Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Are You Taking God's Name in Vain? | Torah | Exodus 20:7

Episode Date: June 20, 2022

What does it mean to take God's name in vain? Does it mean you shouldn't cuss or say "OMG"? In today's episode, Keith discusses the third commandment and the weight that God's name holds. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Exodus 20:7 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. My name is Keith Simon, and right now we're going through the Book of Exodus. You know how when you install a new piece of software on your computer, there pops up this little agreement that you have to click the I agree button in order to use the software? Now, how many times have you read the software agreement? Probably zero. How many times if you click the I agree button? Well, probably every time. I think that's a lot. I think that's a lot. I think the software agreement. I think the software agreement. I think, the Ten Commandments are a lot like that. We haven't really read them, but we agree with them. We're not sure what they all are, but we agree with them. Even if we know what they are, we're not sure what they say, but we agree with them. That's especially true of the Third Commandment. It's found in

Exodus 20, verse 7. It 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. Now, does that command mean that we shouldn't cuss? Does it mean watch what you say? Be careful with your OMGs? If that's all it means, it doesn't seem like it's that big of a deal. I mean, should that command make the top ten? Look at the serious nature of the other commandments. Does don't cuss fit?

And if that's all it means, don't cuss, then that would for sure be the easiest of the commandments to keep, wouldn't it? Well, if we're going to understand what it means to take the Lord's name in vain, let's start with the significance of the name of God. In Romeo and Juliet, there's that famous line where they ask, what's in a name? And it turns out the Bible says there's a lot in a name. Alexander the Great spent most of his ruling years on an unprecedented military campaign through Asia and Northern Africa. By the age of 30, he had created one of the largest empires in the ancient world.

He was undefeated in battle and considered one of history's most successful commanders. History tells us that Alexander the Great had a soldier in his army who developed a bad reputation. When the fighting became severe, the young man would start to retreat while everyone around him fought on. The general summoned this soldier, whose first name was also Alexander, and said to him, I hear how you're behaving in battle, young man. You either need to change your behavior or change your name. I don't want the name Alexander to be associated with cowardice. Alexander instinctively knew that when you share the name of another person, what you do reflects positively or negatively on that person.

He didn't want to share the same name with a cowardice. because he didn't want this man to reflect poorly on himself. Have you thought much of where the name Christian comes from? Baptism is a naming ceremony. Jesus says, therefore, and go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We bear the name of God. The word Christian is rooted in the title of Jesus.

He is the Christ and we are to be little Christ. followers of His. We bear the name of Christ and what we do reflects on him. That can be positive, like Jesus says in Matthew 5. Let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven. Or it can be negative. In 2 Samuel 12, it says, however, by this deed, you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. So we can also live in a way that dishonors God's name. And God's name is much. more than a name. It's God's identity. This was the whole Hebrew understanding of names. For us a name is a label. It's something we have, not something we are. But for the Hebrews,

the name was inseparable from the person. It expressed a person's inward identity. Psalm 8.1, Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name and all the earth. The name of God refers to his reputation, his fame, his renown. This is the way we use the word name when we say, she's really making a name for herself. Or we sometimes say, that's a name brand. We mean that's a brand with a reputation. When you see how important the name of God is, the third commandment starts making more sense. To revere God's name is to revere God. To treat God's name as empty or worthless is to treat God as empty and worthless. We don't do reverence well. We don't really respect authority like we probably should. We're anti-authoritarian. We mock presidents. Kids mock parents. But we're called to revere God,

not mock him. In order to reverence God, Jews don't speak the name of God. They don't want to violate the Third Commandment. But I think that's slightly missing the point. God's people were not forbidden from using his name. God wants us to use his name. God's name is used all over the Bible. He calls on his people to praise and honor and glorify his name. God gave us his name so that we would address him personally. Calling him by his name strengthens our love relationship with him. What God forbids is misusing his name. To be specific, we're not to use it in an empty way.

We're not to speak about God carelessly, thoughtlessly, flippantly, as if he really doesn't matter. To dishonor God's name is saying that God himself is worthless. Now you're thinking to yourself, I thought this commandment was about cussing. Well, it has something to say to that issue, but it's far deeper than that. Let's look at two ways we misuse God's name or use God's name in vain. We use God's name in vain when we use it as a means to an end. Back before the Super Bowl in the year 2000, there were two NFL football players involved in serious accidents. One player was Isaac Bruce, who was playing wide receiver for the St. Louis Rams.

They went on to win that year's Super Bowl. When the police pulled up at the car accident, they thought everybody in the car was probably dead. But somehow, Isaac Bruce walked out unscratched. The second accident involved linebacker Derek Thomas. He played for the Kansas City Chiefs. And when the police pulled up to that wreck, they thought it didn't look that bad. at least not compared to all the other wrecks that they had seen. And yet Derek Thomas was taken away by ambulance with no feeling in his legs.

After many surgeries, it was determined that he was paralyzed from his chest down. Not long afterwards, he died from his paralysis. Rick Riley wrote a story about these two men and their accidents in Sports Illustrated. And in the process of writing that story, he was talking to Isaac Bruce. He asked him, do you ever think that he? what happened to Derek Thomas could have happened to you and that you're really fortunate to be here? And Isaac Bruce said, oh, not at all. Because as my car was flipping through the air, I threw my hands off the wheel and called Jesus's name. Rick Riley asked, does that mean that God doesn't love Derek Thomas? Oh, no, Bruce said. I don't know what Derek said as his car was flipping.

Isaac Bruce thought he was saved and Derek Thomas wasn't simply because he had yelled the name Jesus. If Derek Thomas had yelled the name Jesus, maybe he'd be alive too. But I think that's using God's name flippantly. I think that's using God's name more like a lucky rabbit's foot. It's using God's name to get what you really want. In this case, your life, your health. But we're not supposed to use God's name as kind of a magical toy. That is to misuse his name or to use it in a way that is vain and empty.

Another way we can misuse God's name is when we use his name to support our agenda. In Jeremiah 14, the Lord says to Jeremiah, The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries, and the delusions of their own minds. So God's saying, look, the prophets are saying things that I didn't say. There are people who have done that in our own day, in our own history. People said that God favored slavery.

No, he didn't. He never said that. People that say, God told me that my adultery is okay. No, no, he didn't. So false prophecy is saying that the Lord told you something that contradicts his word. Some Christians say, the Lord told me to do this. Or worse, they say, the Lord told me to tell you, to do this. If someone tells you that God spoke to them and told you what to do, you should run fast and

run hard. Don't look back. No one should have confidence to say that the Lord told them something that isn't found in the Bible. So we misuse God's name when we use it to advance our own personal agenda. Saying that the Lord told me to do something is a way to keep people from questioning your plans. Maybe you're familiar with Oral Roberts University. It was started by, you guessed it, Oral Roberts. Back in 1987, he said that God told him that he wanted to establish Oral Roberts Medical School to put his medical presence on the earth. And then God said to him, supposedly,

I want you to get this going in one year or I will call you home. So obviously there's some manipulation going on. If you don't want me to die, you need to give money to establish this medical school. But there's even more going on than that, because there's confusion about what God wants with what we want. And when that happens, we're taking God's name in vain. Sometimes that can happen when we use God to endorse our political views. Everyone says God is on their side. Yes, the Bible does speak to political issues, but it's usually more complicated than people present.

God isn't a party mascot. God doesn't ride on an elephant or a donkey. He's the king of kings and lord of lords. Jesus has the name that it's above every name, and at the name of Jesus, everyone will bow. That's why Jesus taught us to pray, Our Father in heaven, hallow it be your name. May we live in a way that honors God's name,

because by honoring God's name, we honor God. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week. It'll challenge you to grow in your faith, give you interesting background on today's passage, and a lot, lot more. Just click the link in the show notes to sign up. It'll help you deepen your journey with Jesus.