Don't Misuse God's Name (Exodus 20:7; Exodus 34:1-7; Philippians 2:9-11)
Billy Milton - January 29, 2006
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Long before printing presses, when the Old Testament was being copied manually onto scrolls by people known as the Talmudists, there were extremely rigid and detailed rules for those who would take on that job. These rules included the type of material to be written on, the size of the letters, the length of sentences, the exact space between words, colour and quality of the ink and so on. All of this was designed to ensure that no mistakes crept into the copy and also that the Scriptures were reverenced in the way that they ought to be.
A Talmudist was obliged to bathe before every copy session and dress in full Jewish dress such was the reverence given to the Holy Scripture. But the bit that caught my eye as I read it again this week was the instructions given to them for writing the name of God. Now, think of the number of times that the word ‘God’ appears in the OT. They were not allowed to write the name God with a pen newly dipped in ink, lest it smudge and dishonour God’s name and they were also instructed that, ‘should a king address him whilst writing the name of God he must ignore him’. In fact the name of God was held in such awe that the normal Jew would not let the word pass his lips.
Contrast that with our society today when a 9 year old boy on television recently passed the comment, “Why did they name Jesus after a swear word?” The using of the name of God or Jesus as a swear word, or as an exclamation, is so rife that no-one blinks an eye any more. I’m sorry to say that even Christians have slipped into the awful habit of exclaiming, ‘Oh my God!’ when they want to emphasise a point. Teenage girls especially, influenced by programmes like Friends, use ‘Oh my God’ all the time. Now, its not just that this is offensive to any true believer but its also dangerous. Did you notice the warning tagged on at the end of the commandment? “..for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”
You know, we shouldn’t be embarrassed to point out to people that we find such language offensive. In these days of political correctness we all have to watch what we say (and rightly so). No one would dream of standing outside a mosque and saying, ‘Oh my Allah!” Or if we hurt our finger, exclaiming, “Buddah!” All we as Christians are asking is to be treated with respect and my experience is that most people will try to avoid blaspheming if you ask them gently.
But the actual, overt blasphemy is possibly just the tip of the iceberg. The fact is that there are far more ways of misusing God’s name than just swearing. I am thinking of three ways in particular:
- 1. By having wrong ideas about him;
- 2. By living as his people in the wrong way;
- 3. By worshipping him in the wrong way.
1. By having wrong ideas about him
To understand how we can misuse God’s name by wrong thinking, we need to bear in mind two things:
Firstly, as we’ve mentioned already, in the OT God’s name was a very serious matter because it was part of who God was. The name was the embodiment of the person was. Normally today that is not the case but if you think say, in the gangland culture of 30 years ago when the Kray twins ruled London’s gangland. The very mention of their name was enough to reduce grown men to quivering wrecks because their name was synonomous with violence and ruthlessness. Their name held power… because it was attached to their reputation. In a similar way, but without the evil connotation, God’s name also was so identified with his character that it carried tremendous weight.
However, secondly, whilst the name of God brought with it a tremendous sense of awe and majesty, it is also the name which God invited his people to use – YHWH. He is in effect saying to his people, “I am not a faceless, distant God. I have a name. Its YHWH and you can use it.” For Christians there is a wonderful fresh revelation. Through knowing Jesus we can also call God by his name – Father.
So in the one name there are two truths – God is awesome and majestic and God is personal and loving. The danger we have is stressing one more than the other.
The second way we can misuse the name of God is:
2. By living as his people in the wrong way
When I worked as an accountant for a smoked salmon company we were really excited one year when we were awarded the Royal Warrant from the Queen. This plaque was attached to the outside of our premises and it told the world that the Queen ate our smoked salmon and approved of its quality. Its a major honour for a company and normally results in increased sales. However, if we let our standards slip or used the Royal Warrant inappropriately the Queen could remove the award from us with all the stigma that that would have entailed. In a sense we now represented the Queen and her standards.
The problem, and the honour, we have as Christians is that we now represent God and his name and our conduct can drag his name through the mud. We can bring disgrace on his name by our conduct. I’ll never forget playing golf with a man that I’d only met that day and as we chatted and mentioned people we knew in common the name of a mutual aquaintance called Tommy (not real name) was mentioned. It eventually came out that Tommy was a Christian and this guy said, “Well if Tommy’s a Christian then heaven help Christianity.” I was silenced and embarrassed and God’s name was dishonoured by Tommy’s behaviour.
And we can all do a similar thing by our conduct. Do you have a fish on your car? How do you drive? What’s the quality of your work like? When you say you’ll do something can you be trusted to do it? Do you pray to God for help with big issues then forget him when all is going smoothly? In all these ways we can bring dishonour to God’s name by living in the wrong way. The solution to this danger, which we all face, is threefold;
- 1. A genuine hunger for righteousness and a desire to raise our standards;
- 2. There must be total honesty. Am I living a life that is honouring to God in every way? We might need to give someone else permission to examine our lives to see if we really are maintaining our integrity.
- 3. We must stick at it and not give in when its gets challenging. We are never ‘off-duty’ as Christians.
And, lastly, we can misuse the name of God…
3. By worshipping him in the wrong way.
Most of us talk most openly about God in our public worship. Here, along with others, we praise God, sing, loudly, words about how great and wonderful he is and say ‘Amen’ to prayers on various matters. Yet we don’t often think hard enough about how we do this. I’ve been reading through the latter part of the book of Exodus this week in my quiet time. It’s the bit where God outlines how he would like to be worshipped and one thing struck me very forcibly. Even although it’s a bit boring to read you can be left in no doubt about how much attention the people had to give to worshipping God. There is even mention on a couple of occasions about bells on the bottom of the priests robes. Do you know why the priest had bells on the hem of his robes? It was so that when he was in the holy place, alone with God, the people could hear him walking about as he performed his duties and they’d know he wasn’t dead… that God had not killed him as he worshipped. God was awesome and fearful and the people knew it and behaved respectfully towards him. Do we? Are we present in body this morning absent in mind? Do our hearts mean what our lips say as we sing hymns to God? If Ben typed out the words of the hymns we have sung today and put at the bottom a little clause which read, “I, the undersigned, agree wholeheartedly to all of the above statements and expect God to hold me to them.” Effectively, when you say ‘Amen’ that’s what your saying… ‘I agree, count me in on that.’ Its dangerous to separate worship from our real life and it actually dishonours God’s name.
So, DO WE MISUSE THE NAME OF GOD BY:-
- having wrong ideas about him? Are we too familiar with him? You know, treat him as our buddy but not our Lord? Have we watered God down and trivialised him? Or have we gone the other way and lost sight that our God can be known personally in Jesus Christ. Yes, God is mighty but he also wants a personal relationship with us.
- living the wrong way? Do we walk the talk?
- worshipping him in the wrong way? Is our devotion cold, half-hearted or superficial?
If only misusing God’s name was as simple as stopping swearing! But at least it’s a starting point.
(PREACHED AS PART OF THE J. JOHN SERIES ‘10’ AND BASED ON HIS SERMON SUGGESTION.)