Jehovah-Tsidkenu—the LORD our Righteousness

Pastor: 
Rev. Jon Brohn
Date: 
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Sermon Text: 

Jeremiah 23:1-6 


1 “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD. 2 Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the LORD. 3 “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. 4 I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the LORD. 5 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.

My dear friends in Christ,
     So far this summer God has introduced himself to us with some special names.
     “Trinity”–God the Father has fixed our relationship with him, God the Son died to restore our freedom, and God the Holy Spirit gave us hope for eternal life.
     “Jehovah-Shammah”—The LORD is there! He will always be there for us no matter what.
     “Adonai”—God is our Lord, our master, and we are here to serve him and each other.
     “El”—the mighty God, who came to save us from sin, death and hell.
     “El-Roi”—the God who sees me. Our mighty God can see us, and really does care about everything that happens to us.
     This week our name is a little bit longer, and a little harder to pronounce. Jehovah-Tsidkenu. Here’s what it looks like in Hebrew. It’s pronounced ju-HO-vuh tsid-KAY-noo.
     This name is used just twice in the Bible. We find it here in our text, Jeremiah 23:6. The LORD gives the same name with the same promise in Jeremiah 33:16. He promises that a king with the name Jehovah-Tsidkenu will be righteous and make us righteous.
     What is “righteousness”? When I was in school, I’d see a car go by, say a 1968 Cutlass Supreme convertible. I’d say, “That’s a righteous car!” If that’s what the word meant, then “righteousness” is the state of being cool. I don’t think that’s what God has in mind.
     God’s Word provides a hint Let’s look at Psalm 45, verses 6-7. "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness" (Psalm 45:6-7). What does God love? Righteousness. What does he hate? Wickedness. So, what is righteousness? It’s a lack of wickedness. Here’s the dictionary definition: “Acting in accord with divine or moral law; free from guilt or sin” (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, p.990).
     What’s a 2 year-old’s favorite word? MINE! When you’re 2, life is all about you. That doesn’t change much, even as we grow and mature. Life is still about me.
     Jeremiah prophesied to the same kind of people. “‘Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!’ declares the Lord" (Jeremiah 23:1).
     Who are the shepherds? The spiritual leaders of Israel—prophets and kings.
     What are they doing to the sheep? Scattering and destroying them. How? Think about the way some of the prophets and kings treated the people of Israel God had entrusted to them. The prophets told lies in the LORD’s name. The kings brought in the worship of false gods like Baal and Ashtoreth. Like a 2 year-old, they were more concerned about themselves than about God’s Word.
     Today we celebrate the 234th anniversary of our nation’s independence. Over all those years, the LORD has watched over us. He has protected us during wars both within our borders and across the ocean in other countries. He has caused us to prosper and become one of the richest and most influential nations on earth. Even as we celebrate and thank God for the blessings he has poured out on us, we find that 2 year-old mentality in the leadership of our state and country. The individuals we elect often make statements and cast votes that reflect their own interests instead of the will of the people.
     The spiritual leaders of our nation are also guilty of the same “mine-ness”. It seems that every day there’s another scandal surfacing—priests and nuns, televangelists, pastors of mega-churches and small town congregations—their actions hurt the sheep and scatter the flock. That’s not righteousness. That’s a “me-first” attitude.
     God has blessed us with great freedoms over the past 234 years. Those freedoms include the ability to use God’s Word wherever and whenever we want. God gives us his Word to measure what we hear from Congress, and then we cast our votes for representatives who will make good, God-pleasing choices. We use the Word as we listen to pastors in the pulpit. When we begin to hear things that differ from what the Word tells us, it’s time for us to speak up. We need to use the Word to hold our pastors accountable. You can, because God has entrusted his Word to you, too.
     That doesn’t mean that we’re more righteous than anyone else. Listen to what God’s word says about us: "There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins" (Ecclesiastes 7:20). “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). How many people on earth do what is right? Who is righteous? When we’re tempted to look down on people in high places who fall, we need to look at ourselves first and see our own unrighteousness. We are no better off than the people to whom the LORD said, “I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done" (Jeremiah 23:2).
     What’s a 2 year-old’s favorite word? MINE! What’s God’s favorite word? YOURS! God is all about taking care of us. So, he set a plan in motion to get rid of our unrighteousness and make us perfectly righteous. Let’s take a closer look at his promise.
     “‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness’" (Jeremiah 23:5-6).
     What family would this king come from? The family of David.
     What kind of king did God promise to send? One who would reign wisely. One who would do what is just and right.
     What was his name? The LORD Our Righteousness.
     Who is he? Jesus
     How do you know that name belongs to Jesus? Let’s go back to our definition of “righteousness” for a moment. It was “a lack of wickedness; to be free from guilt and sin.” Does that definition fit Jesus? It does. Think about our gospel reading. Jesus loved the men who nailed him to the cross enough to pray, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). One of the criminals recognized that Jesus was free from guilt and sin. How much had Jesus done to deserve crucifixion? He told the other thief who continued to mock Jesus, “This man has done nothing wrong!” (Luke 23:41).
     What did the centurion have to say about Jesus? After the centurion witnessed all of this, he praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man” (Luke 23:47).
      This is where we find our righteousness—on the cross, killed in our place. His name is Jehovah Tsidkenu—The LORD Our Righteousness. That name is all about God’s love. He was willing to sacrifice his only Son, the Son he loved to make us right. He took away our sin and guilt so that we could have true righteousness. Let’s take a look at this video clip that brings it close to home:
     God never says, “MINE!” He always says, “YOURS!” That’s why Paul said in our second reading, “You are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30).
      What has Jesus become? Our righteousness!
      Sounds just like the prophecy, doesn’t it? God promised to send a king who would rule wisely, who would do what is just and right, who would save his people. Jesus did it. He fulfilled it. He is Jehovah Tsidkenu—The LORD Our Righteousness!
      That name is blessing when we struggle with our sinful weaknesses. Do you ever spend part of the night reviewing all the day’s events, especially those where you can see your mistakes and sins? We review them from every possible angle. We see where we could have said or done something different and avoided the whole mess. By the time we get done with the replays, we’ve lost an hour (or more) of sleep and haven’t gained anything except a boatload of guilt.
     Jesus wants us to remember his name. He is The LORD Our Righteousness. He even wants us to be very 2-year old in our attitude toward him. We can say, “The LORD MY Righteousness.” He’s MINE! He forgives all my sins. The devil can’t keep poking at me with my guilt. God doesn’t see it. He only sees me living and breathing “in Christ Jesus…our righteousness.”
      That’s the name we celebrate today. It’s a blessing for our nation. It’s a blessing for our spiritual leaders. It’s a blessing for you and me, because Jesus Christ is Jehovah-Tsidkenu: The LORD Our Righteousness. Amen.
To God alone the glory!                Pastor Jon Brohn
Sermon Audio: 
20100704 Sermon.mp3