Exodus 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Is God really first in your personal life? Results of a poll of
1,500 college students showed that they had two sets of values
toward which they professed allegiance: on the first level,
towards self, family and friends; on the second level, to mankind
(in general) and God. It is notable that God was least regarded by
these “educated” young people! Yet in this same poll, 90 percent
of those questioned indicated a belief in God. This prevailing spiritual lethargy and passive disrespect toward God—and toward the great magnitude of His office and power—is indicative of a growing trend even among churchgoers and professing Christians. People like to talk about religion and God, but they do not stand in awe of His position and His name. And this spiritual cancer has within it the seeds of the destruction of our Western civilization!
The Third Commandment Stated
In discussing the first and second commandments, we found
that we must guard against making a god out of anything—and
putting it in place of the true God. And we learned that God commands us to worship Him directly—to walk with Him, to talk
with Him, to really know and worship Him in spirit and truth—
and to avoid using any image, picture or physical object as an
“aid” to worship or to “remind” us of the great Creator. The third
commandment deals with God’s name, His office, His position as
the great sovereign Ruler of the universe: “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). In the
Bible, personal names have a meaning. The original Hebrew name
of Abram was changed to Abraham—for Abraham means “a father
of many nations.” And Abraham was destined to become just
that—”a father of many nations” (Genesis 17:5). So it is with
God’s name.
God’s Name Reveals the Kind of God You Worship
Every name or title of God reveals some attribute of the divine
character. In studying God’s Word, we learn new facts about God’s
nature and character with each new name by which He reveals
Himself. In other words, God names Himself what He is! If men
use the name of God in a way that denies the true meaning and
character of God, they are breaking the third commandment. God
declares through Isaiah: “Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are
called by the name of Israel, and have come forth from the wellsprings of Judah; who swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth or in righteousness” (Isaiah 48:1).
People to whom this prophecy applies use the name of God,
but fail to obey the revelation of God contained in His name. And
shocking though it may be, many religious people repeat over and
over the name of God in sermons or prayers. They are taking
God’s name in vain—to no good use or purpose! The original
command says: “The LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes
His name in vain.” The Hebrew word here rendered “guiltless”
may also be translated “clean”—“The LORD will not hold him to
be clean who takes His name in vain.” The test of spiritual cleanliness is our attitude to the name of God! We are clean or unclean according to whether we take the name of God in truth—or for vanity. Do you realize what this means? It certainly indicates that someone is better off who—because of sincere religious doubts— has dropped the name of God from his vocabulary, than a professing Christian who talks about God continually, but denies Him in daily life!
In the Lord’s Prayer, we are instructed to “hallow” God’s name.
And the third commandment with which we are dealing has
directly to do with showing the proper respect for the name of
God. One of the ten great points of God’s eternal spiritual law is
devoted to this very thing! First of all, however, let us make it
clear to those who may have been misinformed on the subject that reverencing God’s name does not mean trying to speak Hebrew or Greek or learning to pronounce God’s name in the original biblical languages! There are certain sects that make a great matter out of this. Some claim that “Jehovah” is the Father’s name. Others claim that it is “Yahweh,” others “Yahveh,” and others use still different variations. The truth of the matter is that since all admit that the Hebrew vowels have not been preserved, no one knows exactly how this Hebrew name of God should be pronounced! (For proof that “God” is the Father’s name, request our free reprint article titled “The Truth About ‘Sacred Names’”).
Describing the significance of one’s name, Moulton-Milligan’s
Vocabulary of the Greek Testament states: “By a usage similar to that of the Heb.… [onoma, “name”] comes in the N.T. to denote the ‘character’, ‘name’, ‘authority’ of the person indicated” (p. 451). Also, and even more important, God Himself inspired Daniel and Ezra to use the Aramaic word for God in nine chapters of the
Bible that they wrote in this language, and the New Testament
writers all were inspired to use the Greek words for the Deity. The
real importance of the matter, of course, lies not in the phonetic
sound that is used to describe God, but in the meaning that His
names convey! Thus, this respected authority on biblical linguistics clearly shows that one’s name signifies one’s office, authority and especially one’s character. The names of God show us what God is like—they reveal His character! Do you really know what God is like? Do you respect His various offices and His name as you should? Turn to your Bible and check up!
God’s Nature and Character Revealed
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”
(Genesis 1:1). In this very first verse of the Bible, God reveals Himself by the Hebrew name Elohim. There is one God—but more
than one member in the Godhead, or God family! This same word
Elohim is used in Genesis 1:26: “Then God [Elohim] said, ‘Let Us
make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.’” Here it is
clearly seen—in context with the passage itself—that more than
one person shares the name of God—Elohim. In the New
Testament, this is made clear by the revelation that God the Father created all things by and through Jesus Christ—who was with God and was God from the beginning (John 1:1–14; Ephesians 3:9).
In these passages, therefore, it is revealed that God is more
than one person—God the Father and the “Word” or Spokesman,
who later became Jesus Christ when born in human flesh. This
Father-Son relationship shows that God is a family. And the way
the word Elohim is used in these early passages in Genesis and
elsewhere certainly indicates that God is the creating kingdom or
family! Interestingly, Elohim is plural in form but is used either in
the singular or plural, depending on the context. God, by virtue of
being Creator, is also the Ruler over His creation. We find that
immediately after creating the first man and woman, God gave
them both a blessing and a command: “Be fruitful and multiply;
fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28).
Yes, the true God is Ruler—and you should obey Him because
He made you and gives you every breath of air you breathe! In dealing with Abraham, God sometimes called Himself El Shaddai, which means “Almighty God.” So God is the source of all power! His name should be revered, because it stands for the one who is the source of all power, all might, and all authority. The name most commonly translated “LORD” in the Old Testament is translated from the Hebrew letters YHWH, sometimes rendered YAHWEH or YAHVEH. The original Hebrew word means the “Eternal” or “Self-Existent One.” The word is both used and defined in Genesis 21:33: “Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there called on the name of the LORD [YHWH], the Everlasting God.” This Hebrew word, often translated “Jehovah” in some of the revised versions, shows God’s character as the ever-living God and is used to show His everlasting office in a covenant relationship to those whom He has created. God has always existed and will always exist to carry out His blessings, His promises, and His covenant with His people!
Our God is the Eternal—the Self-Existent One. Throughout His
Word, God’s name is connected with His attributes—His power, His eternal existence, His mercy, His faithfulness, His wisdom, His love. Notice how the prophet David connects God’s name with His creative power: “O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who have set your glory above the heavens!… When I
consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalm 8:1–4). Here God is pictured as setting His glory above the heavens. Then David proceeds to show that God has created the heavens, the earth and man. No wonder God’s name and office are to be respected!
In our everyday speech, many of us are damning the very name of
our Creator and our God! We are using our breath to curse and damn the name of the very One who gives us our life and the very breath with which we curse His name! An expression used with terrible frequency is asking God to “damn” someone. Poor men and wealthy men alike give ready tongue to this vile oath—and often think they are proving their “manhood” or getting away with something by doing it! Yet it would be hard to find any normal human being anywhere who would like to see this phrase carried out with respect to others in all of its terrible meaning. Using this expression is trifling with the name of our God—asking Him to do something that He has never intended to do. God never “damned” a person in the way many seem to think! This idea is an awful heresy! God’s work is the work of salvation, and God will deprive no one of eternal life, except that one who,by his own volition and will, rejects God’s way. God says: “On this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:2). The very same may be said about the deep respect and godly fear we should have for God’s name—which directly represents God’s character, His Word and His purposes.
Should You Swear?