Names of God 9. Jehovah Tsidkenu

               Names of God 9. Jehovah Tsidkenu

  Jehovah Tsidkenu is mentioned twice in the Bible, and both times in Jeremiah. The previous names we have looked at were revealed in Genesis and Exodus, so let me give a quick historical summary up to Jeremiah. The Israelites were led by Moses up to the Jordan River, the border of the promised land. There they sent out 12 spies and 10 of them said it can't be done; these people are bigger and much more formidable than us. The other 2 - Joshua and Caleb said have faith in God, He has gotten us through much deeper water than this. Nevertheless, the people wanted to go back to Egypt again and stone Moses. God decreed that no one over the age of 20 would enter- they would wander in the wilderness for 40 years until that generation all died off. That happened and then Joshua led them into the promised land and defeated all the strongholds and then divided the land into 9 1/2 sections and said capture the rest of the land yourself. (2 1/2 tribes stayed on the other side of the Jordan) Every tribe secured most of their land but none of them kicked out all the indigents as God had commanded so soon they were intermingling intermarrying and worshipping the idols of the land. God raised up enemies to oppress the Israelites who would then cry out to the Lord for help. God would have mercy, send a judge to deliver them, the people would worship God a short time then return to their life of sin and then the cycle would repeat itself. Things got so bad that eventually the people did not want God to rule them anymore but rather a king. Saul started out good but ended up alienated from God. David was a man after God's own heart (the seed of Jesse) but then had a son who later in life fell prey to idolatry. After him the kingdom was divided into North and South and the Northern kingdom was so wicked that God sent them off into captivity by Assyria by 722BC. God even went so far as to say "I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery." Jer.3:8  As you can see, Judah was headed for the same punishment which occurred in 598BC at the hands of Babylon. This occurred later because some of the Southern (Judah) kings worshipped God. Yet, finally God sent them off for 70 years to be punished, though not "divorced" as He would never be done with them for the sake of His love for, and promises to David.

      This is where Jeremiah is prophesying, right before Babylon captures them and during the time of their deportation , 627 - 586BC.

     Jeremiah's message was this;
 “Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’ Jer. 18:11

    The people's response was this;
’¹² But they will reply, ‘It’s no use. We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts.’” Jer. 18:12

    In other words, "God is going to punish you for your wickedness; Repent and act right!"
                              "We would love to but we aren't capable." (gotta admire their honesty)

  Then God introduces a new name

    “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
    “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely
    and do what is just and right in the land.
⁶ In his days Judah will be saved
    and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called:
    The Lord Our Righteous Savior. (Jehovah Tsidkenu) Jer. 23:5,6

  So now the conversation goes like this;
 
  Jeremiah; "God is going to punish you for your wickedness; Repent!"
     People;                         "We would love to but we aren't capable."
 Jehovah Tsidkenu ;  "I know. This is what I will do; I will be good for you. And this is how I will do it"; (see below)  "I will start a new covenant where I give you a new heart and put my Spirit in it  enable you to live rightly; the righteousness you were incapable of - I will be and do for you and in you."

    This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
    and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.
³⁴ No longer will they teach their neighbor,
    or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
“For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.”  Jer. 31:33,34
^" I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. ²⁸ Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. ²⁹ I will save you from all your uncleanness." Ezek. 36:26,27

       Fast-forward 600 years and onto the scene comes this "righteous branch" from the line of David, Jesus Christ. He tells the people that unless their righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees (the professional do-gooders) they will never enter Heaven (Matt.5:20). Imagine the raised eyebrows - "How can anyone be righteous if they aren't; what hope is there?" Jesus is basically agreeing with Isaiah where he says in 64:6 where he says that all our righteous deeds are comparable to filthy rags. He is agreeing with Habbakuk in 2:13 where he says that the peoples good works are fuel for the fire. He agrees with David in Psalm 14:3 where he says that there is no one righteous - no not one.
       Lets look at one of these discussions that Jesus has with His disciples during an encounter with the Rich Young Ruler in Mark 10:17-27

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
¹⁸ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ¹⁹ You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
²⁰ “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
²¹ Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
²² At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
²³ Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
²⁴ The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
²⁶ The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
²⁷ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

    The Rich Young Ruler starts out by calling Jesus "good". Jesus asks him, "Why do you call Me good, only God is good?" Why does Jesus say this? I can come up with three reasons. 1) Self deprecation/humility. Kind of an "aw shucks". Leonard Sweet tweeted on 10/20/14 " If Jesus was self deprecating - "Why do you call Me good?"- what's our excuse for not being humble?" Now since Jesus never turned down worship and gloried in praise (one of His proofs of divinity) it is a  BIG stretch to think he was being modest here.  2)He wanted to distinguish Himself from God and divinity. This is a passage often referred to by cults as proof that Jesus wasn't God. The discussion of this goes well beyond this blog  http://thoughtsfromtherightbrain.blogspot.com/2012/06/is-jesus-god.html but most of my readers would agree that this is a wrong interpretation.(My wife pointed out that even in Jeremiah 23:5,6 the branch , Jesus, is called Jehovah) So that leaves us with #3 and that Jesus is calling attention to the fact that if He is good like the young man claimed, then He must be God because only God is good. I believe this is the right interpretation and Jesus dismantles the man's self righteousness by starting with the 1st of the 10 commandments "You shall have no other gods before Me" and shows him that money is his god. He can't even keep the first much less all 10! The disciples are wowed by this because they are thinking that if this "good" guy can't get in, who can? Jesus says that righteousness of man is impossible. But righteousness of God given to man is possible by faith.

      Paul spends a lot of time dealing with this concept

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; ³¹ but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. ³² Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. ³³ As it is written:

“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall,
    and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. ² For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. ³ Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. ⁴ Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.  Romans 9:30-10:4

 

that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.  Phil.3:8,9

 

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  2 Cor.5:21

 

he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior   Titus 3:5,6

 

      Peter also talks about it;

 

He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness  1Peter 2:24

 

      John also talks about it;

 

If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.  1John 2:29, 3:7

To summarize, watch this Youtube video of the Parable of the Pumpkin which hopefully visually demonstrates Jehovah Tisdkenu better than I can explain it.

         
²⁶ the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. ²⁷ To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.   Col.1:26,27

  I will talk some more about this next week but in closing look at the three songs that relate to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZMd9QnX1g8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5dvNI4kl4U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRBQtIEEkrU