"The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness."

-- Proverbs 11:5

"The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. 

The LORD --trieth the righteous---: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. 

Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. 

For the ---righteous LORD --loveth ---righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright." 

-- Psalm 11:4-7

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Abominations to the Lord, are things like pride, transgression, perverseness, selfishness. They are rooted in the concept of "Self as God", and the outward evidences are, a complete rejection of Gods word, no accountability or fear of Him, and a desire to have nothing to do with God at all! These people have made their own unique beds and will get to lie in them.... but what about people that WANT to be righteous? How do we do that?

Well, lets start with a definition of terms. What is righteousness?

 Is it a full compliance with the Law (like Christ?). Is it ---not required--, because we have Christ's righteousness credited to us? What righteousness can WE bring to the table that is not rejected by God as filthy rags (most of you will say none....and that is correct...) ? 

You see how what is simple, starts to become complicated !!! Let us try to unravel this by grounding ourselves, as always, in definitions of terms. Righteousness manifests in the OT language as 3 forms : Noun, Verb, & Adjective. Vines Expository Dictionary gives us the following:

Noun: Tsedek, Tsedekah : From a Semitic root which occurs in Hebrew, Phoenician, and Aramaic with a juristic sense. 

In Phoenician and Old Aramaic it carries the sense of "Loyalty" --- demonstrated by a king or priest as a servant of his own God. Tsedek and Tsedekah are legal terms signifying justice in conformity with the legal Corpus (the Law; Deut 16:20), the judicial process (Jer 22:3), the justice of the king as judge (1 Kings 10:9, Ps 119:21, Prov 8:15), and also the source of justice, God Himself.

 " Judge me, O Lord my God, according to thy righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me... and my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and thy praise, all the day long." (Psalm 35:24,28)

Verb : Tsadaq : "To be righteous, be in the right, be justified, be just". 

This is a legal term which involves the whole process of Justice. God "is righteous" in all of His relations with man, and in comparison with Him, no Man is righteous! 

This word is found 17 times in the Book of Job. In a derived sense, a case presented may be characterized as a just cause in that all facts/evidence indicate that the person is to be cleared of all charges. Job was concerned about his case, and defended it, before his friends: "... though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge." (Job 9:15)

Adjective: tsaddiq : Righteous, just. 

This adjectival form occurs 206 times in the biblical Hebrew. The word is used both of God, and Men. " I have sinned this time, the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. " (Exo 9:27), "..... and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?" (Gen 20:4)

Bible challenge 1: --- where is the first place that we encounter "Righteousness" ? Hint.... it's in a name..... don't peek down!!! ?

Answer : In Genesis, the name is Melchi-Tsedek ! "King of Righteousness". this is the person Abraham met, who blessed Him with the Bread and Wine of His Righteousness! That's pretty amazing isn't it! ?

Bible challenge 2 : The earliest instance of the word, as a noun/adjective/verb, NOT in a name .... come on.... again... no peeking....

The Verb Tsadaq.... is first found in the story of Judah (the tribe of our Melchitsedek) and Tamar (his daughter in law).  --- Judah admitting that Tamar had been just in her demands: "She hath been more righteous[tsedeq - VERB] than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son." (Genesis 38:26)

Later, in the book of Leviticus, we find the noun "Tsedeq" for the first time --- "Ye shall do no unrighteousness in --judgment--; thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty; but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour." (Lev 19:15).

 Tsedekah, the other form of the word, is first mentioned in Genesis 15:6 "....[Abram] believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness."

So ... what did we gather so far?

God is righteous, meaning that He is both Just and Fair  - in a -legal- sense.

This is why "His eyelids --try-- the righteous, and the children of men".... as we saw last week, Job complains... why does God care if any man is righteous? The answer, because it is in His Nature!

God's justice is most clearly expressed in the Law... but our conscience PRE-DATES that! Job did not have the books of the Torah to guide Him in righteousness... but he did respect his conscience, and had a healthy fear of God --- that prompted him to do , BY NATURE, the things that God was forced to legislate for the children of Israel... and God accepted his works!!!

If you look at Righteousness as being loyal to God, and exercising sound and wise judgment over day to day matters, we are not far from the righteousness of Job. 

Christ, in the parable of the lost sheep, and the lost coins, is not concerned about the 99 sheep, and the 9 coins that are ALREADY RIGHTEOUS... He came into the world to save those that were LOST!!! .... 

The word says that there will be wickedness in the world, but we are not to be like the world, and bring forth more wickedness. We must be faithful, and true, and loyal to our God! 

" Woe unto the world because of offences! for it ---must needs be that offences come----; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! 

Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.  And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. " -- Mat 18:7-9

The justice of God will not be compromised for ANY ONE... not the mighty, not the poor, not the able-bodied or the differently-abled.

 His Love for His children enabled that stern justice to be expended on the innocent head of His Son.... a GRACIOUS, but UNJUST act! 

This is the ----only---- injustice we can accuse God of, for punishing an innocent man for the sins of others.... but how glorious does His Grace and Mercy appear in this light!!!!

Think a little this week about the stories that surround the concept of righteousness, of Judah and Tamar, Melchizedek and Abraham, Job and Christ.... and it will open your eyes to the magnificence and beauty of the Righteousness of God!

Hallelujah!