in short, it is true religion.
 
Now that’s about how clear righteousness is to a lot of people. Not only that, but that definition makes me realize that not only is it hard to comprehend, it’s hard to apprehend as well!
 
So let me dummy it down for you: The term righteousness is just a religious cliché. But it’s really very simple – this term really just means “rightness,” that is, being right and doing right. And when I say, “being right,” I’m not referring to being right in our opinion or our doctrine. No, this refers to being right in God’s sight.   
 
This is why a good layman’s definition of righteousness is simply, “right standing with God.” Righteousness is the condition of being in right relationship with the Lord. So essentially being righteous is being considered righteous by God and therefore, our relationship with Him is “right” where it needs to be.
 
Now another term that you’ll see used to describe this righteousness is justification or being justified. I like a play on words that I’ve heard used before – it’s “just-if-I’d (never sinned).” And that’s exactly what righteousness is – It’s being justified in the eyes of God to where, when He looks at me, He does not look at all of my mistakes and shortcomings. He sees me “just if I’d never even had those mistakes or shortcomings.” 
 
A rather comical story along these lines that I’ve heard my father in the faith tell before is when he had a job developing pictures in a photography studio. People would come into the studio to look at their proofs and say things like, “This picture doesn’t do me justice.” I never had the nerve to say this, but I often thought, “You don’t need justice, you need mercy.” LOL!
 
And thanks be to God that all of us who once deserved justice for the things we had done have received mercy instead. That’s what righteousness is.
 
So again, righteousness can simply be defined as “rightness.” I like to define it as so – righteousness is who or what is right in God’s sight and in agreement with His standards. And when you look at the various Scriptural examples of what the LORD calls “righteous and righteousness,” you’ll find that it is taking someone who is in a less fortunate position and elevating them up out of it. This can be meeting the needs of the poor, healing the sick, or providing for the orphan or widow. 
 
So again, in the Old Testament, when we see so much about the LORD correcting His chosen people about it, what we are seeing is God admonishing the Jews for not doing the “right” thing. And in the New Testament, when we see so much about righteousness being what God freely makes all of His children, what we are seeing is the LORD bringing His people into right standing with Him once again.
 
So righteousness is both what we do and what we are. I call this positional righteousness and practical righteousness. Positionally speaking, we have been made right through the blood of Jesus and, practically speaking, we are also called to do what is right through the help of the Holy Spirt.  
 
So when God is called the LORD our righteousness, what that means is that He is the LORD of rightness. He is the One who delights in making people right and in agreement with His standards, and He is the One who desires right to be done for people who need help. This is His Name – Jehovah Tsidkenu.
 
THE PROSECUTING ATTORNEY
 
Now it’s important to understand that while God has His own Names, the devil has his names too. And these names that he is given in the Scriptures likewise teach about who he is and what he does.
 
You see, one of the devil’s proper names – “Satan” – literally describes an “adversary” or “opponent.” So when Lucifer rebelled against God and tried to take His spot, he became known as Satan – the adversary or opponent of God. He is the great adversary of all that is of God. Anything that God has authored or is doing, he will be right there to oppose it – and that includes us.
 
In First Peter 5:8, he is specifically called our “adversary.” In this word lies a key to understanding one of his weapons that he loves to use against us.
 
You see, this word comes from the Greek word antidikos and literally describes “an opponent in a court of justice.” In other words, the devil is “the prosecuting attorney.” This word antidikos comes from the word anti meaning “against” and the word dikos where the word “righteousness” is derived from. Therefore, this title of “adversary” describes Satan as being the one who is “against righteousness.”
 
We see this characteristic of Satan play out in several places in the Scriptures:
 
We see it first in the Book of Job (Job 1:6-12) where Satan comes to present himself before God regularly to bring accusations against people because he is the accuser of the brethren. But we also need to understand that not only does he accuse us before God, day and night, but he also will accuse us directly both day and night. In other words, one of his primary devices that he uses against us is condemnation!
 
Another example of this is found in Zechariah 3:1-5 where we see how the high priest, Joshua, was standing before the Angel of the Lord and how Satan was standing at his right hand to oppose him. 
 
In this story, we see the devil standing there again at Joshua’s right hand like a prosecuting attorney. It is because this is his nature – to stand before our God both day and night in order to bring accusations against us.
 
Saints, this is what the enemy does – He accuses! He lives to uncover our flaws, reveal our mistakes and expose our weaknesses. When we miss it in an area, he is sure to bring a case against us in an attempt to condemn us.          
 
Yes, the devil is constantly trying to make us feel guilty and worthy of punishment. The word “condemn” in the dictionary is defined as “to deem unfit for use” in reference to a building being condemned. And this is what the enemy desires to accomplish—to convince us that we are unfit to be used by God.
 
So if this is what the devil spends all his time doing, you can bet the bank that God is doing the opposite!
 
THE ADVOCATE
 
The apostle Paul makes this point in Romans 8:33-34 when he asked the questions: “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect?” and “Who is he who condemns?” That is clearly the accuser of the brethren, that prosecuting attorney himself, church!
 
Then Paul goes on to answer those questions by essentially saying, “It ain’t God doing that!” No, he says God is the One who justifies! In other words, God is not the condemner; God is the justifier! Yes, and Jesus is the One ever living to make intercession for us.
 
Just as it was with Joshua, the high priest – our Angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, responds to Satan’s accusations against us with, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” (Zechariah 3:2)
 
Now for the rest of the story… Zechariah 3:3-5 goes on to say, “Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, ‘Take away the filthy garments from him.’ And to him He said, ‘See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.’ And I said, ‘Let them put a clean turban on his head.’ So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by.”
 
This is a beautiful picture of what the Lord has done to our filthy garments – that is, our filthy rags of unrighteousness. He has taken our filth from us! He has removed our iniquity and clothed us with His rich robe of righteousness! Amen!
 
So the truth is that we have an advocate (i.e., a defense attorney) with the Father—Jesus Christ the righteous (First John 2:1) and that makes the LORD the One who fights for our righteousness!
 
You see, First John 2:1 teaches us some invaluable truths about the nature of the LORD of righteousness:
 
Notice first that the apostle John said, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin …”
 
So what was it that John wrote in his epistle? It was LOVE and it was TRUTH. But oh so many feel that sharing about God’s great love will only drive one more into sin. This was not at all John’s intention. He said here that he wrote the things he did so that his readers would not sin. But here is the part that GRACE imparts – “… And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 
 
Notice Jesus Christ is called “the righteous” here. That’s describing His nature as that of righteousness. But His point here is that if we do miss it, sinning and falling short of the glory of God, righteous Jesus is there to advocate for us with the Father.
 
The word “advocate” comes from the Greek word parakletos which describes one called alongside of us. It was a term used to describe a legal counselor who would plead another’s cause before a judge. And this likely describes what we are told in Zechariah 3:5 when it says, “And the angel of the LORD stood by.”
 
Isn’t this also the way Jesus described the Holy Spirit to us as well – as One called alongside to be our helper? That means that the Holy Spirit, likewise, is not a condemner. Sure, He will show us when we miss it and lead us from sin, but His nature is to be our defense attorney.
 
Now we have this little saying in the world about playing “devil’s advocate.” And while I understand this just describes someone who pretends, in an argument or discussion, to be against an idea or plan that a lot of people support, in order to make people discuss and consider it in more detail, I don’t like to use it. Why? Because the terms “devil” and “advocate” shouldn’t be used in the same sentence, as the devil is the exact opposite of an advocate.
 
So we can clearly see that both Jesus and the Holy Spirit are on the side of righteousness. And if they both are, then you can be sure the Father is too! Yes, the Godhead is on our side – Jesus being our Great High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for us!
 
And the truth is if He be for us who can be against us (See Romans 8:31)? In other words, if He, being the greatest defense attorney ever, is on our side then who can successfully win a case against us!?! Romans 8:32 implies that if God gave His only begotten Son for us then how could we believe that He wouldn’t forgive us of individual sins after we have been saved. If God was merciful to us when we were His enemies, how much more will He show us mercy now that we are His children? (Romans 5:9-10)
 
So again, in Romans 8:33, the apostle Paul asks the question— “Who shall bring a charge (or, accusation) against God’s elect (i.e., favorite, picked out, the one God voted for)?” He answers his own question by saying, “It is God who justifies!” In other words, “The LORD is the One busy making people right before Him!”
 
You see, God is the One who declares people innocent and righteous! Again, in Romans 8:34 he asks that other question— “Who is he who condemns?” And again, He answers his own question by saying, “It is Christ who died…” That simply means that Christ took all of our condemnation and died in our place! Praise God! But thank God, He didn’t stay in the tomb! Paul went on to explain— “…and furthermore is also risen.” Romans 4:25 says that He was raised for our justification.
 
You see, it would not have been good enough for Jesus to just die for our sins. He also needed to be raised so that we could be justified with Him. So, Paul told us that He was not only raised from the dead, but He was also raised to the right hand of God, which is the ultimate place of power and authority.
 
I think the next phrase is so awesome! Not only did Jesus die for us, not only was He raised from the dead for us, and not only was He raised up to the right hand of God for us. On top of all that, He is the one “who also makes intercession for us!” You see, Jesus is not the one bringing accusations and condemning us! He is the one standing between us and the Father, defending us as our Advocate and Intercessor! The devil is the prosecuting attorney, but Jesus is the defense attorney, which is essentially what an advocate is!   
 
You see, church, Jesus says to all of us what He said to the woman caught in adultery— “Where are those accusers of yours?... Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” (John 8:10-11).
 
So, if Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), then He is saying that to all of us today— “Neither do I condemn you!” Yes, the only time He will ever cast judgment on anyone is on that Great Judgment Day, when those who did not believed on Him will be condemned. But until then, He says “Neither do I condemn you” yesterday, today and forever. Amen!