2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
Today, the Lord leads me to begin a group of messages which reveal Him as Jehovah Tsidkenu [prounced “sid-canoe”], the Lord is our Righteousness. As you know, I’m teaching an adult Sunday school class which deals with the rarely studied books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. These books deal with the time in Israel’s history when she was being released from captivity and allowed to return to her homeland. The monumental task of rebuilding Jerusalem, rebuilding the Temple, and reforming the priesthood are the subjects of these books. A passage in Haggai gives us an example of God’s call to righteousness. HAG 1: 2-7, The Lord Almighty said to Haggai, ‘These people say that this is not the right time to rebuild the Temple.’ The Lord then gave this message to the people through the prophet Haggai: ‘My people, why should you be living in well-built houses while My Temple lies in ruins? Do you not see what is happening to you? You have planted much grain, but have harvested very little. You have food to eat, but not enough to make you full. You have wine to drink, but not enough to get drunk on! You have clothing, but not enough to keep you warm. And the working man cannot earn enough to live on. We must consider our ways.” The basic message is that first things must be put first. God should come first. That is a message that has great application today, just as it did Back in 520 BC-505 BC, the years of Haggai’s ministry.
The sinfulness of mankind has made it necessary for Jehovah Tsidkenu to spend a lot of time combating it. At the time that Abraham repented and became faithful, and that is all he had to do, God deemed him acceptable [GN 15: 6]. That is what we call justification. Righteousness was imputed to Abraham’s account. This is very significant to understand, because it is what happens for anyone who repents and becomes faithful. As I said in the close of yesterday’s message, this justification, this being judged “innocent” from past sins, is the first of many gifts that our loving Abba gives us. We have also been told in RO 3: 26 that there is a limit to how much sinfulness God will tolerate before He must deal with it to demonstrate His righteousness. Our having righteousness imputed to our accounts makes true RO 8: 1, “There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus.” We must come to realize the extent of the love, patience, compassion, and hard work that has been done by Jehovah Tsidkenu to appreciate what a wonderful gift righteousness really is.
The ministry of Jeremiah was a very painful one for this God-led prophet. Jeremiah’s ministry was carried out during the reigns of Joisah, Jehoiakim, Jehiachin, and Zedekiah of Judah. It was directed to this southern kingdom of the then divided Israel from 627-582 BC. He found himself in the predicament of having to deliver a very unpopular message of righteousness at a time when the people of Judah were acting very unrighteously. Generation after generation of Jews had been mixing pagan idolatry with Judaism in an attempt to tailor make their religion to fit the growing prominence of their human agendas. In other words, the flesh was being made more important than the Spirit. The length of his ministry and quality of Jeremiah’s faith are salient testament to what a righteous man Jeremiah was. With these introductory words in mind, let’s take some time looking at excerpts from Jeremiah which will reveal first the extent of the sinfulness and then see how Jehovah Tsidkenu reveals Himself. This will take some time, so I won’t be able to finish it all in today’s message. But, if you will bear with me, I think you will find this a worthwhile pursuit that will allow its goal to be met. Always bear in mind that any lesson He teaches us from the past is just as applicable to our lives today and in the future.
JER 5: 30-31, “A terrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: prophets speaking nothing but lies; priests rule as the prophets command, and My people offer no objections. But what will they do when it all comes to the end?” In this statement, God, through Jeremiah, warns about spiritual corruption and apathy. These very same things happen today. I was particularly disturbed at the recent news story about a professor of NT theology at a local university who was found to be engaging in child pornography. It is bad enough when anyone does this, but when it is a person who is supposed to be a leader and an expert on God’s word, it is even worse. It is not my right to judge this man; that is God’s sovereignty. However, it is a real wake up call when we are reminded that even those who profess to speak God’s word are not always righteous. When offenders who are “wolves in sheep’s clothing” [MT 7: 15] are this close around us, we need to rely on the discernment that can only come from God’s word to stay on the alert. The penalty for not doing this is to be pulled into sinful rationalizations and behavior. Continuing sinful lifestyles are what force Jehovah Tsidkenu to demonstrate His righteous indignation leading to eventual spiritual death. The Lord I know doesn’t want to go down this path with us. He wants us to think and act with the righteousness He teaches us in the Scriptures. We were created for His pleasure, and His pleasure is to shower us with His blessings [EPH 1: 4-5].
PRAYER: O Lord, the stories from the Scriptures about mankind’s past are not just stories to amuse us. They carry with them precious and monumental messages that we must have in order to understand what You mean by righteousness. Valiant prophets like Haggai, Jeremiah, and others put their lives on the line delivering unpopular but necessary life-giving messages from you. They faced either opposition or being ignored. In Jeremiah’s case, he lived long enough to see horrific consequences and personally endured persecution, because Your messages through him were ignored. In Haggai’s case, You allowed him to live long enough to see the blessing that comes from obeying You. We can learn from both these examples the truth of both Your righteousness and Your sovereignty. You call upon us to exercise the righteousness You have imputed to our accounts at the time we repented and came to faith. While we live in a world that tries to prevent us from doing that, we need to remember that You have equipped us to be victorious in our attempts to do so. Your love for us is the greatest gift we have ever been given. We dedicate ourselves in humility today to honoring that gift with our adoration, worship, obedience, trust, loyalty, praise, and thanks. In Christ’s holy name, we pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, we will go on with our examination of citations from Jeremiah and other places in the Scriptures which reveal our Lord as Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness. We are blessed abundantly because of His presence in our lives. We need never worry about condemnation or abandonment as long as we remain faithful to Him. He loves us enough to provide us with the guidance on how to be right with Him, and to protect us from the onslaught of the adversary’s work. That kind of love transcends the grave and makes it possible for us to enjoy eternal joy and fellowship with Him and with other righteous believers. Hallelujah! Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn