The Third Law and Ambassadors

 

Exodus 20:7

“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” (NKJV).

“You do not bring the Name of יהוה your Elohim to naught, for יהוה does not leave the one unpunished who brings His Name to naught” (Shemoth– Exodus 20:7, TS2009).

This law is another one about respecting the name of the Creator. It is widely thought that this means you should not use the word “God” in cussing and swearing. In studying the first law and the name of the Creator, we can see that the English word “God” is an overused and somewhat undistinguished title. His actual name יהוה however is tremendously important and to use His name in blasphemy is a serious offence. “And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord [יהוה] shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death” (Leviticus 24:16, NKJV). So don’t do that! Not to mention that we should not be using foul language anyway. But there is a lot more to the third law than this, so let’s continue.

There is another possible application of the third law regarding using the Creator’s name to add validity to a statement, or to swear anything by His name. This idea comes from Matthew 5:33-‬37, where Yeshua said “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one” (NKJV). And again in James 5:12. “But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment” (NKJV).

There are 34 verses that I found where individuals use the phrase “As the LORD lives” (NKJV) the Hebrew (חָי יהוה Khai YHVH) These individuals include: Gideon, Boaz, Saul, “the people,” David, Jonathan, Achish, Ittai, Elijah, “the widow,” Obadiah, Micaiah, Elisha, “the Shunamite woman,” Gehazi and Zedekiah. These people used that phrase in everyday conversation, and several times when it was used then the speaker was wrong, or did not follow through with whatever they had sworn. Saul did this when he intended to kill Jonathan for tasting some honey, and David did this when he unknowingly pronounced judgment on himself after hearing Nathan’s parable.  

Perhaps this is what Yeshua instructed us to avoid, with the safest way to do so being refraining from swearing at all. “Though they say, ‘As the Lord lives,’ Surely they swear falsely” (Jeremiah 5:2, NKJV). “And you shall not swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:12, NKJV).

All this is interesting, and no doubt applicable to keeping the third law, and yet there is one more facet to this. Perhaps it is the biggest one.

The word translated as “take” in the NKJV is the Hebrew word נָשָׂא Strong’s H5375 and it means: to lift, bear up, carry, take

The word translated as “in vain” is the Hebrew word שָׁוְא Strong’s H7723 and it means emptiness, vanity, or falsehood. 

When we are baptized, I believe that is akin to us accepting a marriage proposal from the Messiah. We take on His name.* If after doing so we turn away from the narrow path and start leading a life of sin and rebellion against the Most High then we would have most definitely taken on His name for falsehood. 

When David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband murdered to cover it up; Nathan the prophet was sent to him to call him out for such henious actions. He said “because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die” (II Samuel 12:14, NKJV). Everybody knew that David was a servant of Yah, and as such, these actions reflected poorly on His name. Thus David violated the third law as well as the second, sixth, seventh, eighth, tenth and possibly the others as well. 

For us believers, our actions reflect on our King for good or bad. We are ambassadors, and as such we must be careful to not bear His name for vanity.

“Two things I request of You (Deprive me not before I die): Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches— Feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You, And say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God” (Proverbs 30:7‭-‬9, NKJV).

There are numurous people crawling this earth who use the Creator's name for their own gain. This might be a claim of divine communication in order to make himself appear to be more special than everyone else, or an attempt to add validity to his personal ideas. These types of people have a lot in common with each other, usually in that they are arrogant narcissists. Corporate religions, though, take the cake for being the most common example of taking on the name of the Creator for personal prophet/profit.   

Brethren, let us pray for wisdom and strength to never do anything that would bring dishonor to the name of our King.

 * “Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.” (Isaiah 43:7, NKJV).