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The Names Of God YAHWEH TSIDKENU

by | Mon, Mar 18 2019

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We’ve been learning about the various different names of God because each name reveals more and more about Him; about His characteristics, His attitudes, His love, His eternal-ness, His power…but even with all these names there’s still so much more to learn about Him. In this program, we’re going to learn about another name, Yahweh (Yeho’vah) Tsidkenu.

This name is found twice in the Bible, the first usage is in Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 23:5-6, ‘”Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “When I’ll raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He’ll 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’ll be called, ‘The Lord our Righteousness.’”’

The other place this name is used is also in Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 33:15-16, ‘In those days and at that time I’ll cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she will be called: “The Lord our Righteousness.”’

The word Tsidkenu comes from the word ‘Tsedek and it means ‘to be stiff,’ ‘to be straight’ or ‘righteous’ in Hebrew. In other words, straight and not bending or compromising.

There’s a person in the Bible who’s name is Melchizedek, and His name means ‘King of Righteousness’. It’s made up of two words, Melek which means king and Tsedek which means righteous. Many scholars believe that Melchizedek was a pre-incarnation of Jesus Christ who is Himself, the King of Righteousness.

The word ‘righteousness’ (tsedek) can seem rather unbending and almost compassionless so it’s really important to look at the attributes of this very important word because it reveals a lot about our God.

Tsedek / Righteousness means ‘to be stiff’ and ‘to be straight’ but what does that actually look like. It means:

  • Justice and righteousness (if justice bends it become unjust)
  • Righteous in government of a judge, ruler, king, of the law and of the Davidic king; the Messiah (if a king doesn’t uphold righteousness and the laws of his own kingdom, he becomes corrupt)
  • Righteousness is an attribute of God
  • Righteousness in relation to a case or cause (if you deviate from a cause, you change the goal and mission)
  • Truthfulness (bend the truth and you’re left with lies and deceit)
  • Ethically right (compromise on ethics and you’re simply unethical)
  • Vindicated, justification, salvation
  • Righteous acts.

What do we expect from our human governments and national leaders? We expect righteous behaviour, that they wouldn’t be corrupt, take bribes, tell lies or manipulate the law simply because they’re in positions of power.

We expect that justice will be done according to the law and if it’s not done, we believe that our system of law has failed. We want wrongdoing to be judged rightly, we don’t want criminals and law breakers to get away with their bad behaviour and deeds. Any judge or law maker, who allows such people to get away with such activities we consider to be crooked and disqualified from their positions of power.

We want our leaders to be ethical and back right causes; we feel grieved and heartbroken when unrighteous laws are passed or when wrongdoing or immoral and unethical acts are celebrated and even encouraged.

So why is it, that we get upset with God because He actually upholds all the things we need and desire in our human leaders.

If a rapist or murderer gets away with their crime or is given a negligible consequence, we’re furious. But when God says He’s coming back to judge all humanity for their behaviour we complain that He’s not very loving!

The thing about God is that He IS righteousness itself. He’s righteous to His very core. He is ethically perfect, He’s morally un-corruptible, He is perfect in all His judgments, His Law is equally perfect and His every cause and action is right, true and He cannot lie and therefore, truthfulness is His hallmark.

How then do we, who are unrighteous, ever come close to God in His perfection and righteousness. The Gap is too wide.

We often bring the Gospel into Foundations because the Gospel is THE foundation!

Our God is the only God who established a plan of redemption that required Himself to be the central figure. He became a human being – perfect and absolutely righteous – and He took the penalty for our offenses of breaking His Law repeatedly. It’s been termed ‘The Great Exchange’. He took upon Himself our unrighteousness and in exchange, He gives us His righteousness, which is perfect.

So when He looks upon us, He no longer sees all those sins and offenses that we’ve committed against Him, He sees the righteousness He gave us that He paid for with His own blood. In this way, our sins are paid for, justice has been done and righteousness, which is a major attribute of His nature and character is maintained and upheld without compromise, bribery or corruption.

 

Shalom
Mandy

 

 

 

 

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