Deeper 14: The 3rd Commandment

Exodus 20:7 (HRV) - “You shall not take the name of YHWH your Elohim in vain; for YHWH will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.”

 

Exodus 20:7 (KJV) – “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”

 

Well, it’s pretty obvious what the difference is between the King James Version and the Hebraic Roots Version.  The KJV has replaced the name YHWH with LORD in all caps.  This does change the meaning of the verse and helps to insinuate that “God” is His name instead of His title.  But, I covered this in my July 16, 2013 blog “Deep Calling Deep 2: YHWH” and went into greater detail in the following two “Deep” blogs, so I’m not going to rehash that here. 

 

(And, since we’re talking about the name of God, I’d like to mention that it has not been the convention to capitalize pronouns referring to God from the inception of the English language.  It’s a comparatively new rule and did not exist in the days of King James.  Some people have asked why I do not capitalize “He” and “Him” all of the time when referring to God.  When I’m quoting a bible verse, I don’t do it because they didn’t do it.  If I don’t do it in my own text, it’s considered a grammatical mistake currently, but I probably made the mistake because I’m reading and analyzing scripture that does not follow that convention as I’m typing, so my mind is in that place.  I apologize for any confusion.)

 

(Additional side note:  The letter “J” was added to the English language in the 1400’s replacing the letter “Y” in many words.  This is one of the reasons why English bibles use the name “Jesus” instead of “Yeshua”.  Also, the feminine pronouns “her” and “she” and the like did not always exist.  Originally, both sexes were referred to as “he” and “him” and so on.  This is one of the reasons why the Holy Spirit, which is always treated as feminine in the original Hebraic texts, is erroneously treated as masculine in English texts.  So, if nothing else, you got a little extra history concerning the English language.)

 

Using the name of God as a swear word is not what this verse is talking about.  It is no coincidence that the ten commandments come after the marriage covenant began.  The ten commandment are, essentially, our wedding vows.  And the first four commandments in particular, deal with our relationship with God. 

 

We need to understand this in the context of marriage in order to properly understand what this commandment is telling us.  This verse has to do with our union, or rather our not entering into a false union, with Him.  Imagine it this way.  If my wife married me, or in other words took my name, with no intention of fulfilling her marriage commitment to me, her marriage vows would have been hollow and worthless.  If she only wanted what she could get from me but slept with other men and didn’t care at all about her responsibilities as my wife in any way, the marriage would be a sham.  If she didn’t love me and didn’t really want to be with me, then she would have taken my name in vain.  She would be known by my last name and not her maiden name, but she would not really be mine. 

 

When we claim to be His, when we take His name, call ourselves “Christian” and make the claim that we are one with Him, and then live for ourselves and do not fulfill our part in this relationship, we take His name in vain.  It’s an empty, hollow thing.  It’s selfishly based and means nothing. 

 

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle.  That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”   --  Brennan Manning  (The quote can be found at the beginning of DC Talk’s song, “What If I Stumble?”)

Scott Snyder

edgiscript3@yahoo.com

Deeper 13: The 2nd commandment

20:4-5a (HRV) “You shall not make unto you a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down unto them, nor serve them;”

 

This used to be a confusing commandment for me because I saw no real difference between this and the first commandment of having no other gods before Him.  After all, if you’re not worshipping any other gods, then you’re not going to make any graven image to another god, so why did YHWH feel the need to include this commandment? 

 

Because there is a difference.  This commandment doesn't mean what I first thought it meant.  While the first commandment says that you will worship YHWH and YHWH alone, this commandment essentially says that you will not put God in a box.  You will not limit him to anything you can see and understand, and then call that God. 

 

We need to see this commandment from the viewpoint of the people of the world at that time, because YHWH was giving them this commandment in a way easy to understand to them.  The people of the world were making images of their gods all the time.  It gave them a way of feeling like they could understand their god by defining the characteristics of their god in an easy to recognize way.  This is what YHWH was telling us not to do.  You have no right to define Him according to your preconceptions about who God is or should be.  He is not limited to what you can comprehend.  He is, and always will be, so much more.  By limiting him to what you can understand, you are placing yourself in a position of being able to decide who God is and is not.  Even if what you do understand is a correct piece of God, it’s a small piece of God and not a true complete image of Him. 

 

YHWH is not definable by any standard of ours.  Yes, He gives us explanations of Himself in small bits and pieces so we can slowly grow in understanding of who He is, but He is not limited to what we see or know.  He merely compares Himself to things we can see and know in order to assist us in the process of understanding.  He is bright like the sun, but He is not the sun.  He is as gentle as a lamb, but He is not limited to being only a lamb.  He gave us physical examples to help us understand aspects of Himself, but He is not limited to those aspects.  We need to allow Him to define Himself.  We cannot tell Him who or what He is like.  When we make a physical graven image, or, translating that into modern ideas, when we place a religious system around Him that defines exactly how He acts and what He looks like, we define God and thereby claim some sort of authority or control over Him. 

 

We break the second commandment when we establish a religious precedent of our own or create our own rules about who He is and how He acts.  God said that we were not to add to or remove one jot or tittle of what He gave us.  "Jot and tittle" translates literally into "Letter and punctuation mark."  Most people understand that God told us not to do that because what He gives us is perfect, and obviously any changes we make to it make it imperfect, but another reason is because if we say that we have the ability to define, or redefine, God, and then bow down to that image of who He is, we may claim that we’re bowing down to Him, but we’re really bowing down to ourselves. 

 

I know of several people who do not take photographs because they feel it’s breaking the second commandment.  There are others who feel that artwork of any kind, whether it’s drawing, sculpting, engraving, or doing what Paul and I are doing by making this comic is breaking the second commandment.  This is not what the second commandment is forbidding us to do.  Take your photo.  Carve your sculpture.  Draw a picture from your own imagination.  These are not evil actions.  The impetus of this commandment is “Do not limit God by your own limited and faulty understanding of His reality.”  In short, if I draw a picture of an eagle and say that it's a wonderful creation of God's, that's ok.  If I draw a picture of an eagle and say that that's God, even if I have true reverence in my heart for Him, that's wrong.  I've limited YHWH to the mere attributes of a single creature. 

 

Exodus 20:20 (HRV)  (In the NKJV this verse is 20:23)  “You shall not make with Me—gods of silver, or gods of gold, you shall not make unto you.”

                 

Exodus 20:22 (HRV)  (In the NKJV this verse is 20:25)  “And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones; for if you lift up your tool upon it, you have profaned it.”

 

In conjunction with the second commandment are these two verses later in Exodus twenty.  We are not to make gods WITH Him.  This means that making false gods doesn’t necessarily mean we think we’re turning from Him.  We can believe that we’re doing it in conjunction with Him and that it has His blessing and still be wrong.  If we redefine God according to our own system of beliefs, we have created a false god, even if we name it Jesus and say that we did it for Him.  We are not to shape Him, He shapes us.  We are not to use our “tools” on Him.  If he gives us a "stone" to work with, then that's the stone He designed to use in that way. 

Human history is littered with religious leaders, whether they call themselves Jewish High Priests or Catholic Popes or Protestant Pastors, altering what God has given us about Himself because they didn't approve of the way He wanted things done.  The child always wants to change the parent's wishes because the child is selfish.  Sometimes we put our "tools" to His "stones" because we're are deceived into thinking it's His will, but usually we know that we simply don't like what He has said and we want to redefine it.  

YHWH's worship, instructions, details about Himself, and everything He's given us is of His design, not ours.  We are not to adjust it according to our whims, desires, or limited understanding.  Doing so gives us a faulty understanding of who He is and severs our connection with Him in some way.  Is that really what we want?

Scott Snyder

edgiscript3@yahoo.com