GOD’S NAME
Deuteronomy 5:11
“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.”
Wanda and 6th-grade classmate, Trina, claimed two seats at the swing set during recess. Trina looked around, and whispered, “This 9th-grader named Donovan spoke to me at the skating rink last weekend. And, oh my God, he is sooooooo cute!”
“What did he say?”
“He said, ‘You skate like a pro!’ And I got so nervous that I, oh my God, I actually burped in his face!”
“Oh my God, Trina! How can you recover from that?”
How does someone recover from a horrible mistake, especially when it’s so in-your-face public? How embarrassing! While we may get used to apologizing to others for silly, stupid things we do, it’s quite another thing to do something that offends on purpose. And it looked to Donovan that Trina purposefully burped in his face—after he complimented her skating!
OMG has become a frequent cool texting term. The spoken words sprinkle freely in daily conversation today. It could truly mean that one is super stunned and unable to deal with something. But more often, it’s not a cry out to our holy Lord. It’s become an adverbial phrase for "can you believe it"? Or a response that means, "impossible", or "how awful!"
In fact hearing it has become so common today that it can actually be justified saying it with the excuse, “everyone’s saying it!” But those who do so either don’t know, or don’t care what the consequences (KON-see-QUEN-ses mean result or outcome) are of saying this phase in vain. Vain (vane) means hopeless, ineffective, unproductive, worthless, OR proud, arrogant, self-important, conceited.
Using this phrase is like swearing the Lord’s name. It is irreverent (ir-REV-er-ant means disrespectful, flippant) speech. It’s used on purpose today, for emphasis of importance. Using it freely sprinkled in speech or text means that the user doesn’t fear God, or doesn’t know the consequences, cost, or penalty for abusing Gods name. The only way God’s kids can recover from this mistake is to confess the sin.
God’s command in the opening Scripture isn’t a suggestion. He doesn’t rather we don’t take His name in vain. He doesn’t love us so much that He’ll overlook hearing it from us. In fact, He is just, so He must punish those who use His name in vain! This Scripture is both warning and declared punishment for whoever uses His name improperly. What God promises, He delivers.
Take Home Nugget
The devil’s #1 strategy is to get you to ignore God’s commands. If you’re guilty of this sin, confess it to God and carefully watch your speech!
Guard thoughts closely. They can become words at any time.
J.D. Griffith
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