“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” (Deut 5:11)
Have you ever in a moment of frustration heard someone say angrily, “Buddha!!!!” or “Mohammad!!!” I’ve traveled to dozens of countries literally and across the globe there is only name used to express anger, frustration and angst. It’s the name of Jesus or Jesus Christ.
Interesting isn’t it? That the only name that holds power is the name of Jesus?
Now consider for a moment the text messages that people send…OMG.
The name of God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, etc… is used casually and irreverently. It’s common place now.
But make no mistake, honoring the name of the Lord was serious business. To teach Israel how awful it was, blasphemers received the death penalty (Lev 24:10-23). There were only a little more than a dozen things among Israel that received the death penalty, but blasphemy was one of them.
It doesn’t mean we enact the death penalty for would-be blasphemers, but God’s ways and laws with Israel were to teach them the areas that were most holy. And God’s name was most holy.
In fact, even to this day modern Jews are still so cautious of misusing the name of the lord that they remove the vowels. Instead they replace them with periods. In emails or writing you will see: G.d, L.rd, etc…
We need to be careful that we do not encourage a culture that uses the name of the Lord or God casually. It isn’t acceptable.
Reverence needs to be returned.
