You Shall Not Take The Name Of The Lord In Vain Series

Exodus 20:1–2 says, “And God spoke all these words, saying:” We need to take note that what follows is the beginning of the Ten Commandments spoken by the voice of the Lord. This is His preamble to the constitution of grace. “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

He is your deliverer, and He is delivering you out of darkness into His light. He is cutting you free from the cord of the wicked that binds you. He says to listen and learn from the holy principles of His universal government, the constitution of His grace, His divine directive that sustains and maintains all that He has created. His commandments are ten promises of what He will do in your life if you just surrender control over to Him.

Verse 3, “You shall have no other gods before me.” I will cause you to know my love for you and to understand My power. I will be your Father and will be the object of your worship when you come to know me. Verse 4, “You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them.” He is delivering you from false worship. You will not be like the pagans who create their own gods rather than to worship their creator God. Your life will be marked by reverence for Him in contrast to being marred by malice, deceit, vanity and emptiness.

Verse 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.” There are serious consequences for breaking the third commandment and taking God’s name in vain. Why are we held guilty if we take His name in vain? What acts do we commit that amount to taking His name in vain?

To understand this, we must understand the majesty of the Lawgiver as Nehemiah did when he said in Nehemiah 9:5-6, “Stand up and bless the Lord your God Forever and ever! Blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise! You alone are the Lord; You have made heavens, The Heaven of heavens, with all their host, The earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is therein, And You preserved them all. The host of heaven worships You.”

God says to fear, stand in awe and reverence of His glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 28:58). The Bible refers to God by many names and all reflect His character and represent the glory of God, including His word and His law which is a transcript of His character. God revealed His glory to Moses. This is a conversation that God had with Moses after Moses had swung those first tables of the Ten Commandments to the ground and broke them.

In Exodus 33:17–23, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.’ And he replied, ‘Please show me Your glory.’ Then God said, ‘I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’ But He said, ‘You cannot see My face; for no man can see Me, and live.’ And the Lord said, ‘Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on a rock. So it shall be, when My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”

Continue on in Exodus 34:6-7, “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

What was Moses’ response to this revealed glory? In verse 8 it says, “Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.” God proclaimed His name as referencing His glory and His character. That is why His name is so exalted. David wrote in Psalms 138:2-3, “I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word even above all Your name. In the day when I called, You answered me, and you strengthened me with strength in my inner self.”