Taking the Name of God in Vain

Almost everyone can quote the third of the Ten Commandments in its traditional English form, “Thou shall not take the name of the Lord Thy God in vain.” The majority of those who can quote it think it forbids cussing. Over the years, people have come up with some creative euphemisms for the phrase God damn: gosh darn, golly gee, doggone, dadgum, or just G-D. They think that by substituting a word for “god” that they have met the requirement of the commandment.

Carmen Imes in her book, Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai still matters, says that the word “take” is better understood as “bear,” as in bearing a load or an image. Young’s Literal Translation comes close with “Do not take up the name of Jehovah thy God for a vain thing.” Imes suggests that bearing the name means being identified with the named One. A modern understanding of vain in this context would be empty or useless. In other words, if you are going to bear the Name, call yourself a follower of the Name, you had better be sure the things you do honor the Name you bear.

A quick review of where the Name comes from will be helpful. Several times in the Old Testament, “The Name” appears to people as God in human form. When Moses asked what he was supposed to call the being he encountered in the burning bush, he was told to use the name Yahweh. Numerous divine epiphanies are identified as Yahweh throughout the history of Israel. In her book, Imes asks where we find Yahweh in the New Testament. She frankly states that it isn’t there unless you follow the root of the name the angel told Mary and Joseph to call their miraculous baby boy: Yeshua.

Our Savior’s parents would have spoken Aramaic, a version of Hebrew, in their daily lives. Thus, it is likely that the angel who announced His birth would have told Mary, “You shall call His name Yeshua.” We got “Jesus” from the Greek translation where Yeshua becomes Ἰησοῦς pronounced Yaysous, hence Jesus in English. If you translate directly from the Aramaic to English, you have the name Joshua. Our Saviour’s given name was Joshua. Since God regularly gives descriptive names to His special people, it is no surprise to learn that in Hebrew, Joshua/Yeshua means God saves. He does, indeed!

According to Imes, there are two reasons why the name Yahweh doesn’t easily carry over into the New Testament. First, by the time of Jesus birth, the Jews had over one thousand years of substituting “Lord” for the Hebrew name of God out of reverence for Him. Second, the writings of Moses spelled the name he was given for the God of the burning bush YHWH. In ancient Hebrew, vowels were added later to aid pronunciation; Yahweh is as close a guess as any. Jumping to Greek was difficult because there are no letters that correspond with Y, W, or H. The authors of the New Testament, who were mostly Jews, simply continued the long-standing tradition of referring to God as Lord.

Now we are back to bearing the Name. We know it is the only Name by which we can be saved, thanks to Peter’s defiant assertion. We also have a pretty good idea that many, if not all the appearances of God/Yahweh in the Old Testament were probably the pre-incarnate, eternal Son of God. So, it appears that bearing the name of Jesus in the New Testament means exactly the same thing as bearing the name of Yahweh in the Old Testament. One must take pains not to bear the name without effect. And the effect must be to glorify God.

There is another interesting sidelight to the discussion of important names in the Bible. God’s people were known as Israel because their forefather, Jacob, was given that name after he wrestled with the Angel of Yahweh. Jacob means grabber, overcomer, or usurper in Hebrew. That name is a good description of much of what occurred in Jacob’s life. After his bout with the Angel, Jacob the overcomer was renamed Israel, “He who contends with God.” In retrospect, that properly describes what the nation of Israel did throughout their existence. It has been suggested that, “[Israel] is a reference to the Jewish people's ongoing struggle with God, and the obligation they have to explore their faith.”

I can’t think of a better description of the plight of those of us who have named the name of Jesus. Paul made his own struggle plain in Romans seven. He told the Galatians that there would be a continual battle within them between the Spirit and their flesh. After commending the heroes of the faith, the Hebrew author encourages us to, “run with patient endurance the race that has been set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the originator and perfecter of faith.” That “race” by the way is a marathon not a dash.

Imes says that when Jesus asked His followers to pray hallowed be Thy name, “His is prayer implies a personal commitment to honoring that name through a life of faithful obedience. He fulfills Israel’s vocation to bear Yahweh’s name with honor.” So, in one sense, the church, the Body of Christ, is the Israel of God. Our obligation is to represent His interests on earth; we are encouraged to “contend for the faith.” The church is at once the temple of God and His Israel: His contenders. This lends credence to my belief that physical Israel isn’t getting a second chance to accept their Messiah in the last days. They had their chance, and they blew it royally.

This also explains Paul’s comment to the Ephesians that God’s purpose for the church is to “Display His wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was His eternal plan, which He carried out in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 3:10-11 NLT) It is our responsibility to bear the Name with all the best intentions and glorify God in the process. If we do that, we will not bear the Name of the Lord our God in vain. I would still recommend that you avoid cussing.

Related Posts: His Name Shall Be Called; There’s Something Fishy About that Name; In Jesus’ Name