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CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND CHARACTER – The Ten Commandments (Part 4)
Last time we looked at the second commandment. Here, we’ll look at the third commandment.
7 "You
shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold
anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
The Christian ethic of the third
commandment is that of honor. And what
carries more honor than one’s name. The
Hebrews knew Yahweh (“I AM”) as the only God and they revered His name. The third commandment, therefore, would make
great sense to them. To misuse the name
of God would be the ultimate insult to God and would bring the ultimate shame (and
would be punishable) on the offender.
The Hebrew word for name, shem (pronounced, shame), denotes a definite
and conspicuous position. It is a
person’s memorial. It denotes honor,
authority and character.
The prohibition in this
commandment is more than false swearing, swearing – in the sense we might think
of it today: profanity – and being irreverent.
It is also making a promise by the use of the name of God and then
casting that aside without thought or pause.
Using the name of the Lord God is the ultimate appeal to all that is holy
and true.
It is simply not enough to avoid
profanity. To say the name of God is to
worship God. Therefore, how we say it,
how we use it, reflects our attitude of worship of God.
The Hebrew word for misuse or
vain (KJV) is lashaaw’ (pronounced, la shaw’). It means to disrespect in the sense of “nothingness.” It is the “cold shoulder” in a relationship. To misuse the name of the Lord God, is to
attribute to God that He is nothing to us and to all mankind. It is the height of hypocrisy to profess our
faith, and then to lashaaw’ God. The Septuagint has: “ou leepsee epi mataioo,” which
means, “Thou shalt not take the name of Yahweh thy God upon a vain thing, a
trifling, frivolous occasion.”
What happens when we attempt to
reduce God to nothingness – when we disrespect Him in this manner, by the
misuse of His name? This verse says that
God will not hold us guiltless. Here,
the Hebrew word for guiltless is naqah (pronounced,
naw-kaw'). It is used in the negative
sense or as the flip side of “blameless.”
If we misuse the name of God, we are by no means blameless or guiltless
before God. To not be guiltless connotes
that such guilt or blame is punished. How? I am not sure. But I sure don’t want to stand before God to
find out.
God refers to Himself as Yahweh –
“I AM.” If we misuse His name, we say,
“No, you aren’t.”
Next, we’ll look at the fourth
commandment.
Doug
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