The Names of God: YHWH Tsidkenu
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The LORD is Our Righteousness
The LORD is Our Righteousness
1 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. 2 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. 3 Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.
5 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
It seems fitting given the passing this week our Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II that our passage today concerns the reign of a coming King who shall deal wisely, execute justice and righteousness and who will bring peace and salvation for His people. This word from the prophet Jeremiah was given in a time when wicked kings and despoting rulers reigned. Men ruled violently, selfishly and brought destruction and disaster upon their people. I found myself quite moved this week as I processed the news of the Queen’s passing. What touched me so much about the Queen was that, human and imperfect though she was, she ruled with a humility and a grace that is so sorely lacking in so many leaders today. She understood her role, that she was there to serve the people of this nation, not herself. And she confessed that it was the ministry and example of Jesus Christ that gave her the strength to do this. She was in a way the last vestige of an era that has now gone. Why is it that we so loved the Queen? Because deep down we all long for a ruler who will rule wisely, who will bring justice, peace and righteousness to the land. Deep down we long for this King mentioned in Jeremiah 23:5, the one called the Righteous Branch.
This name of God, יְהוָ֥ה צִדְקֵֽנוּ , YHWH Tsidkenu is made of up of two Hebrew words, the divine name, YHWH and a noun from the Hebrew word Tsedek meaning righteousness. There is also a little pro-nominal suffix on the end of the noun to make it read ‘our righteousness’. So it can be rendered in English ‘YHWH Our Righteousness’ or ‘YHWH is Our Righteousness’.
This name for God is used twice in the scriptures, both instances are in the book of Jeremiah. This is the first usage, and the second is in chapter 33.
15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
In chapter 33 it is actually Jerusalem that is called ‘YHWH Tsidkenu’, but in chapter 23 we are told that this name will be the name of a man, a king, related to David who will reign and bring peace and prosperity to Judah and Israel.
This notion of a righteous ruler coming from the house of David would have seemed far fetched to the Jews at the time, David’s line seemed to be all but ended. Asides from Hezekiah, Josiah and one or two others all the kings of Judah had been degenerate and now Babylon had taken King Jehoiakim and his successor to captivity and left the puppet ruler Zedekiah (which means Yah is my righteousness!) who we are told did some pretty awful things:
11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. 13 He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel. 14 All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the Lord that he had made holy in Jerusalem.
15 The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. 16 But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.
God calls these wicked Kings, 'shepherds who destroy’. These shepherds are shepherds only in name, God says they scattered His sheep instead of gathering them, and have not attended to their needs. Just as there were shepherds by name only in the time of Jeremiah, so too there are shepherds by name only in the world today. Men and Women who bear the name and title of Pastor but who do nothing to look after God’s sheep and instead scatter and drive them away.
God promises that He will attend to them for their wicked deeds. This prophecy is an oracle of judgement upon false shepherds ruling over the people of God. This is a sobering warning to all false shepherds attempting to lead Christians astray today.
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
God then promises that He will gather the remnant of His flock out of all the countries where He has driven them and bring them back to the fold. This prophecy was fulfilled when the remnant returning from Babylon in around 534BC under Zerubabbel, but only partially.
The prophecy also says that they will fear no more or be dismayed, and this certainly didn’t happen after the remnant returned, we know that they were attacked by the people of the land and that Jerusalem was destroyed again just a few hundred years after they returned from Babylon by Antiochus Epiphanes.
It also states that a King of David’s line will rule in righteousness, and it is under his rule that all Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. Well, we can’t say that all these things have happened yet, all Judah clearly hasn’t been saved yet and Israel to this day can’t be said to be dwelling securely. And Zedekiah was the last of David’s line to rule as King of Judah.
So who is this king promised by God in Jeremiah 23?
Some say that this man, called the righteous branch is a man named Zerubabbel a descendent of David, who led the remnant back to Israel. However, Zerubabbel was never King, and this prophecy specifically says that the branch of righteousness will be King.
1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
Jewish scholars as well as Christians agree that the righteous branch is none other than the Messiah.
By the righteous branch, all agree that we are to understand Jesus Christ. - George Whitefield
And so it is not Zerubabbel, but one of Zerubabbel’s descendents who is the righteous branch raised up by God to rule. And it is He who’s name is YHWH Tsidkenu.
He is Jehovah. Read that verse, and you will clearly perceive that the Messias of the Jews, Jesus of Nazareth the Saviour of the Gentiles, is certainly Jehovah. He hath the incommunicable title of the Most High God. - Spurgeon
he is called Jehovah, because he is the only-begotten Son of God, of one and the same essence, glory, eternity, and divinity with the Father. - Calvin
There is debate over how much this verse does to prove the divinity of Christ or not, and though I think there are stronger texts than this that do prove His divinity I think that His being attributed the full divine name here is not insignificant. YHWH is a name that isn’t attributed to any other being than God, unlike Elohim, or Adonai.
So Christ is YHWH Our Righteousness.
Note that His name isn’t YHWH is Righteous, but YHWH is Our Righteousness. He isn’t a King who is only righteous in and of Himself, but His righteousness is something that is shared to His subjects, His righteousness belongs to them, it is their posession.
Those who aren’t ruled by this King, take no share in His righteousness, because they have no interest in it.
Whoever is acquainted with the nature of mankind in general, or the propensity of his own heart in particular, must acknowledge, that self-righteousness is the last idol that is rooted out of the heart. - George Whitefield
By nature, we are all born into this world spiritually blind to our own unrighteousness. This blindness to our sinful condition is innate, and is also called ‘spiritual death’ by the Apostle Paul:
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden they simultaneously lost their innate righteousness, their upright nature before God and they also acquired a debt, the legal penalty of sinning against an infinite and holy God. That uprightness of heart, that innocence that Adam and Eve had at first was gone, and they were no longer righteous in God’s sight. This condition was then passed on to all their descendents.
Therefore we are born with a natural inclination towards sin, we have what is known as, a sinful nature. And following in the footsteps of our ancestors, we accrue our own debt of sin against God. To be made right with God, to be restored to Him, it isn’t enough that we just have our sins forgiven, that just gets us out of the red! To be made right with God, to be restored to right relationship with Him there needs to be not just the blotting out of our sin, but also the presence of righteousness in us, the perfect application of His will in our lives.
Because it’s not just that we are guilty committing sinful acts, it’s that we’re equally guilty of ommitting righteous acts. How can this be put right?
Jesus, the righteous branch, YHWH our righteousness, the second Adam came to put right all that the first Adam did wrong. In His death, He died to atone for the sins of all who believe on Him, but also in His life, which He lived without sin and in perfect accordance with God’s law He lived on behalf of all those who believe on Him. So that those who believe on Christ receive not only His perfect sacrifice for their sins, but also His perfect obedience to the law. This is the doctrine of justification - that His righteousness is imputed, is charged to our account. This is How The LORD is our Righteousness, that He reckons the deeds of Christ to our account, as though they were ours. Martin Luther said that it was upon this truth, this doctrine of imputation, that the church either stands or falls.
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. VII Jehovah Tsidkenu: The Lord Our Righteousness (No. 395)
You have as much to thank Christ for living as for dying, and you should be as reverently and devoutly grateful for his spotless life as for his terrible and fearful death.
Only Jesus being both truly God and truly man, can accomplish this. Only as God could He bear the wrath of God, and only as man could he stand as a substitute for mankind. The message of the Gospel is the message of Jesus Christ, and the righteousness of God revealed.
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
But that ‘idol of self righteousness' as Whitefield calls it persists for many. And they are given to thinking that we in some way they are able to make themselves acceptable to God.
That they need to add to the righteousness of Christ, believing that they are not justified by Christ’s works but by their own too. This is to say that Christ’s work is not sufficient and is blasphemous.
Others in an attempt to take a share in Christ’s glory by postulating that it something in them that attracts the favour and grace of God, that some goodness in them either a good posture of their heart, or right believeing grabbed God’s attention and made it inevitable that He should give them grace. If that is true, then we are not saved by grace, because grace is not wages paid for good work, but a free gift given without merit.
To try to mix Christs perfect righteousness with our own righteousness either by claiming we did something to earn it, or by thinking we can add to it is to sully it.
4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order 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 comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
If you want to be saved, you must let go of any confidence that you have in your own works, drop any confidence in your own flesh and count them as nothing so that you might cleave to Christ and receive His righteousness, a righteousness from God, perfect, unblemished, all together pure.
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
God’s people are those who can say ‘YHWH is my righteousness’.
“If any man be saved, he is saved by Divine grace, and by Divine grace alone; and the reason of his salvation is not to be found in him but in God. We are not saved as the result of anything that we do or that we will; but we will and do as the result of God’s good pleasure, and the work of His grace in our hearts.” - C.H. Spurgeon
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