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. (Ex. 20:7)
Even to this day there is a special place for the mother. Mock anyone, but don’t hate on the mother. Don’t cast aspersions to the mother, because there is something special about the mother. So there is something to revere about the mother. Indeed there is some potency in the mention of the word. There can be something deliberate in its mention to incite reaction – because there’s something in a name.
It’s interesting going around wondering what people’s names mean. There are quite a range of names being given to children with little regard given to its meaning. This of course is not the case everywhere and certainly hasn’t always been the case even here. Names mean something and not just a static issue of interest for an answer when asked. When the name is given there is usually a story behind the name, there is significance in it.
That is why to treat names loosely or without due recognition, acknowledgement or deference is not to give the name its due. It’s a lot like mistreating the mother.
When it comes to taking the name of the LORD our God in vain, the story and significance behind it is as enormous as the nature of the relationship. This includes, of course, the use of the name in every day conversation. So there’s something rather inappropriate and disrespectful to bandying the name around as an exclamation or reference of derision. It is as though the name with the story and significance behind it is cheap and tacky. For a relationship so important it can be rather hypocritical then to make light of the usage of the word.
This is especially in the case of a God for whom words are critical – even these ten words are definitive and from the beginning to the end. If you ask broadcasters, writers, lyricists and the like they will tell you that every word can count and it is crucial not to waste any – not to misuse one single word for to do so could be the difference between something good and something great. In this Word then it is not God cramping people’s style, it is the Father inviting us to engage with Him on opening and embracing the meaning and significance of a story of creation, a story of liberty from captivity, a story of loss and redemption, a story of loneliness to reconciliation and family.
On important occasions in society like remembering those who died in wars it is deemed almost sacrilegious to take the mick out of such a time. In the same way for what is involved in the name and what it means to one who is part of this relationship there is no desire to misuse the name. Not only because of the story and significance of who we are and how the story affects us but most crucially of all who is behind the Name. Because we know Him we dare not misuse His name and that is not just in speech that is in behaviour and belief. That is in thought, word and deed. Everyday activities can either glorify His name or show a gross abuse of it. So it’s not just about telling people to stop saying it in a slack manner, it gets to the heart of who we believe in and how important He is in our lives. This overwhelms the ‘mother’ factor quite considerably … to those who have already made it their life’s desire to know Him and love Him, worshipping Him in Spirit and in truth.
These words are so intertwined and so spiritually oriented that they all inevitably express the core of what this relationship is all about – a Father who saw us subjected to sin and death and has come and rescued us with His mighty hand to restore us again to Himself – a family reunited. The vertical relationship restored thus has key implications for all horizontal relationships that follow that. If these are implicit in our private lives the expression in the social and public lives will be seen in future words.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
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