Jehovah Tsidqenu

A lot happened since God revealed His name, Jehovah Sabaoth

The time of the Judges

As we have traveled through Israel’s history, we have finished with the era when the Israelites came into their promised land and were ruled by various judges. Recall that it was a time of ups and downs for Israel as they could not seem to remember to worship their God, Elohim, and they embraced the false gods of their neighbors, the various ‘-ites.’ They endured judgment after judgment as they fell into the hands of their enemies because of their idolatry, then repented and were delivered.

The time of the Kings

Next came the era of the Kings, beginning with King Saul. Although he reigned for 40 years, God removed the kingship from his familial line of Benjamin because of his disobedience right at the start of his reign. The kingly line was transferred to David of the tribe of Judah. David, too, had his ups and downs with God, but not because of idolatry. God called David a man after His own heart (See 1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22).

David’s heirs

David’s son, Solomon, took the throne after David. Solomon was wise and ambitious. He built the Temple in Jerusalem, his own palace, and fortified many of his cities. After his reign, his son Rehoboam became king. 

Rise and fall of the Northern Kingdom

Because Rehoboam refused to lighten the taxes and forced labor that his father, Solomon, had required, ten of the tribes of Israel seceded and became their own kingdom, ruled by their own king. 

Jeremiah

The prophet Jeremiah was a Levite prophet living in the southern kingdom of Judah. He ministered for about 40 years during the reigns of the last five kings of Judah, prophesying the destruction of Judah by Babylon, and encouraging their peaceful surrender to the king of Babylon in order to save lives. He was labeled a traitor for preaching this unpopular message. He was so despised that he was publicly shamed, and endured scorn and physical punishment. 

Poor Jeremiah was whipped, put in stocks, and thrown into a cistern to starve, all because he told the people what God told him to say. God forbade him to marry or join in any festivals or social events because all the people would die in the coming wars. God did not want Jeremiah to have to suffer by seeing his wife and children being killed.

No one ever said that following God was easy, but in Jeremiah’s case, it was extreme.

The Last Five Kings of Judah

Jeremiah began his prophetic ministry in the 13th year of King Josiah. He actively ministered during the reigns of the last five kings before the dispersion to Babylon, and he also ministered while the Babylon-appointed Governer, Gedeliah, had charge over Jerusalem. He was finally carried off, himself, to Egypt.

1. Josiah became king when he was 8 years old. During his reign of 31 years, he purged the country of the idolatrous high places and began repairs on the Temple. He hosted the first national Passover since the time that David was king, and began the reunification of the Northern and Southern kingdoms. Unfortunately, before this could be accomplished, he died at the age of 39 when he went to battle against the king of Egypt. Josiah was generally regarded as a godly king.

For the most part, Josiah respected Jeremiah.  Jeremiah prophesied that Judah would fall under judgment and be carried into captivity. Because Josiah’s heart was right before God and he had tried to right the wrongs of past kings, he was assured that the judgment would not fall during his lifetime. 

2. Jehoahaz, middle son of Josiah, began his reign at age 23 and sat on the throne for only three months. Even in his short reign, he re-instituted pagan practices and was hostile towards Jeremiah. He was considered to be a wicked king, along with the subsequent kings. He was taken into captivity by Pharaoh Neco of Egypt. He never returned to Judah and died in exile.

3. Jehoiakim, oldest son of Josiah, was placed on the throne by Pharaoh Neco when he was 25 years old. He was hostile towards Jeremiah, burning the scroll with the warnings of God’s judgment. Jehoiakim tried to seize Jeremiah and his scribe, Baruch, but God hid them for their safety. Jeremiah prophesied that Jehoiakim would die without honor and suffer a ‘donkey’s burial. Jehoiakim died during a Babylonian siege after a reign of 11 years and his body was thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.

4. Jehoiachin, grandson of Josiah and son of Jehoiakim, began his reign at 18 years of age, continuing the rejection of Jeremiah and his prophecies. He, his family, and his court surrendered to King Nebuchadnezzar and were carried away to Babylon during the 8th year of his reign. The temple was looted and sacked, and thousands of gifted Israelites were taken away to Babylon. 

 It was during the reign of Jehoiachin that Jeremiah first prophesied the coming of Jehovah Tsidqenu, The Lord Our Righteousness.

5. Zedekiah, youngest son of Josiah, was the last king of Judah. The King of Babylon set him over the remains of Jerusalem when he was 20 years old. During his reign, Jeremiah was frequently persecuted, imprisoned, and treated as a traitor for prophesying Judah’s defeat by Babylon. Despite this, Zedekiah consulted with Jeremiah in secret, but feared to act on his advice. Zedekiah reigned for 11 years until he rebelled against Babylon. During the subsequent siege, he was captured and had to watch as his sons were killed, then he was blinded and carried to Babylon in chains.

Jehovah Tsidqenu

Jehovah Tsidqenu means The Lord Our Righteousness. It is only found twice in the Bible, both times in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah prophesied about the messiah, a future king from the righteous branch of David.

In this prophecy, God lamented about how his people had been misled by false shepherds, the false prophets of the kings of Judah. When Jeremiah was at a low point in his life, God gave him this encouraging word about a time to come when His remnant would be gathered back together.  

This is the first time in our study that a name of God was revealed that was not for the current moment. Jeremiah spoke prophetically about the future coming messiah who would reign and save Judah and Israel.

God repeated this encouraging prophecy several years later. Zedekiah was made king after the people of Judah were marched off to Babylon and Zedekiah had imprisoned Jeremiah in the court prison. Again, Jeremiah was feeling dejected. Throughout the entirety of this prophecy, which is found in chapter 33, God spoke of the good things to come when Jehovah Tsidqenu was made manifest.

Why did God speak of this name for Himself in the future rather than in the present? What is there about righteousness that was not good material for Jeremiah’s timeframe?

Righteousness under the Old Covenant

Let’s look at righteousness from an Old Testament perspective. It was quite a bit different than the way we view it today. For those under the Abrahamic covenant and Mosaic law, it really amounted to conformity to God’s laws and being faithful to the covenant. But what of those living before the existence of the covenant and the law? 

Noah was described as righteous in his generation. He lived long before the Abrahamic covenant.

Abraham was described as walking righteously with God, even as God began the ceremony for the Abrahamic covenant with him.

Let’s look at David: David was certainly not a man who behaved well all of his life. He did some bad things now and then, but he was in right-standing with God. He had a relationship with God rather than just moral perfection. When he did wrong, he had heart-felt repentance and turned to God instead of away from Him. God honored him for it, calling him a man after God’s own heart.

What was it that made these men righteous even before the law was instituted? In all three of these men, it was the heart and the relationship that made all the difference.

Was the law ever meant to bestow righteousness?

The Pharisees of Jesus’ time looked at the law as if it was all that was necessary to attain righteousness. They took righteousness to mean obeying the letter of the Mosaic law. They rigidly showed outward compliance to it, but they neglected the transformation of the heart. They became self-righteous, rather than God-righteous. 

Isaiah described this kind of righteousness as ‘filthy rags’ and Jesus made it clear that this kind of righteousness would not get them into heaven.

Paul quoted from the Psalms when he said, There is none righteous, no not one … Romans 3:10

The Pharisees were educated men. They knew these scriptures about righteousness and many more, and believed them at some level. Today we would call their failure to comprehend how it applied to them as ‘being in denial.’ It was comfortable for them to use the law as a way to practice social one-upmanship.

Clothed with Righteousness

There are references in the Bible about putting on Righteousness as you would put on a garment: wearing it as a robe or wearing it as armor. It makes me think that perhaps this is not just figurative but a literal description of how righteousness is attained.

Isaiah must have had a revelation of this when he said that God’s people are clothed with a robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61). He implied that it was something that was bestowed, rather than something that could be earned. Other like-references can be found in the books of Job, Ephesians, and even Revelation.

This tells me that righteousness, or right-standing with God, is not the same as righteous works. There is a difference between righteousness and living righteously.

Righteousness could not be attained

Righteousness simply could not be attained by any person under the Old Covenant. Yes, there were those who had righteousness accounted to them because of their relationship with God, but no one could truly be righteous. 

This is why Abraham could not walk between the pieces of flesh when God made His covenant with him in Genesis 15. God required another who was righteous as God was righteous to complete this covenant. Abraham could not do it because he only had righteousness accounted to him, but he would not be vested in it until Jesus came.

When God spoke through Jeremiah, revealing Jehovah Tsidqenu, the coming Righteous King, He was foretelling the coming of righteousness to mankind through Jesus. The born-again experience is where we are given our robes of righteousness. Once we put on this identifying piece of clothing, we are permanently identified as belonging to God’s household. It is a position that we hold, not a work of any kind.

We cannot become unrighteous, because to become so would make us strangers to God and exclude us from coming into God presence. So, even when we do not feel like we have done righteous works, or when we feel like we have let God down, we are still righteous because we have accepted the finished work of Jesus Christ and received Jehovah Tsidqenu into our lives and hearts. We are part of the family of God.

Jehovah Tsidqenu in our lives

Anyone who has ever lost a spouse to death knows of the emptiness that comes at the time of passing. It is as if a part of you is suddenly missing. Jesus experienced this as he died on the cross and was ripped away from God the Father and God the Holy Spirit who had been part of him for his entire life on earth. It was a truly devastating and cataclysmic loss.

Once you have experienced the presence of God in your inner heart, you are aware of Him at some level for your entire lifetime. Believe me, you would know it instantly if you were ever separated from him.

Knowing what you know now, that misbehaving or sinful acts or wrong thinking does not damage your righteousness with God, do you feel any more confident in your relationship with Him?

Walking in the attribute of righteousness is like many other attributes of God: you must practice to strengthen it and become good at it. What are some ways to do this? You will find your own pathway for this, but I can share some of the ways that it has manifested in my life.

I have found that I don’t want to do anything that would separate me from my ability to talk with God. Because of this, I try to live a life of integrity and honesty. When I get frustrated or angry, I apologize right away. I may still be in the pits, but I repent of any ill feelings and, usually, I try to find something to be thankful about.

These are just a couple of my strategies. What strategies do you have to maintain a clear channel between you and God?