"You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name." One of the toughest things for me is to visit in jails and prisons. I don’t know why this makes me so nervous. But, there is something about being in a prison among people who have been convicted of crimes. It is always an anxious time for me. But, God didn’t call me to be comfortable, but to minister to everyone.
I read about a pastor who told the story of meeting a man for the first time. He said, when I first saw him, I was impressed about how kind his face was ... no lines, merry eyes, a softness, a smile. They became friends and brothers in Christ. His mother had called from far away, saying, "No one goes to see him. Would you go to visit him?" How can you turn down the tearful plea of a mother?
So every Tuesday between 2:00 and 3:00, the pastor went to the place where he lived awaiting execution, and the pastor remembered thinking, the first time they met, how kind he looked, how his face didn't reflect what he had done.
He had impersonated an officer and enticed a sixteen-year-old student off a campus into his car. He'd driven to a remote place and had raped and killed her.
Now he was going to die.
His face was kind, except at certain times. He learned as the months went by that he could say certain things or names, and it would change this condemned man. At the name of someone he considered an enemy, his face would become hard and his eyes, like daggers. He would grit his teeth and become a different person.
Isn't it interesting the power that some names invoke. Think about certain people in your life, and when their name is mentioned it brings memories, attitudes, and sometimes even evokes certain reactions. When someone calls you and says, "I need help. This is _________." At the hearing of that name, you're on your way to help.
Let me ask you this. What is your attitude and action when you hear the name God? "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."
I guess Moses was the greatest preacher who never got to the Holy Land. He gave his life to get there. Forty years of his life was spent trying to get hundreds of people there, but he never made it. He gave his life under the calling of God to get those people to that land, but he never got to cross that border. Why?
Numbers 20 gives the strange and puzzling answer to that question. Moses, Aaron, and Miriam had brought those people into the Desert of Zin, and they stopped at Kadesh. It was there, the Scripture tells us, that Miriam, this wonderfully beloved sister of Moses and Aaron, died. Miriam was the one who pulled Moses out of the bulrushes in the little ark that his mother put him in and saved his life. It was Miriam who had leprosy, and Moses had prayed and interceded with God, and the leprosy was cured. Now she was dead and buried there.
She'd been a leader with Moses and Aaron on this venture. Now she was dead, and I'm sure their hearts were broken.
In the midst of this brokenhearted grief, the people strongly confronted Moses and Aaron with their gripes once again. They said, "What have you done to us?
Why didn't you let us die back in Egypt? You talked about a land of figs, grapevines, pomegranates, and grain. Why, nothing is here. There's not even water for us drink."
They confronted Moses and Aaron like this, and those two men did what people should always do when they face a situation that is helpless and hopeless.
They fell on their faces before God, and He blessed them with His presence.
He said to Moses, "I want you to go in front of the big rock and call a meeting. There, I want you to tell the people their Holy God is anxious for them to have water, and He will provide for them. I want you to speak to the rock, and it will open, and water will come out."
Moses called the meeting, and they all came to the big rock. He looked in their faces, and he lost it. He had put up with those griping, nagging, whining, and complaining people all those months, and now they were still angry. I'm sure they were still fussing about having to be there, and Moses just lost it.
He said, "I've had enough."
I've told you before about a man who was bitten by a dog, and the dog, had to be tested for rabies. The test came back positive; the dog did have rabies. The doctor told the man about it, and he immediately began writing on a piece of paper. The doctor said, "Look, I think we can pull you through this. It's not that serious. You don't have to write out your will." The man said, "Will, nothing. I'm making a list of people to bite."
Well, Moses felt that way. He was ready to bite some people. So instead of speaking, as he was instructed, Moses said, "You rebellious scum, am I going to have to smite this rock in order for you to have water?" He took a swing at that rock with his rod, that Juan Gonzalez would have been proud of, and the rock did burst open. The water came out, and there was enough water for the people and the animals. I'm sure that made the people feel better about Moses and Aaron.
God said, "Moses, you didn't respect Me as holy before the people, and because of this, you're not going to get to lead the people into the promised land that I have given them." "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."
In II Samuel 6, David has just won a great battle against those perpetual enemies, the Philistines, and it was a time of peace. So he decides this is the time to bring the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem. It had been at Abinadab's house for a long time, and so the arrangements were made. The ark was reverently placed on a brand-new cart. The oxen were pulling it, and Abinadab assigned his sons, one of whom was Uzzah, to accompany procession and guide the oxen as they pulled the ark toward Jerusalem. One of the oxen stumbled, and the Scripture says Uzzah reached up, grabbed the ark, and was struck dead by the Lord God. In verse seven, we find this was done irreverently, and so God struck him dead.
In verse two, we find an interesting thing. The ark was named "...the name of the Lord Almighty..." They called the ark “...the name of the Lord Almighty..."
and after this, the name of the Lord Almighty struck a little fear into people's hearts. They began to be afraid just a bit of the name of the Lord Almighty.
A fellow went to work with TU Electric. They were showing him around, and they came to a place where there was a black spot on the wall. They said, "This is where old so-and-so casually leaned up against a high-voltage cable and was killed." After that time, the signs that said, "Danger: High Voltage," had a new meaning for that man.
I think God is saying, "I intend My people to have respect for My name." In fact, I think He intends there even to be a little healthy fear about the name of God. "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."
Job and Abraham were from the same place ... the same home country, maybe even the same hometown. They were from the land of Uz, one of the most advanced and prosperous communities of that time, what is now Saudi Arabia. We don't know when Job lived, but if he lived the same time that Abraham lived, Job would have been more popular, more respected, and better known. They were both wealthy men, but the Bible says Job was the greatest man in all the East.
He was a spiritual man. The Word said he feared God in that reverential, loving kind of fear that we're to have for God. He was a family man. He had seven sons and three daughters, and he loved them so much that every day he got up early and made sacrifices for each one of them. He prayed for them, prayed over them, and prayed God would bless them. He was a moral man. The Word says that He did not do evil, and he shunned evil in his life. He was a wealthy man. He owned great herds of oxen, which is like owning a truck, nowadays, and camel, donkeys, and sheep. In fact, he owned 20,000 head of livestock. He was a man to whom heaven points with pride when hell slurs the human race .... a good man.
One day, news came that all his oxen, camels, and donkeys had been stolen by marauding thugs who had killed his people. Then came the news that a freak lightening storm had struck the flocks of sheep, and both sheep and shepherds were destroyed. On the heels of that came the disastrous story of how a twisting wind had caught all four corners of the house where his children were celebrating with an older brother, and they were all killed.
Job, facing all of that, according to Scripture, tore his robe, shaved his head, fell on his face before God, and worshipped. He said, "I came into the world without anything. I'll go out of the world without anything. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."
It wasn't over. Soon, Job himself was struck with a serious illness with sores all over his body. He was very ill and wracked with pain. Mrs. Job, who had suffered all of this, too, looked at this love of her life, now poverty-stricken and unable to do anything but suffer pain, and said, "Job, how long are you going to keep your faith? Why don't you curse God and die?" He said, "Oh, foolish woman, I will never curse God."
You remember how the story ended? He was given ten more children to match the ten he already had in heaven, safe in God's care. He was given twice as much as he ever had before, and I think part of that is because out of the darkness, he would not misuse the name of the Lord God. He loved Him. "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."
Prayer meant a great deal in the life of our Lord Jesus. In the human life of our Lord, He prayed a lot. Sometimes He would pray all night. Many times, He got up early before anyone else and went to that private place to pray and talk with His Father. Soon, His disciples noticed this, and they said, "Lord, John the Baptist taught his people to pray. Why don't You teach us to pray?"
So Jesus taught them to pray. He gave them the model prayer, the Lord's Prayer.
Do you remember the first thing He said to ask for when we pray to the Father? "Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name..." (Matthew 6:9). Not only that, but that verse is in the imperative tense. It's really saying to you and me that when we pray well to God the Father, we say, "Lord, it is important to me, it's the most vital thing in all the world to me that Your name be hallowed, that it be honored, respected, loved, and obeyed, that Your name be treated differently than any other name ever spoken." "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."
Sometimes I'm in the company of people who do not know that I'm a preacher. That does something interesting to the conversation. I have been involved in conversation with people who are seriously misusing the king's English. As a matter of fact, they are freely using country language. Now, don't get me wrong.
I have been known in my life time to also perfect that manner of speech. I used to say that Kevin has heard a lot more profanity than preaching until one Sunday after I made that comment he corrected me and said that the preaching had finally far outstripped the profanity.
But, occasionally when people are speaking in that way, and they find out my occupation, they usually say, "Oh, excuse me. If I had known you were a preacher, I would have been more careful." My usual reply is, "Hey, I'm not going to have to pay for your sins, you'll have to take care of that yourself."
One pastor said when he was in a similar situation he replied, "Well, you know, it doesn't matter that I hear what you're saying, but you do understand, don't you, that God hears everything you say." He said, "Yeah, but He's no blabbermouth. He won't go around telling people what I said."
On another occasion this same pastor was in the presence of a man who really did use God's name in vain and also the name of our Lord Jesus in a terrible way.
After awhile, he finally said to him, "Sir, you're using the two most important names in my life and yours in a way that you would never allow anyone to use your wife's or children's name, and I want you to know I'm bothered by it. I wish you wouldn't do it." The other man said, "Oh, preacher, when I say the name God and Jesus, I don't mean anything. He thought to himself, "My soul, God forgive that man." The greatest sin we can commit is to use the name God and Jesus Christ and not mean anything. "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."
Of course, you are to use the name of God. You are to use His name, to use it well and reverently and right. You use the name of Jesus, or you'll not be saved. This is the name above all names. This is the only name by which you can be saved. When you come in the name of God, you can find peace for your soul. You've got to use the name of God, but for heaven's sake and yours, use it right.
I guess a reverse command could be, "You will reverence the name of the Lord your God, for God will reward anyone who reverences His name."
