Number 3
Continuing the series on the Decalogue, this will be for the next bible study/discussion, which will, I think, be this coming Sunday night. I need to double-check to make sure it won't conflict with the Strawberry Festival, though.
Exodus 20:7 "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
What does this commandment mean? I would guess that the first reaction many of us have when reading this is to remember that we are not to use God's name flippantly. This commandment is about being careful in our talk to avoid certain speech patterns because they are intrinsically bad, right?
Well ?. yes ? and, no. The more you think about it, the more puzzling this commandment becomes. Why is taking God's name such a big deal? And what does it mean to "take God's name in vain"? Is this speaking specifically of not saying "oh my god", or something broader? Something entirely different?
My typical reaction to this is to remind myself to not say "oh my god" and then move on. Inwardly, I wonder why this was important enough to be in The Big Ten. And then I wonder why this is so simplistic ? all the other commandments have great theological meanings behind them. This commandment just seems too singular.
But here, as always, the judge for what is important and what is not and how to interpret that is Scripture itself. Since this commandment is not elaborated upon in Exodus 20, we'll look at a few other passages first to see how God expanded on this in the rest of Scripture.
First, although this might seem strange at first glance, the most immediate, and perhaps the strongest, connection Scripture makes with this is in the realm of oath-taking. God calls his people to not take his name in vain as a witness to particular oaths. Lev. 19.12 says simply, "You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD."
Again, this may seem to be an odd, almost random choice. Calvin, however, notes in this passage that oath-taking has a great deal of religious significance. Oaths are made for important occasions ? things such as weddings, legal trials, and assertions of loyalty or allegiance. To taken an oath (rightly) in God's name is to declare God's authority and rule over the most foundational occasions in our lives and thus, by implication, over all of our lives. It is to assert that he is God and the final Judge over everything we do.
Another exegesis of this commandment can be found in a case study in Leviticus 24:10-16
Now an Israelite woman's son, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the people of Israel. And the Israelite woman's son and a man of Israel fought in the camp, and the Israelite woman's son blasphemed the Name, and cursed. Then they brought him to Moses. His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. And they put him in custody, till the will of the LORD should be clear to them. Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. And speak to the people of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.In this situation, two men fight and one, who happens to be half-Israelite, blasphemes and curses God. Israel's response is to jail the offender until God delivers a verdict. In this case, God clearly does not hold this person guiltless and the verdict is ultimate: death. The one who cursed God is himself cursed by being taken out of the camp and stoned.
This passage helps in a couple of ways to further explain what the third commandment is about. Not only is it dealing with oath-taking, it is dealing with the larger category of honoring God's name in all of our speech. God calls his people to give him the honor and glory due to him in every word spoken. And while we may think this is a minor point, God does not. In the nation of Israel, the penalty for violating this law was no less than death. And not just death for the people of God, but death even for those who were "just visiting."
A final passage that exposits the third commandment that we will look at is in the book of Proverbs 30:8-9 "Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name." Here is the same connection as earlier between honoring God's name and speaking truthfully, but there is another twist. In this passage, stealing profanes God's name.
To put it more broadly, being in covenant with God and not living accordingly profanes God's name. We take God's name in vain when we call ourselves by his name (i.e., "Christians") but live solely according to selfish desires.
This can obviously occur in our private lives if we live hypocritically, saying one thing, but living completely differently. But it can also happen on a larger scale. Michael Horton (Law of Perfect Freedom, p. 101) gives a some examples:
In the past twenty years, God has been used to justify American nationalism, militarism, opposition to child care for working mothers, and even such debatable issues as the retention of the Panama Canal. He has been used as a mascot for the conservative, white, middle-class establishment, the guarantor of such evangelical rights and family values as owning submachine guns.I tend to agree with him. Conservatism is not Christianity, nor is the Republican Party the Kingdom of God, but too frequently we act that way. To align our own political interests haphazardly with God's name is to take his name in vain.
So far we have covered a little bit of the what of this commandment, what it prohibits and commands. Now I would like to look a little bit at the why of the commandment, what I think is a foundational principle to all of this and what makes this so important.
While there are probably a couple other significant reasons why this commandment is so important, what I'd like to look at briefly is this: God's name is important to his people because it is tied to their salvation.
We can see this in Exodus 3. God tells Moses to go back to Egypt and bring Israel out of there to the Promised Land. Moses' first question is, basically, "who do I tell the Israelites said so"? God's response is to declare his name. Moses is to go back to Israel and say (3.15) "The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you" and to then proclaim God's soon-to-be-accomplished deliverance. God reveals his name in a new and mighty way - his people are saved. The disclosure of God's name is interwoven with the mighty acts God does for his people.
Move forward to Jesus. Hebrews 1:4 speaks of him as having the name "more excellent" than the angels. Paul in Romans 10:13 quotes Joel ? "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Again, the name of Jesus is directly tied to our salvation. To blaspheme, misuse, misrepresent, or treat as "nothing" God's name is to not only fail to give glory to God but also to treat as "nothing" our own salvation.
The reason why God prescribed the death penalty back in Leviticus was because this really is an issue of life and death. Through the name of Jesus, we have life and salvation. Our very being is rebuilt and reconstructed in him. To misuse or to take in vain the very means of our redemption is to dishonor the greatest gift ever given.
What does all this mean in our day-to-day lives? I do think that avoiding the frivolous usage of phrases such as "oh my god" is a valid implication of this. Certainly we should be very careful of how we speak of God.
The broader picture, though, is to live all of our lives, including our actions, thoughts, and speech, in a manner that gives glory and honor to the name that saves us. The catechism (Q. 112) puts it this way, "The third commandment requires, That the name of God, his titles, attributes, ordinances, the word, sacraments, prayer, oaths, vows, lots, his works, and whatsoever else there is whereby he makes himself known, be holily and reverently used in thought, meditation, word, and writing; by an holy profession, and answerable conversation, to the glory of God, and the good of ourselves, and others." To put it in non-King James English, what God says about himself should be used in our lives for his glory, our own growth, and others' benefit. To do otherwise, whether by being un-Christ-like to others or not worshipful to God, is to treat his glory and love as meaningless.
June 2, 2004 10:27 PM