Thou Shalt not Take The Lord's Name in Vain

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.”

Names are familiar to us. It is not only a way by which we address someone, but also a way of communicating something. There are so many books and resources on names, when I became a parent I remember looking through names with Brandy for our kids and it was always a long task, yet it was very intentional and meaningful for us. So it is for many people wanting to give the "perfect name" to their children. Names mean something.

Today we will reflect about a very special name. The one name that was never given by another but self-expressed from before the beginning of time. We did not get to tell God His name. He decided to reveal it Himself.

So far as we have been going through the 10 Commandments we have seen that the first commandment is an attitude of the mind, the second is an attitude of the hands (what we do). The third Commandment is about how we use our tongue when referring to God, and the underlying regard for it.

The premise of the 10 Commandments is the initiative of God to enter into a covenant relationship with the Israelites in the persons of the patriarchs, and to uphold that promise He made, to their descendants. Rescuing them for Himself. Exodus 20:2 – I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery

This is who I am - YHWH

This is who I am in relationship with you - Your God

This is what I have done - I have rescued you

All the commandments given afterwards are to be understood in relationship to who God is to His People. The 10 Commandments were given to instruct the Israelites not only how to interact with God, the first 4, but also how to interact with each other, as God’s people (the other 6). And today we will look at the 3rd commandment. “Thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain”

What is meant when we say "the name of God"?

There is one self-revealed name that He has given. The one written in the form of the ("Tetragrammaton") YHWH - Yahweh!

This is His personal name. His name is important as it alone perfectly represents all that He is. As we will see.

For, in Jewish culture, the name conveys the nature and essence of the one named. It represents the history and reputation of the being named.” (background)

Let me summarise the 3rd commandment for us today. If you were to forget everything else that is being said here, please remember this one thing (besides the commandment itself): When we take God's Name in vain, we misrepresent His character and who He is (his Attributes).

Before we begin, we should first understand something: Why is there a commandment that protects the use of the Name of God? In the Bible we see the importance of God's name being revered. There are two underlying concepts that will help us to apply this commandment into our lives:

1) God’s name portrays His character (attributes)

2) Consequently, God’s name is to be held as precious!

1) God’s name portrays His character (attributes)

The book of Exodus is a wonderful book to see the interactions between God and His covenant people. In this book God reveals His unique name to His people, first through Moses, then more publicly. This is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who upheld His covenant with His people, even after hundreds of years of them living in Egypt. Now let us turn to two of my favourite passages in the book of Exodus. Here we will see the name of God and how it is used. (Exodus 3 and Exodus 34 – God describing himself!)

Exodus 3:14-15

“God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘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.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”

I am sure that you have read this passage many times before. The wording at the beginning seems a little strange to many of us westerners. “I am who I am”. What does that mean? Here we see God expressing the essence of His character. He is revealing to us the fact that He is self-existent, that He is self-sufficient. [[How so? People back then identified themselves as belonging to their fathers, their tribes. God does not depend on anyone to identify Himself, He simply is.]] He depends on nothing. Who can say that in the entirety of creation? For “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28 – quoted from pagan poets).

Notice also how in v.15 God uses His personal name – Yahweh – together with the covenant people who He chose for himself (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) showing that He is a relational God. His name is to be remembered: the relational, covenant-keeping God, who is self-sufficient and self-existent has spoken!

2) Consequently, God’s name is to be held as precious!

Now turn to Exodus 34:5-8

“Then Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood there with him, and He called upon the name of Yahweh. 6 Then Yahweh passed by in front of him and called out, “Yahweh, Yahweh God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” 8 And Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship “

The greatness of the name of God is such that He himself repeats it twice in v.6. And then explains what he’s saying in saying His name!

Compassionate and gracious

What is God like? “Slow to anger”

Abounding in love and truth!

In expressing His name, God is declaring not only the precious nature of it, but He is revealing His character, He is revealing who He is! When we invoke the name of God into our lips, we bring up all of these into our speech. We ought to consider God’s name as precious for His name is directly linked to all that He is. (Jewish concept, call the Name, bring up the whole person)

Jeremiah 10:6 - “There is none like You, O Yahweh; You are great, and great is Your name in might.“

With this in mind, let us now come back to our passage. Now, as we have learned before, every commandment has a positive and negative aspect. Our passage is written in the negative (thou shalt not), so what would a positive aspect of it be? That would be to honour God’s name.

What does it mean for us not to take the Lord’s name in vain? / Honour God’s name?

Jesus gave us the perfect guide to positively keep this commandment while teaching His disciples on how to pray in the Lord’s prayer. Matthew 6:9b: “...Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.“

In most translations we know the word used is hallowed, but it can also be translated as “be made holy”, “righteous”.

We positively ought to regard God’s name very high. In whatever use we give it.

Now, the Jews understood the gravitas of the name of God, but they took it to an extreme. It is common practice for the Jews to restrict the use of the names of God. In casual conversation they will call God “HaShem” (literally means “the Name”) and even in English, Jews will write G-d instead of using the word God.

They do this because they understand the gravity of mishandling the divine name from biblical times to this day!

Yet, in the Scriptures themselves, the divine name (YHWH) is found over 6000 times! To me that speaks to the intent of God to be known by His name. Let us not forget Exodus 3:15 where God says of His name “...this is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations”

What does it look like to honour God’s name?

A way of honouring the name of God is by addressing God in prayer, calling out to Him in times of rejoicing, distress and thankfulness. This can be our guiding principle to our use of His precious name.

It was Martin Luther who wrote about Honouring God’s name saying this (Small Catechism): “use that very name in every time of need to call on, pray to, praise, and give thanks to God.”

The book of Psalms has wonderful examples for us to consider Psalm 29:2 - Ascribe to Yahweh the glory of His name; Worship Yahweh in the splendor of holiness. Psalm 72:19 – Blessed be His glorious name forever; and may the whole earth be filled with His glory Amen, and Amen Psalm 103:1 – Bless Yahweh, o my soul, and all that is within me, bless His Holy name

Elsewhere in the Bible: Genesis 21:33 “33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.” (Abraham)

And from the prophets, we learn that: Joel 2:32 (Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13) - “And it will be that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh Will be delivered (saved)”

Yahweh is a relational God and we are to refer to Him in reverence, not in triviality, yet with a sense of nearness to Him, for He made Himself known by His name, through His word, to His people.

When we take God's Name in vain, we misrepresent His character and who He is. So for us to honour God’s name is to consider who God is (creator), His character (Compassionate, Righteous), and His attributes (self-sufficient, self-existent) before we utter His name or refer to Him in our conversations, affirmations, thoughts, or attitudes.

Now that we have explored the positive side of this commandment, let us look more closely into the explicit, negative aspect of the 3rd commandment:

What does it mean to take the Lord’s name in vain?

There are many aspects in which we could focus but we are going to try to narrow them down and then bring some practical examples to see them more clearly. I will start by framing the commandment into 3 main areas in which we could take the Lord’s name in vain. The 3 aspects are:

1) Lying (Perjury) 2) Blasphemy/ cursing 3) Irreverent talk (both in and outside of the family of God)

1) Lying (Perjury)

Let us turn back to our passage and focus on some of the keywords. The 2 words to notice are “vain” and “take up” (ESV).

First, the word “vain” conveys the idea of “worthless”, “futile”, “inconsequential”. To take the Lord’s name in vain is to bring down God’s character and attributes to the irrelevant, the vulgar, bringing Him down to the mundane. It is to turn the name of the Lord into nothingness.

The word ‘vain’ is used alongside with the expression “take up” (ESV). What does take up mean in this passage? It refers to raising or exalting God’s name to attest someone’s word, in other words, to confirm the testimony of an oath.

This point is reinforced in Leviticus 19:12 where it reads:

‘And you shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am Yahweh.”

There is a sense in which we are told directly not to bring God’s name to bear to the truthfulness of a lie. This is to say publicly that God is ok with my lie! This is Perjury!

For example, how many of us have seen on TV that a witness in court would be asked: “do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God?” and the witness responds “yes”

At that moment, Yahweh God is invoked to ratify everything that is said by the witness as truthful! What a fearful thing! And this is treated so trivial, as if it was just a formula to continue with a trial. What is said in that small phrase is terribly serious. Leviticus 19:12 makes clear that, to give false witness when invoking the Lord’s name is to profane God! This is a direct violation of the 3rd commandment, it brings dishonour to God. [[ As Calvin said regarding Leviticus 19:12 where we read a slightly different rendition: “...“Thou shalt not pollute the name of God,” because God, who is eternal and immutable truth, cannot be more grossly insulted than by being summoned as a witness to falsehood, which is assuredly a shameful and wicked pollution” ]]

To have the audacity to bring God to our side when we utter a false statement is to have complete disregard of the Judge of all the earth. And all of that, to get others to trust in our word. This is to use God for your own gain in the eyes of others, while you pollute God’s Holy and Blameless character with your sin!

This does not only happen in a court of law. When we say “I swear to God I have not told so and so what you said to me in confidence” but lied. There we treat the Lord’s name in vain

When we say: “Oh I swear to God that I will never lie to you”/ Even though this may be well-intentioned, you are bringing the entirety of God’s majesty to bear to your fallible commitment, which you may not be able to keep for much longer than that conversation! There, you would be treating God’s name in vain

Or when we make solemn vows, be it weddings, ordination, upon taking public offices, maybe even baptismal or membership vows. If we take these solemn promises lightly and break them, we are treating God’s name in vain, and we pollute His Majesty with our disregard for His character and for who He is.

And even things like giving a false profession of Faith, for in it you claim that God has worked in your life towards heaven when you are not even with Him. Then you are also taking the Lord’s name in vain, to His disrepute.

2) Blasphemy / cursing

This is one of the most obvious and most common aspects of breaking the 3rd commandment. For most people the 3rd commandment is summarized into this: “Do not use God’s name in swearing!” but it goes way beyond that.

Sadly the breaking of this commandment is seen everywhere. It has become mainstream to see God’s name and any reference to the divine as trivial, also mocked and used as curse words on a regular basis. This speaks volumes of the disregard of the holiness of God in our society.

And you may even come to me and say:. Brother Alejandro, that’s them, not us. We are probably ok.

Most Christians would believe that out of the 10 commandments, we are likely not to break this one! If there is a chance of not breaking one of the commandments, this is the one that has one of the greatest chances!

I’ll grant you that for most people in the Church this may seem that way. However, I want to press all of us a little further.

We may not blatantly swear like others do, maybe. But what about mentioning God in trivial moments and sprints of frustration? How many of us have heard the commonly used letters “OMG” in regular conversation to address almost anything? “OMG you are not going to believe what happened to me yesterday”. “OMG I can’t even…” and so forth

There are even more blunt forms in which we see God’s name used meaninglessly or even in hostility. Let us look at this more closely. Have you ever out of frustration called God to, let’s say, curse something to damnation? Or when watching a sports game, did you call out to God because the shot missed the goal? Or have you ever gotten hurt and out of pain cried to God or mentioned the name of Jesus in an unreverential way? Or call the name of Jesus when missing a bus on a cold winter day?

I believe many of us have done these things during the course of our lives. We are not ok.

And to press even further, I want to submit to you that to blaspheme the name of God is not simply to avoid using certain words. It is not a technical issue. For God knows the heart and knows what you meant when you may have said a word to avoid using the word you knew you were going to use.

We would be taking God’s name in vain and breaking the 3rd commandment.

How are we doing so far?

3) “Irreverent talk” [[hypocrisy]]

This one I believe is closely related to our previous point, yet somewhat distinct. Think of it as foolish talk when considering God.

I remember many years ago certain trends in popular culture to refer to Jesus in a childishly wrong way. It may have been well-intentioned but it was very wrong. You tell me

I remember seeing shirts saying “Jesus is my homeboy” (who remembers that?) Or what about sayings that go like this “Jesus is my boyfriend”? These kinds of statements may be very well-intentioned, showing that there is an attempt to connect to Jesus, but this is wrong. We are bringing the glory of God down and not regarding God as supreme. For as we have seen so far: When we take God’s name in vain, we misrepresent His character and who He is

Now, I want us to get pushed even further, not just looking out to the world, but looking within the walls of the church. Brothers and sisters, we are guilty of this too in more ways than one

This one I believe is one of the biggest ways in which the Christian Church has broken this commandment. It is at times misguided use, and other irreverent [hypocritical] ways of using God’s name in church!

When we were examining the positive ways on which we can keep this commandment we mentioned that it was good and right to use God’s name in prayer, adoration and in thankfulness to God. These are true and good things. But yet, In our fallenness we can take these good things and corrupt them to the offence of God and not treating His name as Holy

Here is an example: Let’s say that after I finished this sermon and then move to the closing prayer time, I remembered that there was something I wanted to tell the congregation. So I start praying and after addressing God I go ahead and use that time to, while praying, mention the points I forgot from my sermon and use them to continue preaching to you all. And, at the end, I end it all in the name of Jesus.

What a shameful thing I would be doing! Brothers and sisters, when we come to the privilege of speaking to God in prayer, it is to Him that we are speaking. We do not use Him to prompt either ourselves, or anything else. It is a time to commune with God. It would be to use God’s name in vain.

What about people who use the name of God to claim that you ought to give your money and time to them so that you can receive a special blessing? If they are not talking for God, they are using God’s name for their own gain. That would be to use God’s name in vain.

Another example, have you heard people saying: “God told me to tell you”? If we are not speaking in careful ways here, we are also breaking the 3rd commandment and we are using God’s name in vain.

What about something as common as singing? When we name God in a song, do we sing it engaging and reflecting on what we are saying or do we simply repeat the words and give no thought to them? If so, we are using God’s name in vain.

So how are we doing so far keeping this commandment?

I think we all know how we are doing so far

But I want to encourage you not to shrug this aside and think: “Well, we are not perfect and God forgives, so we can move on.”

I want us to look at the very end of our passage in v.7 where it says “For the LORD will not hold him gutless who takes his name in vain”

This is a serious warning. You want to know how I know this? I will simply show you an example:

There is an instance in the OT where a man, who was half Egyptian and lived amongst the people of Israel, dishonoured the name of God. Let us read together that event on

Leviticus 24:10-16

“10 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, 11 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. 12 And they put him in custody, till the will of the Lord should be clear to them.

13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 14 “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. 15 And speak to the people of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. 16 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.”

Please let the words of the very last verse sink in. The 10 commandments were part of God’s covenant with the people of Israel. Yet here we see that God commands the people of Israel to hold not only all of their descendents to honour God’s name, but even the foreigner in the land!

God took the profaning of His name seriously. And so should we.

As we have seen, the Law shows us that we are in trouble. That really nobody in this room has been able to keep even this commandment perfectly at all times.

The message should be for us to realize that there is no amount of self-discipline that is going to spare you from failing to honour God’s name at all times. I am not going to tell you that if you try any discipline that you’ll perfectly keep this commandment. The Law shows us that any attempt of achieving this is hopeless.

I am not here to give you a massive workload but rather I am here to give you true hope.

The Law sends us to the only place where there is true forgiveness and perfection. How?

By realizing that we cannot keep it. That the Law is too perfect for us and we need to be forgiven and we need to find perfect righteousness from somewhere. And all of this is found in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. The Law sends us running to Christ. Christ receives us by repentance and faith, if we have faith in His name. By Faith we are made anew, we are given a new life. Eternal Life. Where we are forgiven of our sins. Christ’s perfect obedience is given to us as a gift, and we are given a new heart, a heart that loves God and is no longer against Him.

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

And then, Christ sends us to the Law, not to ignore it, but to keep it in His strength and empowerment through the Holy Spirit, not to gain acceptance from God, but out of gratefulness to declare our love for God. And this is not done to achieve perfection for the sake of it as ourselves, as independent-beings, but by placing God first in our lives, to avoid lying, blaspheming and irreverently taking the name of God. If you are a Christian here this morning, praise God for providing the perfect righteousness of Christ on your behalf, by faith, and live for Him out of gratefulness. If you do not trust God this morning, what is stopping you? We are all expected to keep the Law. We either try to keep it ourselves and inevitably fail, or we trust in Christ and find forgiveness and grace. “For the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain”

Let’s pray