SERMON TEXT
The Third Commandment: Do not misuse the name of the Lord Your God
Today we venture on in our exploration of the 10 Commandments as we examine Commandment 3
“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold guiltless anyone who misuses his name.”
Just like the first commandment, one cannot examine this commandment without acknowledging the primitive and barbaric laws that surrounded this commandment in the Bible itself. Like the first commandment, disobeying this commandment came with the death penalty by stoning, as found in Leviticus 24:15-16.
According to the book of Leviticus, Moses is even described as presiding over such a stoning. A young man was found to have cursed the Lord, and so we read in Leviticus 24:12-14 “Then they put him in custody, so that the mind of the Lord might be shown to them. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Take outside the camp him who has cursed; then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.”
Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did as the Lord commanded Moses.”
The violent and barbaric nature of such a text reminds us that we need to be very careful of turning to the Old Testament in a simplistic ways as a source of moral guidance.
If we are honest with ourselves, Moses, one who is upheld by many as a Biblical hero and even a prophet of God, is described as perpetrating the very same violent and barbaric behaviour that we condemn in the Taliban and in the Islamic State.
And even more than that, if we take the verses in Leviticus 24 literally, then truly God himself is ultimately guilty of ordering Moses to carry out this primitive act of barbarism in the first place.
I for one cannot worship a God who would have given such instructions whether it be to Moses or anyone else. It is for this reason that I cannot take these stories in the Old Testament as literally true and absolutely authoritative.
It is for this reason, I believe that these stories need to read as legends rather than history. As such, like all ancient legends and mythology, they might still contain archetypal and poetic truths for us, but not literal truths.
Getting back to the Third Commandment about not using the Lord’s name in vain, or not misusing the Lord’s name, apart from the danger of being stoned to death, the Old Testament stories also suggest that God himself could be extremely dangerous if one was to offend Him. Joy Davidman writes that thus, the Third Commandment is not just a nice-Nellyish warning against profanity It is much more like the sort of warning you see around power plants “Danger – High Voltage!” For the ancient Hebrews seem to have thought that God was like a live electricity wire. 2 Samuel 4 relates how Uzzah, who touched the Ark unwarily whilst trying to keep it from falling, was struck dead by the indwelling Power. The implied moral of that story (and again, I would call it a legend), seems to have been: Be careful how you touch God – he is dangerous!”
It was probably for this reason that Jewish people at some point stopped using God’s name at all. It was too sacred to be spoken, and perhaps they considered it to dangerous to be spoken, in case you misused it accidentally and you ended up getting zapped. As a result, the name YHWH ceased to be used. In it’s place, Jewish people used the word Adonai, which means “Lord” or “The Lord”.
I guess the question that one might ask is: “Is it true?” Is God going to strike us down if we use God’s name in vain?
The truth of the matter is that with all the profanity and blasphemy that happens in the world today, there are very few instances that I’m aware of, of people being struck down dead because they have misused God’s name or blasphemed against God.
If God is not going to zap us if we misuse God’s name, in what way might this Commandment still speak to us today?
How might we interpret this commandment through the life and ministry of Jesus, who as the author of the book of Hebrews describes him as the author and perfecter of our faith.
The first question we might ask is: What is in a name? What is the meaning and significance of a name?
In most ancient cultures, including ancient Hebrew Culture, a name wasn’t just a label. A name was thought of as embodying something of the character and personality of a person. I think most of us may have an inkling of this. We all know the experience of meeting someone and feeling like their name suits their personality completely, and also the experience of being introduced to someone and feeling a disjunction between the person we are introduced to and the name by which we are called. Have you ever had the experience of saying to yourself: But she really didn’t look like a Jane? At the very least it may be because she seems so different from another Jane that we have come to know well. But it does reveal that at a very ordinary level, like many ancient cultures, we also have a tendency of correlating certain names with people’s character and personality.
And that leads us onto another question: In the light of Jesus’ life and teaching, what is the Name, the Character and Personality of God?
In the Old Testament, God’s name was often associated with anger, unpredictability, punishment, danger. There are many people today who genuinely fear God, and hearing God’s name being invoked produces a feeling of fear and a lack of safety. Reading stories of Uzzah touching the Ark of the Covenant and being struck dead, reinforce this sense that God is dangerous.
But whereas many Old Testament stories present God as dangerous, jealous, moody, capricious and even vindictive, if Paul’s letter to the Colossians is right that Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God, then like the writer of John’s first Epistle, we would have to come to the conclusion that God’s Name, God’s nature, character and Personality is in fact Love.
1 John 4:16 God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
And so as the English Hymn writer Florence May Hoatson put’s it so beautifully.
God whose Name is Love,
happy children we;
listen to the hymn
that we sing to thee.
Bless us every one
singing here to thee.
God whose Name is Love,
loving may we be!
In Closing, I would like to get back to the Commandment not to misuse God’s name and would like to conclude by saying that to misuse God’s name is to use God’s name in any way shape or form that is unloving and unkind. It is to use God’s name for any other purpose other than the purpose of love.
God’s name was misused and abused on the island of Ireland in the way Mother and Baby homes were run in ways that were un-compassionate, judgemental, abusive and oppressive. God’s name has been misused and abused when it has been invoked to call people to war and acts of violence. God’s name is misused and abused when used by politicians to try and get votes when such politicians are acting out of selfish ambition rather than motivated by genuine love and care. God’s name is misused and abused when a businessman or woman puts a Bible on their desk, pretending to be honourable and honest, and yet doing business in ways that are less than honest and honourable.
To misuse and abuse God’s name I believe can even happen (and perhaps especially happen) when a preacher, a priest or minister presents an image of God in their preaching that is anything less than Love itself.
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus turns the third commandment around. Instead of saying we should not misuse the Name of God, Jesus teaches us to pray “May your Name be kept holy.” God’s Name is kept Holy when it is only used for purposes of love.
And so may we keep God’s name holy as together with Florence May Hoatson we say:
Bless us every one
singing here to thee.
God whose Name is Love,
loving may we be!
The Third Commandment: Do not misuse the name of the Lord Your God
Today we venture on in our exploration of the 10 Commandments as we examine Commandment 3
“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold guiltless anyone who misuses his name.”
Just like the first commandment, one cannot examine this commandment without acknowledging the primitive and barbaric laws that surrounded this commandment in the Bible itself. Like the first commandment, disobeying this commandment came with the death penalty by stoning, as found in Leviticus 24:15-16.
According to the book of Leviticus, Moses is even described as presiding over such a stoning. A young man was found to have cursed the Lord, and so we read in Leviticus 24:12-14 “Then they put him in custody, so that the mind of the Lord might be shown to them. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Take outside the camp him who has cursed; then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.”
Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did as the Lord commanded Moses.”
The violent and barbaric nature of such a text reminds us that we need to be very careful of turning to the Old Testament in a simplistic ways as a source of moral guidance.
If we are honest with ourselves, Moses, one who is upheld by many as a Biblical hero and even a prophet of God, is described as perpetrating the very same violent and barbaric behaviour that we condemn in the Taliban and in the Islamic State.
And even more than that, if we take the verses in Leviticus 24 literally, then truly God himself is ultimately guilty of ordering Moses to carry out this primitive act of barbarism in the first place.
I for one cannot worship a God who would have given such instructions whether it be to Moses or anyone else. It is for this reason that I cannot take these stories in the Old Testament as literally true and absolutely authoritative.
It is for this reason, I believe that these stories need to read as legends rather than history. As such, like all ancient legends and mythology, they might still contain archetypal and poetic truths for us, but not literal truths.
Getting back to the Third Commandment about not using the Lord’s name in vain, or not misusing the Lord’s name, apart from the danger of being stoned to death, the Old Testament stories also suggest that God himself could be extremely dangerous if one was to offend Him. Joy Davidman writes that thus, the Third Commandment is not just a nice-Nellyish warning against profanity It is much more like the sort of warning you see around power plants “Danger – High Voltage!” For the ancient Hebrews seem to have thought that God was like a live electricity wire. 2 Samuel 4 relates how Uzzah, who touched the Ark unwarily whilst trying to keep it from falling, was struck dead by the indwelling Power. The implied moral of that story (and again, I would call it a legend), seems to have been: Be careful how you touch God – he is dangerous!”
It was probably for this reason that Jewish people at some point stopped using God’s name at all. It was too sacred to be spoken, and perhaps they considered it to dangerous to be spoken, in case you misused it accidentally and you ended up getting zapped. As a result, the name YHWH ceased to be used. In it’s place, Jewish people used the word Adonai, which means “Lord” or “The Lord”.
I guess the question that one might ask is: “Is it true?” Is God going to strike us down if we use God’s name in vain?
The truth of the matter is that with all the profanity and blasphemy that happens in the world today, there are very few instances that I’m aware of, of people being struck down dead because they have misused God’s name or blasphemed against God.
If God is not going to zap us if we misuse God’s name, in what way might this Commandment still speak to us today?
How might we interpret this commandment through the life and ministry of Jesus, who as the author of the book of Hebrews describes him as the author and perfecter of our faith.
The first question we might ask is: What is in a name? What is the meaning and significance of a name?
In most ancient cultures, including ancient Hebrew Culture, a name wasn’t just a label. A name was thought of as embodying something of the character and personality of a person. I think most of us may have an inkling of this. We all know the experience of meeting someone and feeling like their name suits their personality completely, and also the experience of being introduced to someone and feeling a disjunction between the person we are introduced to and the name by which we are called. Have you ever had the experience of saying to yourself: But she really didn’t look like a Jane? At the very least it may be because she seems so different from another Jane that we have come to know well. But it does reveal that at a very ordinary level, like many ancient cultures, we also have a tendency of correlating certain names with people’s character and personality.
And that leads us onto another question: In the light of Jesus’ life and teaching, what is the Name, the Character and Personality of God?
In the Old Testament, God’s name was often associated with anger, unpredictability, punishment, danger. There are many people today who genuinely fear God, and hearing God’s name being invoked produces a feeling of fear and a lack of safety. Reading stories of Uzzah touching the Ark of the Covenant and being struck dead, reinforce this sense that God is dangerous.
But whereas many Old Testament stories present God as dangerous, jealous, moody, capricious and even vindictive, if Paul’s letter to the Colossians is right that Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God, then like the writer of John’s first Epistle, we would have to come to the conclusion that God’s Name, God’s nature, character and Personality is in fact Love.
1 John 4:16 God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
And so as the English Hymn writer Florence May Hoatson put’s it so beautifully.
God whose Name is Love,
happy children we;
listen to the hymn
that we sing to thee.
Bless us every one
singing here to thee.
God whose Name is Love,
loving may we be!
In Closing, I would like to get back to the Commandment not to misuse God’s name and would like to conclude by saying that to misuse God’s name is to use God’s name in any way shape or form that is unloving and unkind. It is to use God’s name for any other purpose other than the purpose of love.
God’s name was misused and abused on the island of Ireland in the way Mother and Baby homes were run in ways that were un-compassionate, judgemental, abusive and oppressive. God’s name has been misused and abused when it has been invoked to call people to war and acts of violence. God’s name is misused and abused when used by politicians to try and get votes when such politicians are acting out of selfish ambition rather than motivated by genuine love and care. God’s name is misused and abused when a businessman or woman puts a Bible on their desk, pretending to be honourable and honest, and yet doing business in ways that are less than honest and honourable.
To misuse and abuse God’s name I believe can even happen (and perhaps especially happen) when a preacher, a priest or minister presents an image of God in their preaching that is anything less than Love itself.
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus turns the third commandment around. Instead of saying we should not misuse the Name of God, Jesus teaches us to pray “May your Name be kept holy.” God’s Name is kept Holy when it is only used for purposes of love.
And so may we keep God’s name holy as together with Florence May Hoatson we say:
Bless us every one
singing here to thee.
God whose Name is Love,
loving may we be!
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