The Third Commandment Challenges Us To Use The Name Of The Lord Correctly.
Exodus 20:7 New King James Version (Nkjv)
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.
One Of The First Duties Of Parents After They Find Out They Are Expecting A Baby, Is To Name Their Child. They Read Baby Name Books . They Try Various Combinations And Say Them Out Loud To See How They Sound. They Consider All The Possible Nicknames, And Then They Check To See What The Initials Spell.
What's In A Name? God Says There's A Lot In A Name When It's His Name. In The Third Command He Says, "You Shall Not Misuse The Name Of The Lord Your God."
Why Is God So Sensitive About His Name?
Your Name Represents Three Things: Your Reputation, Your Character,
And Your Authority.
When Somebody Has A Good Reputation We Say "He's Has A Good Name." When He Has A Bad Reputation, "He's Got A Bad Name."
If I Say Billy Graham, How Do You Respond To That Name? What Does His Name Say About His Reputation, His Character And His Authority?
If I say Osama Bin Laden, How do you Respond? What Does His Name Say About His Reputation, His Character And His Authority?
A Name Represents Your Character. What You Are Cannot Be Separated From What Your Name Is Once It's Identified Together.
In The Bible They Would Often Name Children After Certain Character
Qualities Like Honest, Justice ... So That It Would Represent Their Character. Many Times In The Bible When Somebody Changed Their Character, Their Life Was Changed, God Gave Them A New
Name. Abram Became Abraham, Jacob Became Israel, Simon Became Peter.
God Would Change Their Names Because It Represents Your New Character.
By Contrast, One Of The Remarkable Things About God Is That No One Ever Named Him. From Time To Time People Have Come Up With Various False Names For God. But God’s True Name Is Chosen And Revealed By God Himself.
He Revealed It To Moses:
Exodus 3:13-15 New King James Version (NKJV)
13 Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”
14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” 15 Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’
The Name That God Revealed Was His Personal Name Yahweh, YHWH. “I Am Who I Am.”
The Israelites Learned From Their Deliverance That The God Who Revealed His Name To Moses Is A God Who Saves.
The 3rd Commandment Says:
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." (Exodus 20:7 RSV)
What Does "Vain" Mean? Why Is Using His Name In Vain Sin?
The Word “Vain” In Hebrew (Shav’) Is Precisely The Same Hebrew Word Used In Exodus 20:7 . It Has Two Literal Meanings; One Means Evil, The Other Means To Lie, Falsehood, As A Matter Of Vanity. Both Literal Meanings Are Manifested In How The Third Commandment Is Disregarded.
Using God’s Name In A Careless Or Meaningless Way Is Taking God’s Most Holy Name And Using It As A Curse Word, Swear Word, Or Just Casually.
The Jews Never Dared Break This Commandment And Were So Careful That They Didn’t Even Mention His Name For Fear They Might Mispronounce It. Even Today, I Have Jewish Friends Who Spell God’s Name As “G_D” Because They Know How Sacred God’s Name Is.
The Use Of God's Name In A Degrading Or In Any Disrespectful Manner Expresses An Attitude Of Disdaining The Relationship , We Are Supposed To Have With Him.
The Third Commandment Focuses On Showing Respect. It Addresses The Way We Communicate Our Feelings About God To Others And To Him. It Encompasses Our Attitudes, Speech And Behavior.
Respect Is The Cornerstone Of Good Relationships. The Quality Of Our Relationship With God Depends On The Love And Regard We Have For Him. It Also Depends On The Way We Express Respect For Him In The Presence Of Others.
Father Is One Of God’s Favorite Names. While On Earth, Jesus Called God “Father” Over Two Hundred Times. In His First Recorded Words Jesus Explained, “Didn’t You Know That I Must Be In My Father’s House?” (Luke 2:49).
In His Final Triumphant Prayer He Proclaims, “Father, I Give You My Life” (Luke 23:46).
In The Gospel Of John Alone, Jesus Repeats This Name 156 Times. God Loves To Be Called Father. After All, Didn’t Jesus Teach Us To Begin Our Prayer With The Phrase, “Our Father”?
God’s Laws Are Like Guardrails On A Dangerous Mountain Road And They Protect Us From Running Into The Mountain Or Driving Off The Mountain So The Ten Commandments Are Not A Lot Of “Do This” Or “Don’t’ Do That” But “Do This Or Don’t Do This So You Don’t Hurt Yourself.”
God,Wants To Protect Us, Even From Ourselves, And The Ten Commandments Will Do Just That If Obeyed.
Jesus Christ Says That It Shows We Love Him As He Said,
John 14:15 (NKJV)
15 “If you love Me, [a]keep My commandments.
How Important Is Obedience To God’s Commands To Jesus?
He States, John 14:21 (NLT)
21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
Jesus Equates Keeping His Commandments To Proving That You Love Him. That’s The Motivation Behind The Ten Commandments.
God Has Said He Will Not Hold Them Guiltless Who Take His Name In Vain. It Doesn’t Matter To Him Whether They Do It Accidentally Or Not.
Euphemisms And The Third Commandment
A Euphemism Is Substituting One Word For Another Or Actually, The Substitution Of A Mild, Inoffensive Word For One That Is.
For Example, Someone Might Say “Fudge!” In Place Of A Much More Evil Word That Begins With “F,”
Or They Might Say “Gosh Darn It” Which Is Simply Substituting “Gosh” For “God” And The “Darn It” Is In Place Of “Damn It.”
Other Euphemisms Are “Golly”, “Gee”, “Oh My Gosh”, “Doggone”.)
The Command Doesn’t Forbid Using His Name (As The Jews Came To Believe). It Does Forbid Misuse Of It.
To Be Specific, We Are Not To Use It In A Vain Or Empty Way.
The Specific Misuse That God Has In Mind Is Speaking About Him Carelessly, Thoughtlessly, Or Even Flippantly, As If He Didn’t Matter Or Really Didn’t Exist At All.
God’s Name Has Deep Spiritual Significance. So To Treat It Like Something Worthless Is Profanity In The Truest Sense Of The Word.
We Are Reminded In The Third Commandment That “The Lord Will Not Hold Him Guiltless Who Takes His Name In Vain” (Ex 20:7b).
Those Who Argue That Using Euphemisms In Place Of God Or Jesus’ Name Is Not Taking His Name In Vain But When Someone Uses These Slangs, Aren’t They Using It Meaninglessly Or In An Empty Way?
That’s Just What This Commandment Forbids And Yet, It Is The Most Used Language Of The Day, And God’s Name Is Too Holy To Be Used So Carelessly.
There Are Many Examples Of Blasphemy In The Bible. Perhaps The Most Shocking Occurs In Leviticus 24.
Leviticus 24: (NKJV)
The Penalty For Blasphemy
10 Now The Son Of An Israelite Woman, Whose Father Was An Egyptian, Went Out Among The Children Of Israel; And This Israelite Woman’s Son And A Man Of Israel Fought Each Other In The Camp. 11 And The Israelite Woman’s Son Blasphemed The Name Of The LORD And Cursed; And So They Brought Him To Moses. (His Mother’s Name Was Shelomith The Daughter Of Dibri, Of The Tribe Of Dan.) 12 Then They Put Him [A]In Custody, That [B]The Mind Of The LORD Might Be Shown To Them.
13 And The LORD Spoke To Moses, Saying, 14 “Take Outside The Camp Him Who Has Cursed; Then Let All Who Heard Him Lay Their Hands On His Head, And Let All The Congregation Stone Him.
15 “Then You Shall Speak To The Children Of Israel, Saying: ‘Whoever Curses His God Shall [C]Bear His Sin. 16 And Whoever Blasphemes The Name Of The LORD Shall Surely Be Put To Death. All The Congregation Shall Certainly Stone Him, The Stranger As Well As Him Who Is Born In The Land. When He Blasphemes The Name Of The LORD, He Shall Be Put To Death…..
23 Then Moses Spoke To The Children Of Israel; And They Took Outside The Camp Him Who Had Cursed, And Stoned Him With Stones. So The Children Of Israel Did As The LORD Commanded Moses.
How Can We Be Guilty?
Many People Only Lift Up The Name Of God As A Profanity To Pepper Their Conversation.
They Get Upset, And As Their Temper Rises, Their Caution Decreases.
We Lift Up Jesus So That The World Will Know Of Him
How Do You Use The Name Of God?
