The third commandment is about God’s name. We are not to take it in vain. The word “vain” means “empty.” To take God’s name in vain means, in part, that we speak about Him in a manner that is empty of any real substance.
Such taking His name in vain includes parroting teachings that we have heard, instead of speaking from an intimate knowledge of God from our own experience.
A “name” in Scripture is more than just a tag or handle. It is a description of the person or thing. The name “Moses,” in Hebrew, means “drawn out,” and he was prophetically named that because he was drawn out of the Nile as an infant, and because he would later draw the people of Israel out of Egypt.
So, God’s name speaks of who He is. Psalm 91:14 says, “I will set him on high because he has known my name.” This does not mean that the person just knows that God’s name is Jehovah (or Yahweh). It means that he has come to really know, to really understand, who God is as depicted by that name. The name Jehovah, usually translated in most versions as LORD (all capitals), can be loosely translated “Wonderful Being” or “THE Being.” It comes from the verb “to be.” Different scholars come up with various nuances of how to translate it. But they agree that it comes from “to be.” God gave an explanation to Moses, when Moses asked for God’s name so that He could pass it on to the people of Israel. God said, “I AM who I AM…. Tell them, ‘I AM sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:14). Notice that “I am” is just the first person singular form of “to be.” God then said, “Tell the children of Israel, ‘Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and this is my memorial name for all generations.” Here He is directly relating “Jehovah” to “I AM.” It says more than that God just exists. First of all, He “was and is and is to come” (Rev. 4:8). He always is. But beyond that, he is that wonderful Being, out from whom all other beings come, for all were created by Him. He is THE Being. This name speaks of all the vast wonders and intricacies of God’s being and nature. There is this kind of being, and that kind of being (angels and men, for example), but His Being, His nature, is way beyond them all. Men come and go in time, but this glorious being is ever there.
When the Bible talks of God’s glory being revealed, it is speaking of the wonders of His excellent being and nature and ways and activities that come forth from His wonderful nature and being. What a wonderful Being our Father is! And, coming “to know His name” speaks of getting to know and understand the vastness of this Being! It is very significant that to this same Moses, to whom God revealed that His name was “I AM” or “Jehovah” or “THE Being,” God a few chapters later said, “I am Jehovah. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob by the name ‘God Almighty’ [‘El Shaddai‘]. But, by my name ‘Jehovah’ was I not known to them…. Therefore, say to the children of Israel, ‘I am Jehovah. I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians…. And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God…. And I will bring you in to the land, concerning which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and I will give it to you for an inheritance. I am Jehovah’” (Exodus 6:2-8). To the individuals Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He was God Almighty -- the one who was able to make them fruitful. But the people of Israel were to know Him in a new dimension -- they were not to just know His ability to help them and keep His promises, but they were to now come to know His being, His nature. This is why God gave them the law soon after bringing them out of Egypt. The law reveals how God feels about situations and events. It reveals how He feels about how we treat our neighbors. It reveals how His being expects our being to behave. It reveals how he feels about all kinds of things! Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did not have this revelation. They were just given promises, and told simple things like leave this land and go to that land. They did not know how God felt about their behavior in everyday life.
Through the people of Israel, God was making Himself known. Through the people of Israel, God was making His name known. Through the people of Israel, His glory -- the wonders of His being -- was beginning to be made known.
The story of God’s name continues in the book of Exodus. Through Moses, God said to Pharaoh, “For this cause have I raised you up, to show you my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth” (Exodus 9:16). He not only wanted His name known to Israel, but also to all people everywhere. What fantastic love our Father has for the people of the earth. He did not want to leave them in darkness. He did not want to leave them in the place of “having no hope and being without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). God so loved the world, that He wanted them to know the greatness of His Being. “And this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent” (John 17:3).
After the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, Moses prophetically declared in a song of praise, “You shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, the place, oh Jehovah, which You have made for Yourself to dwell in” (Exodus 15:17). This place, the city Jerusalem, God calls “the place which Jehovah your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there” (Deuteronomy 12:5). God wanted a place on earth to dwell in, the city Jerusalem, and the temple that was built there, so that His name could be made known. And, of course, this temple is a symbol of the real temple of God, which is Jesus. Jesus is the place where God lives. Jesus is the man through whom the Father is made known. And since we are Jesus’ body, we also are the temple of God.
WE are the place that God has chosen to put His name. We are the place where God dwells on the earth, to make Himself known throughout the whole earth. We are the ones who make known His name. We are the ones who reveal the marvels of God’s glorious being and nature.
This is why it is so critical that we do not take His name emptily!
Instead, when we speak of God, it should be full of meaning! It should be full of direct personal experience with the King. It should be full of revelation, and of the working of the Holy Spirit. It should reveal who God is. Too often we hear God’s people speak about God and about spiritual things in a way that is void of life and of direct experience. We need to run from this, and only speak those things which are full of the Holy Spirit, full of revelation, and full of direct experience with God.
You see, this is why the third commandment is the third one, following the other two. It is only as we experience God’s presence and see His face in the Holy Spirit (the first commandment) that we come to see His image and His Word and are changed by that image to be a clear reflection of Him (the second commandment), and thus, through many such small experiences we come to really know who God is in the broader sense (the third commandment). Through many times of experiencing the King, seeing Him move, hearing His voice, having Him work through us, etc., we come to really know His name -- to know His personality, to know His being, and to know His ways. Through this, we become a people “who are called by My Name” (II Chronicles 7:14); we become the house of God, “which is called by My Name” (Jeremiah 7:10).
To take His name in vain, then, is to live and speak in such a way that His name has no real meaning to others, no real substance. It means that others are not coming to know God through us. We not only use His name by speaking about Him, but we also take His name like a woman takes a man’s name when they are married. We belong to God. We take His name. To take it in vain is to become His, but then have lack of being transformed by His presence and power, so that our lives do not show the beauty and wonder of who He is. We need to experience His presence and His revelations, so that we can more and more grow to be that place where He is clearly made known through our lives and through our words.
Now let’s return to that verse in Psalm 91:14, “I will set him on high because he knows my name.” What it is saying is basically this: “I will set him on high [out of the reach of the enemy and harm] because he has come to know who I really am. He understands that I am a Wonderful Being. He understands that I am merciful. He understands that I am strong, capable, powerful, and skillful. He understands that I love him and care for him. He understands that the attributes ‘merciful’ and ‘capable’ are a powerful combination, and that I WILL help him. Because he knows that, he will look to me in his trouble, will pray, and will find my saving hand.”
Such a person knows God’s name! Such a person will not speak emptily of God’s name. His words will be full of significance and life. His words will drip with the presence of God, and will in fact become the presence of God to those who hear him. His way of life will reveal the reality of God. His words and life will magnify [make very clear] His wonderful name (Psalm 34:3, 69:30).
Let us continue with the Fourth Commandment….