Yahweh-Tsidkenu: The LORD Is Our Righteousness
"'For the time is coming,' says the LORD, 'when I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line. He will be a King who rules with wisdom. He will do what is just and right throughout the land. And this will be his name: ‘The LORD Is Our Righteousness.’ In that day Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety.'" (Jeremiah 23:5-6 NLT)
Even though we're only a little over a week into this series, I couldn't stand to wait any longer to share this name of God with you. It's my favorite new name of God...of course, the name is not new; it's just new to me, thanks to Darlene Zschech's miniseries on names of God in her book Revealing Jesus.
The New International Reader's Version (NIRV) translates Yahweh-Tsidkenu (yah-way sid-KEN-ooh...the "t" is silent) as, "The Lord Who Makes Us Right With Himself." Can you see why I love this name? I read this interpretation two ways: first, God makes us righteous—wipes our sin-slate clean—by putting His perfect goodness on us. This is credited righteousness: a debt in our account marked as paid, though we've done nothing—indeed, can do nothing—to repay it.
And then, because Yahweh-Tsidkenu gifts us with His righteousness, we are able to be in right relationship with him. You've probably heard the expression "to make things right." I believe that applies here. God uses Himself to make things right between us. And of all the things that have ever been made right in the world, nothing compares to this.
This is an amazing thought. There was no other way to make us righteous other that giving it to us!
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