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. Deuteronomy 5:11
Our devotions this morning reminded us of the gravity of the third commandment. The Lord instructs us to set apart his name as holy, and we are not to take His name in vain...period. We looked at the passage in Leviticus 24 that described the Old Testament penalty for blasphemy against the Lord. "Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death." (vv. 15 - 16) This is serious business to the Lord. I thought about how far we've drifted from honoring the Lord's name, including those of us claiming him as our Heavenly Father. It's not uncommon to hear the phrase "Oh my God!" tossed around, not as a cry to God for help, but as a reaction to some circumstance or bit of news. Along with the development of the instant messaging lingo such as "lol" or "ttyl," that phrase has now been reduced to "omg," and it's widely used. As we read this morning, nothing reductionistic about God's name is acceptable to him; his name deserves to be spoken in accordance with who he is...the Holy One.
No comments:
Post a Comment