JEHOVAH TSIDKENU

"For I am Adonai your God; therefore, consecrate yourselves and be holy, for I am holy; and do not defile yourselves with any kind of swarming creature that moves along the ground."
Leviticus 11:44

When Adonai made Adam and Eve, He gave them a simple instruction to not eat of a certain tree within the Garden of Eden. Through trickery and doubt, and a little word play, the serpent had convinced Eve who then convinced Adam that this instruction was a hoax and punishment would not come. But punishment did come, in the way of sin. It was this sin that separated man from the Creator due to the loss of righteousness within His sight. Simply put, because man did not keep Adonai’s commands, man could no longer be within Adonai's perfect presence.
In Leviticus 11:44a, we read the words of Adonai as given to Moshe. " For I am Adonai your God; therefore, consecrate yourselves and be holy, for I am holy… " But as man had made a separation and Yeshua had not yet come to die in our place, how could this happen? In reading the scriptures we see where Adonai had stepped into covenant with His people.
First in the Adamic covenant (Gen 3:21), we see where He fashioned clothes for Adam and Eve. This action could not have been done unless Adonai also shared with them the importance of forgiveness and the offerings for sin that He desired. The Noahic covenant would follow where Adonai placed a rainbow in the sky following Noah's sacrifice, promising at that time that never again would He allow a flood to cover the entire earth (Gen 9:12-15). In the Avrahamic covenant Adonai promised the descendants of Avraham the Promised Land (Gen 15:18-21). Within the Mosaic covenant He had the Israelites consecrate themselves as His chosen people and gave them the Ten Commandments. Finally, in the Davidic covenant, Adonai vowed to give David a son who would succeed him and build the Temple, as well as have a kingdom that would be established forever (II Sam 7:4-17). This covenant was fulfilled as we see in Matthew 1 the ancestry from Adam to Yosef, the earthly father of Yeshua.
But how does all this fit in with righteousness and the words penned in Leviticus 11? The righteous branch that Jeremiah spoke of in his book through the line of David was Yeshua. Up until Yeshua's death on the cross all sins were covered by sacrifices and scapegoats. But Yeshua did an awesome thing in giving up His life in that He, knowing NO sin, became sin for us. We were unrighteous, and our deeds were soiled as dirty rags. Even in our sacrifices we were not able to be fully whole. Then Yeshua, the spotless lamb, took our sin and erased it. It is when we confess our sin that we are made righteous again.
Romans 7:14-24 reminds us that there is nothing good or righteous in us. Does that mean we should not even try? By no means. If we were to not even try then why would Adonai urge us to be holy as He Himself is? I do thank God, however, that I have been made righteous through His Son. I am able to declare Adonai as my Jehovah Tsidkenu - my God of Righteousness.

Leviticus 11:33-47