The Lord’s Name in Vain

Even a casual student of the Bible should realize that God is a serious being. He is definitely not the ogre that He is often depicted as being by those with an abysmal, or even nonexistent, understanding of the Bible. Nor is He a jolly Santa Claus known mostly for His, “Ho, ho, ho.” He is serious and involved in serious matters.

Read the Bible from Genesis through Revelation and you will never find any idle chatter coming from the mouth of God. The same can be said of those He chose to relay his intended messages for us through inspired revelation. They didn’t go off on irrelevant tangents to relate interesting but otherwise useless stories or personal thoughts. When God made a statement it served a specific, definite, and important purpose. The same is true of the inspired writers who wrote as God inspired them.

When God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden, He meant what He said, “You shall surely die.”

Death is understood to be a separation. The Bible speaks of a “second death,” Rev. 21:8, and other places. The second death is a spiritual death that awaits evil people. It is, more than anything else, a separation of the spirit of man from God. It will be an indescribably horrible existence for a spirit that is not actually dead as we think of death, but rather is separated from God. The first death is a physical death in which man’s spirit is separated from his body. This condition is the death that we physical beings understand best. The death Adam and Eve experienced “on the day you eat of it” was a separation from the relationship they had with God in the garden where he “walked with them.” They were separated from the garden where they met God personally.

When God told Noah to build an ark for a coming flood He was as serious as one can be. When He told Moses to “speak to the rock” He wasn’t interested in Moses’ preference, Numbers 20:12. When God directed priests from which place they should get fire for an offering, He was not good with considering Nadab’s and Abihu’s alternative, Lev. 10:1-3.

God takes man’s transgressions so seriously, and He loves man so much (and so seriously) that before God even framed the world in creation He planned to offer His son as a sacrifice, Eph. 1:4-5, John 3:16. That is something “that is not lightly done,” to borrow my favorite phrase from “Cry, the Beloved Country.”

In Exodus 20, God begins the Ten Commandments with the statement, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” I believe this was to impress upon the Israelites the awesome import of the words that followed. God often made such a statement before issuing “rules” or edicts to His people. The first four commandments are about showing proper respect and worship to God. The third commandment is, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.”

This is part of the “Old Law”, but it shows a quality of respect that God demands, and we can be sure that hasn’t changed. The Israelites would not even write out the name of God thinking of that as disrespectful. That is not part of our culture today, but the requirement not to take God’s name In vain still exists. What do you think might be the punishment spoken by God in the commandment? I think He’s serious.

The Hebrew word, transliterated as “shav”, means empty or vain. The dictionary definition of vain is: “not yielding the desired outcome, fruitless, lacking substance or worth.” For God, the desired outcome of the use of His name is to instill an awesome respect in the hearer. How can we use the name of God in vain?

It is used quite often as a profanity. When someone wants to express irritation they might use a four letter word beginning with “d.” If they are really angry they might preface that with the name of God. Sometimes one will say “good” before the name of God to express surprise or amazement. There are other variations that can’t all be dealt with here. A very common one in our culture which is said without thought is the phrase “Oh my _”, in which the missing word is the name of God. What does the “G” stand for in OM_? That’s right. Don’t use it.

But there is more than this. Jokes are told or stories are made up that invoke God for humor or into a humorous situation. Careless references are made in serious conversation, or references may be made in careless conversation (not the same thing.) God’s people must diligently avoid all of these and related situations. We either afford God the awesome respect He and His name deserve or we don’t. We cannot engage Him nor His name in a frivolous manner that is not intended to be respectful, or is not respectful regardless of intention. God takes himself seriously.

The rule of thumb I go by is that I do not invoke the name of God, or even a reference to God, unless my purpose is directly to bring God into the conversation or into the mind of the listener. If I use the name of God it is in direct reference to the God of the Bible - His statements, His judgements, His teaching - in such a way as to honor Him and/or humble us. I don’t joke about God or include His name or a reference to Him in a joke about something else. I don’t joke about St Peter, the Pearly Gates, Heaven, or any celestial being or Bible reference to such. These are all part of God’s spiritual realm and serious items. I don’t speak of them flippantly without joking either.

But that’s just me. You will have to decide on your course of attitude and action but I pray you show the proper respect to God in all ways. The Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain. This is serious business.