The Sacred Name of God
“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” (Exod. 20:4-6). This passage is often cited as some sort of prohibition against speaking some explicative. I suppose that can be an application in a roundabout way from the point Moses thought to make, but that was never the heart of the issue. The third command had to do with verbal representations or better yet misrepresentations of God. In other words, “the people were to exercise the greatest caution when talking about him or invoking his name. They were to say nothing which might detract from a true appreciation of his nature and character” [1].
God revealed His name to the Hebrew people through the prophet Moses (Exod. 3:13-15). The name given was YHWH, which is translated “I AM.”
Inasmuch as the giving of one’s name was something deep and personal, God gave the second commandment to warn against saying something that would drag the name of the Lord in the mud. God was very aware of the way pagans would use the name of their gods as part of magical formulas, to be an incantation that could control their environment. This would never do for the God who had created the universe and revealed Himself to man. Far be it that He would be put into a box to do someone else’s every wish upon command. He could never be reduced to a formula. God sought to have a different kind of relationship with the people He would call His own.
Very little has changed since the giving of the second commandment upon Mount Sinai. Many people today simply make God a means to an end. Those involved in the aberrant Word of Faith movement might pronounce some faith-filled formula in hopes of attaining unlimited wealth and perfect heath. This is the reducing of God to a formula to get what one wants. There is no love for the Master, but just what is on the Master’s table. This is a taking of the Lord’s name in vain.
One can even take the Lord’s name in vain in saying something about God that is simply false, whether intentionally or unintentionally. It is truly reprehensible when people commit great atrocities in the name of God. For example, the twisting of the Scriptures to justify modern slavery in the West was certainly the dragging of God’s name in the mud. Another example is when someone speaks a “word of wisdom” or “word of knowledge,” and that person says God has said this or that; well, if God never said this “word of wisdom” or that “word of knowledge,” then this too is a taking of the Lord’s name in vain. What shame would come upon the person who says, “Thus saith the Lord,” when in the end the Lord says, “I never said that.”
At some point the second commandment was taken to its most literal extreme so that people would never dare take the sacred name of the Lord upon their lips. When the Scriptures were read in public and the reader came across the word YHWH, which are the four Hebrew consonants that represent God’s Name, instead of speaking the Holy Name in public, the reader would say Adonai (Lord). In time, the ancient manuscript copyist would add the vowels for the word Adonai to the word YHWH, from which come the words Yahweh and Jehovah. The combination of YHWH with vowels from Adonai is called the “tetragrammaton”[2]. It is typical for modern English Bibles translations to render YHWH as “LORD” because it was Hebrew practice for Jewish people to say “Lord,” in Hebrew (Adonai), rather than use God’s sacred name.
It would be a mistake to think one must always refer to the Supreme Being and Creator of the universe as “Jehovah” or “Yahweh.” What is more important than the pronunciation of the name is the identity of the deity behind the name, and while one may use LORD, Yahweh, or Jehovah in reference to deity, it is far more important to speak and seek the true God who goes by the name LORD, Yahweh or Jehovah. One must also keep in mind that there are far too many false gods out there who also go by the names LORD, Yahweh, and Jehovah. We can fuss over using LORD, Yahweh or Jehovah in reference to our deity, but what is more important is to speak these names in such a way that would never misrepresent the God who revealed Himself in the Scriptures.
God has revealed Himself to people, and He has even given to them His sacred name. Ultimately, we are all called to enter into covenant with God, so that He can be our God and we can be His people. God has even revealed to us how this covenant relationship is established and what it means to live in it through what He has revealed through Moses and the prophets in the Old Testament, and ultimately through Jesus Christ and the apostles in the New Testament. Those who enter into that covenant relationship are to exalt the name of their God with their lips and life, and they are always to walk in such a way that steers clear of defiling God’s sacred name through words and deeds.
~ WGN
_______________
God revealed His name to the Hebrew people through the prophet Moses (Exod. 3:13-15). The name given was YHWH, which is translated “I AM.”
Inasmuch as the giving of one’s name was something deep and personal, God gave the second commandment to warn against saying something that would drag the name of the Lord in the mud. God was very aware of the way pagans would use the name of their gods as part of magical formulas, to be an incantation that could control their environment. This would never do for the God who had created the universe and revealed Himself to man. Far be it that He would be put into a box to do someone else’s every wish upon command. He could never be reduced to a formula. God sought to have a different kind of relationship with the people He would call His own.
Very little has changed since the giving of the second commandment upon Mount Sinai. Many people today simply make God a means to an end. Those involved in the aberrant Word of Faith movement might pronounce some faith-filled formula in hopes of attaining unlimited wealth and perfect heath. This is the reducing of God to a formula to get what one wants. There is no love for the Master, but just what is on the Master’s table. This is a taking of the Lord’s name in vain.
One can even take the Lord’s name in vain in saying something about God that is simply false, whether intentionally or unintentionally. It is truly reprehensible when people commit great atrocities in the name of God. For example, the twisting of the Scriptures to justify modern slavery in the West was certainly the dragging of God’s name in the mud. Another example is when someone speaks a “word of wisdom” or “word of knowledge,” and that person says God has said this or that; well, if God never said this “word of wisdom” or that “word of knowledge,” then this too is a taking of the Lord’s name in vain. What shame would come upon the person who says, “Thus saith the Lord,” when in the end the Lord says, “I never said that.”
At some point the second commandment was taken to its most literal extreme so that people would never dare take the sacred name of the Lord upon their lips. When the Scriptures were read in public and the reader came across the word YHWH, which are the four Hebrew consonants that represent God’s Name, instead of speaking the Holy Name in public, the reader would say Adonai (Lord). In time, the ancient manuscript copyist would add the vowels for the word Adonai to the word YHWH, from which come the words Yahweh and Jehovah. The combination of YHWH with vowels from Adonai is called the “tetragrammaton”[2]. It is typical for modern English Bibles translations to render YHWH as “LORD” because it was Hebrew practice for Jewish people to say “Lord,” in Hebrew (Adonai), rather than use God’s sacred name.
It would be a mistake to think one must always refer to the Supreme Being and Creator of the universe as “Jehovah” or “Yahweh.” What is more important than the pronunciation of the name is the identity of the deity behind the name, and while one may use LORD, Yahweh, or Jehovah in reference to deity, it is far more important to speak and seek the true God who goes by the name LORD, Yahweh or Jehovah. One must also keep in mind that there are far too many false gods out there who also go by the names LORD, Yahweh, and Jehovah. We can fuss over using LORD, Yahweh or Jehovah in reference to our deity, but what is more important is to speak these names in such a way that would never misrepresent the God who revealed Himself in the Scriptures.
God has revealed Himself to people, and He has even given to them His sacred name. Ultimately, we are all called to enter into covenant with God, so that He can be our God and we can be His people. God has even revealed to us how this covenant relationship is established and what it means to live in it through what He has revealed through Moses and the prophets in the Old Testament, and ultimately through Jesus Christ and the apostles in the New Testament. Those who enter into that covenant relationship are to exalt the name of their God with their lips and life, and they are always to walk in such a way that steers clear of defiling God’s sacred name through words and deeds.
~ WGN
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- T.D. Alexander, New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D.A. Carson (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 107.
- Ronald F. Youngblood, gen. ed., Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), 503.
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