Jehovah Tsidkenu – the Lord Our Righteousness

Of all the Old Testament prophets, Jeremiah had one of the most difficult jobs. His call was to prophesy in the final days of the kingdom of Judah. From the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, when the last flicker of faithfulness burned for what must have seemed a moment, to the eleven years of Zedekiah’s reign, Jer. 1. 2, 3, Jeremiah, who was ‘ordained . . . a prophet unto the nations’, v. 5, fulfilled that calling. In an almost thankless task beginning when he was a young man and spanning over forty years and its last five kings, Jeremiah continued in his work through Judah’s death throes. It was hardly what we might consider a successful ministry, but in so many ways that are foreign to our results-focused moment of the 21st Century this is a reminder that faithfulness to God is always far more important than any seeming success we may have from a human perspective.

In Jeremiah’s time, Judah was deeply marked by unrighteousness, which is evident from the first chapter, which records not only the call of the prophet but the Lord’s incitement against the nation, ‘I will utter My judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, because they have forsaken Me’, v. 16 NKJV. For this wickedness there would be judgement, found in statements such as, ‘Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it’, 6. 19. However, the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah also pointed Judah to a time of hope in the future - indeed a time still in the future. Isaiah would say that ‘a king shall reign in righteousness’, Isa. 32. 1, but in chapter 23 Jeremiah identifies a King whose name is ‘the Lord our righteousness’, v. 6, and, in chapter 33, a city that bears the same name, v. 16. For that is the title Jehovah Tsidkenu.¹The use of this term, sedeq, in the Pentateuch clearly outlines the foundation of the idea of righteous and just action. Take, for example, the first mention in Leviticus chapter 19, one of the clearest statements of the moral law of Israel. They were to judge their neighbours in righteousness, v. 15,² and they were to have ‘just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin’, v. 36, in other words, their trade and business were to be done righteously.³After all, God would remind them throughout the chapter, ‘I am the Lord your God’, for example, vv. 3, 4, and 10. They had a righteous responsibility to their deliverer, who is Himself righteous. However, as we have seen, by Jeremiah’s day, their unrighteousness was far reaching.

The King

Jeremiah chapter 23 verses 1 to 8 seem to form part of the response of Jeremiah to a request Zedekiah makes, ‘Enquire . . . of the Lord for us’, Jer. 21. 2. In verse 1, there is the pronouncement of ‘woe to the shepherds’ NKJV, those who had failed to keep and guide God’s people. Indeed, they ‘destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture’, v. 1. They had ‘not attended to’ the sheep, and so the Lord will ‘attend to’ them because of their wickedness, v. 2 NKJV. Here is the unrighteousness of the rulers, be they kings like Zedekiah, or ‘prophet and priest’, v. 11.

When we come to verses 3 and 4, a question arises: do they point to the end of the Babylonian captivity, or a later time? The gathering described is ‘out of all countries’, v. 3 (also v. 8), and they will ‘fear no more, nor be dismayed’, v. 4. This seems to point to a time that is yet to come, for the Babylonian captivity was limited and, despite the restoration that is recorded in books such as Ezra and Nehemiah, they certainly were not delivered from fear. Indeed, they have not been, as seen in the steep increase in antisemitism around the world in our day. So, it would seem that these words ultimately point forward to the millennium. The shepherds may have failed, but the Lord has not. For He ‘will gather the remnant of my flock . . . and will bring them again to their folds’, v. 3. There will be restoration under the shepherd care of the Lord. They will ‘be fruitful and increase’, v. 3, pointing to the blessing and flourishing of the nation.⁴

Whatever verses 3 and 4 refer to, verses 5 and 6 are clearly Messianic, and just as clearly point forward to the time of His earthly reign. ‘Behold, the days come’ points us forward to a time when the Lord ‘will raise unto David a righteous Branch’. This is an image not only of His lineage but is an indication of new life. The heirs of David who had sat on the throne had all been mere men at best, and the current incumbent was a wicked man - but ‘a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth’, v. 5 - the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, although He is truly a man, He is more than merely a man, for He is God.⁵ So it is that ‘in his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely’, v. 6. Amazingly, although the northern kingdom had long gone into captivity,⁶ they too are included in the future restoration, yet another indication that the millennium is in view, as this seems to indicate a revived nation, where the division is no more. So then in verse 6 the name of this King is revealed, ‘The Lord our righteousness’. For Israel at that time, the One who is righteous will be their righteousness.

Verses 7 and 8 seem to make up a saying of the people in the millennium, commencing with the statement ‘the Lord lives’ NKJV. Perhaps here we have an aspect of the nation’s recognition of the Lord Jesus. They despised Him and rejected Him, Isa. 53. 3, but one day they will acknowledge not only Him ‘whom they have pierced’, Zech. 12. 10, but also the One who rose from the dead. They thought, and still think, Him dead. But He lives! So ‘the days are coming’ NKJV, when they will not look back to their deliverance by the hand of the Lord from Egypt, but to the regathering under the hand of the Lord Jesus, and they will know that He lives, Jer. 23. 7, 8. Jehovah Tsidkenu will be their living, reigning King.

The city

Similarly, the thirty-third chapter of Jeremiah is one of hope despite the current darkness. Importantly, in verse 5 the Babylonian invasion is because of those ‘for whose wickedness I have hidden My face from this city’ NKJV. It is with the promise of ‘health and healing’, v. 6 NKJV, that the ‘captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel’, v. 7, will return. Notice that it is both of the divided kingdoms that this promise extends to, again pointing beyond merely the return from

Babylon. There also will be pardon for all their iniquities, v. 8. Among other things, it will be a place of praise to God, v. 9, a place of joy, v. 11, and a place for the care of flocks, v. 12.

And so it is, that again ‘the days come’, when the Lord will perform that which ‘I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah’, v. 14. Here we have an echo of chapter 23, ‘the Branch of righteousness’, v. 15, who will ‘execute judgment and righteousness in the land’, all pointing again to the Lord Jesus. There will be new life for the nation, from ‘great David’s greater Son’.⁷ However, differing from chapter 23, here when ‘Judah shall be saved’ what follows is ‘Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness’, v. 16. Not now the name of the king, but the name of the city. In that day, the One who reigns and the place that He reigns from will bear the same name. So, what does this indicate? Perhaps it is that at that time the city and its occupants will share in the character of the King who rules from there. So, it is here finally, that the nation will be what it was intended to be, as we saw in Leviticus chapter 19: righteous. In that day the Lord who is their righteousness, will make them righteous in their actions - and so the city will bear His name.

All this, Jeremiah goes on to point out, will be in fulfilment of the Davidic covenant. For, in a reference to 2 Samuel chapter 7, he says, ‘David shall never want [lack] a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel’, 33. 17. Astounding words, really, given the failure of David’s heirs in Jeremiah’s days. However, there is more than a fulfilment of the Davidic covenant here, for verse 18 says, ‘Neither shall the priests . . . want [lack] a man . . . to offer burnt offerings’. After all, David himself identified that Messiah would be a Priest-King in Psalm 110.

Perhaps one of the most significant things indicated by this title in relation to the Lord Jesus, who as King will bear the title Jehovah Tsidkenu, is that believers of the present dispensation already know Him in this way, even though that title is never given to Him in the context of the Church age. At that time, the rescued nation of Israel will know the truth that we as Christians know now, for, in Christ, we have been made ‘the righteousness of God in him’, 2 Cor. 5. 21. We have an imputed righteousness, apart from the Law and from outside of ourselves; we receive justification by faith in Christ.⁸Abraham experienced the imputation of this righteousness and so do we, for ‘it was not written for his [Abraham’s] sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead’, Rom. 4. 23, 24. So too, in His millennial reign, the Lord Jesus Christ will be identified as Jehovah Tsidkenu for Israel. As with many things, what is true for us now will one day be true for Israel when they are restored and regathered. We can call Him the ‘Lord our righteousness’ today, and one day, so will they!