Saturday, May 21, 2016

Jehovah-Tsidkenu

Jehovah-Tsidkenu:  The Lord Our Righteousness
          Jeremiah 23:6 “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.”
          (1)  Jeremiah prophesied until the time of the Babylonian exile.  He warned Israel that because of her sins (city of Jerusalem and the people), God was going to allow the Babylonians to invade, destroy Solomon’s temple, and lead them away into a seventy-year captivity—one from which many would never return, not even from their children.
          (2)  Babylon’s first invasion came in 606 B.C., the second in 597 B.C., and the third in 586 B.C.  Then Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, and the people deported (to force a person to leave a country).
          (3)  God blamed the idolatrous (people who worship the idols) and faithless Kings and the false religious teachers for leading Israel into sin, causing Him to send the people into captivity.  To them He exclaims (cry out or speak suddenly), “You have scattered My flock (people)” (Jer. 23:2).
          (4)  God then looked far into the future, to the end-times and the millennial kingdom (one-thousand-year-peace), when Israel shall praise the Lord for returning them from their captivity among the nations (Jer. 23:8).
          (5)  Jeremiah proclaims that the final return of the children of Israel will coincide (happen at the same time) with God’s raising up the Messiah—“I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness” (Jer. 23:5).  Next He adds that “Israel will dwell safely” (v.6).
          (6)  It means that in the messianic age (during the reign of Christ, the Messiah)  the existence of Israel in the Middle East is guaranteed by God; no longer will nations threaten to destroy ‘her’ (His people and the city of Jerusalem). The Messiah’s name is Jehovah-Tsidkenu, “The Lord Our Righteousness.”
          (7)  Paul, writing the letter to the Romans 650 years later, brought the subject about Jeremiah, and declared that unbelieving Israel is still looking for her righteousness, while Jehovah-Jesus is “righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:1-4). 
          (8)  It might be good to know about “the parable of the wedding feast” which is told by Christ, shows that no one is allowed into heaven wearing his own good deed for righteousness.  God (the King) orders the dismissal of the one who refused the pure garment of righteousness (Christ), which He had provided for all guests to wear (Matt. 22:11-13).
          (9)  It is not our good deeds that makes us righteous. God’s holy standards is provided only by God Himself, through faith in Christ; for it is He who is Jehovah-Tsidkenu, “The Lord Our Righteousness.”
          Key: “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2Cor. 5:21 NLT).

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