[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason, and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find
[email protected] Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: I am so excited. I've been looking forward to the opportunity to speak for a while. But before I start speaking, I just need to give props to our preachers, Brandon and Andrew.
Honestly, from the bottom of my heart, I think these are two of the greatest men I've not only ever worked alongside of, but know they do an excellent job preaching here, sharing God's word, preparing week in and week out.
However, working with them here in the office, truly, they spend way more time with people and handling situations and loving others and showing God's word in that way than they even do prepping lessons.
I just think we should all be so appreciative of them and the men that they are.
And that was the good stuff I had to say about them.
So now the bad stuff.
These two wonderful men decided that the best week for Richard, the youth minister to preach is the Sunday after church camp and before a mission trip.
It's great. Not exhausted at all.
I would like to say we're talking about covenants that this morning and off of this, Andrew and I did strike a covenant. He has agreed that their next two to three children will not be born during church camp time.
And then I was trying to figure out what to do with Brandon. Do I show a funny picture? Something else. But Brandon actually one upped Andrew. He let me know that if they have another child, they're going to name it Richard.
So that's great.
I'm really, really excited for both of those things to happen.
All right, so just to, like, go back a little bit to what Brandon talked about last week, I'd like to tell you a little bit about the adventure that I got to take two years ago. I got to travel all over Egypt studying how the Israelites and the Hebrew people could have correlated with the Egyptian history that was taking place around that time. And I got to see this wall that you see on the left side, this is at a huge temple complex called the Temple of Karnak. And on that wall is the oldest peace treaty that's been written down, known to mankind. And what happened is this Egyptian government had essentially struck a military peace agreement with the Hittite nation.
And interestingly enough, the Hittite nation, which was about 1600 miles away, their capital, about the distance from here to Las Vegas, there, years after Karnak and everything else was discovered, they found this stone. And on that stone was the exact same terminology of this peace agreement between the Egyptians and the Hittite nation thousands of years ago from this time of war. Now, interestingly, this peace accord was thought of as a covenant, and it came about almost the exact same time that Moses was. Was in Egypt. So what can this teach us today? Well, going back to Brandon's lesson last week, we want everyone in this series to think of the Ten Commandments in a different light. Oftentimes you have stone one, stone two. In Bible class, you have commandment one, two, three, four, five on this one, six, seven, eight, nine, ten on the other. What we find in chapters like Exodus 32 and throughout the language of the book is that these two stones, the ten Commandments, were likely equal commandments one through ten on one, commandments one through ten on the other. Well, what's the reasoning behind this? Well, what this actually was is a peace treaty or a covenant between the Hebrew people and God.
It's God saying, I will be with you. I will be your God. I will lead you through the wilderness. I'll help you in all these various situations. I will hold my end of this covenant. And. But there's a stone for you as well.
And if you want that out of me, your greatest desire should be to live this life that I'm saying forth to you, a life that's based around living the principles of this covenant.
So Andrew and Brandon asked me this week, though, to specifically talk about the third commandment, or what some people would call the second commandment, because some do group God and having no idols together.
Trent will be talking about idols, I believe, next week, but for right now, let's just read what we've gone through thus far in the Ten Commandments.
And God spoke these words, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the waters below.
You shall not bow down to them or worship them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and who keep my commandments.
And then we have the command we're talking about today.
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
Now, before I get to this slide, you're going to see a Hebrew word at the bottom. Brandon has mentioned that I am a Hebrew scholar. I took a Hebrew test this past week and I graded as a 5 to 6 year old child in Hebrew.
So before you ask me any questions, just think, would you ask a five to six year old child these questions? The answer, hopefully is no. And then you'll go back to Andrew and Brandon to ask them about it.
But when it comes to this particular passage, this specific verse, there's an interesting situation that arises with the very first verb in the verse, and it has been translated in most of the common versions as you shall not misuse or you shall not take.
What's interesting, however, is is this verb is a verb that you learn early on in any Hebrew class. It's one that appears thousands of times throughout the Old Testament. And it's the word NASA, which will hit really well here, because NASA, okay, everybody can remember that. You'll have your Hebrew card to have a word in your memory after this. But NASA ironically means to lift up or to carry or to pick up. And throughout the Old Testament, when this word is appearing time and time again, what it's dealing with almost 99% of the time is the idea of someone picking up a physical object. They pick up a stone, they pick up a sword, pick up, literally the book, the word of God. People, however, who have translated this have struggled what to do with the concept of how do you pick up a name?
How do you pick up a name? And that's led to this translation idea of misuse, or take being the verb here. Even though when you look throughout the rest of the Old Testament, it's almost always translated as pick up, to lift up, to bury or to carry, to bear, to carry.
So the question from this is, what does this mean? What does it mean to pick up or to carry the word of God?
There's a history of translation for this passage. The way that people have understood it over time. The main way for most people who have grown up within the church is probably the idea of not using the Lord's name in vain means not speaking his name in a way that brings dishonor or brings anything but honor to him.
Not saying, oh my God.
Jews had a practice of this in their day and time. The word for God, the name for God, Yahweh, exists 5,000 plus times in the Old Testament. Interestingly enough, they never include the vowels in that. It's always Y, H, W, H.
The reason for that is they had this tetragrammaton, the four letters or the four words that make up his name that they would use in an attempt to honor Him. In the King James Version, they attempted to copy that and a lot of the really old King James versions, instead of saying God will say G dash D. And for much of translation history, the idea or the way that people have taken Exodus chapter 20, verse 7 isn't through that.
However, there are other forms and other ways that people have taken Exodus 20, verse 7 as well. 1 of these is by using the Lord's name in the midst of taking a vow or making a promise. Matthew 5 and James 5 specifically talk to Christians about this concept of not using God or heaven or earth to make any sort of vow or promise. And the idea behind it is that we're not supposed to take something that's more honorable and more mighty than anything else and make it like Santa Claus at the end of the letter. That is just rubber stamping any agreement that we have that's in dishonor to God. That's something that many people think we're not supposed to do. Based upon this verse. And in ancient custom, this was obviously a practice even today. I haven't met any older folk in here who struggle with this. But I've heard some young people in culture today, not these, they're all wonderful. But I've heard some younger folk, like, talk about something that they want to get across and then they'll say on God or something like that. And that's the way that they make a promise.
Now, the third way that this has been translated or taken over time is the third option on the board. It's by not adequately representing God. And it's the idea that you're picking up his name, but you are not an adequate representation of a person who is supposed to carry that name. Going to Second Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 20, it's the idea that we are Christ's ambassadors.
So as someone who likes to nerd out, who really likes to, like, figure out what this could possibly mean if there's an option that's more preferable than the others.
The way to do that or the way that most people who are, like, trying to figure out how to do something will do this is they will look at the language and see if there's anywhere else in this specific book or in any other Old Testament books that talk about the idea of this language existing, like picking up a name. Interestingly enough, this only happens in one other place place in Exodus, and it's Exodus 20:8.
In Exodus 20:8, you have the high priest who has this ephod, and it's 12 stones on his chest. And on these stones are written the names of the Hebrew tribes.
And here's the idea. Aaron, the high priest, once a year is supposed to go into the most holy of holy places where God exists. And as he walks in there, he has these names of the Hebrew tribes on his garment, on this ephod.
And the text says, aaron is to bear the names on his shoulders as a memorial to the Lord.
Verse 29. Whenever Aaron enters the holy place, he will bear the names of the Son of Israel over his heart. Aaron here is a representative of the people coming before God.
Now, here is the interesting thing.
How would that apply to these three things?
Does that mean that Aaron was supposed to never say, oh, my Benjamin?
Does that mean that Aaron was supposed to say oh, my.
Not supposed to say oh, my tribe or something else? Well, likely not. Now, before we get any further, I'm not trying to say that I believe it's okay to say oh, my God or anything else when you're upset. There are multiple verses throughout Scripture.
Jesus praying and asking God's name to be hallowed, everything else. There are multiple verses that discuss the idea of God's name being hallowed.
However, I questioned whether I should say this to the early service. And I told everyone at early service, you have to make sure if I should say this or not. Like to tell me after this worship, because it's gonna be recorded at late service.
Nobody told me. So this is getting recorded. And you can see Andrew or Brandon if you disagree with me.
But one of my analogies for how this might relate can be interpreted through how we think about dress code in our assemblies. If you study the first 1600 years or so of Christianity, the majority of Christians outside of the Catholic Church consider dress code as something that the Bible speaks of in two verses. And those two verses say, you're basically not supposed to dress up so that people think too much of you.
All right, now I'm looking around at everyone including myself, wearing suits and ties and everything else and. All right, what happened? Well, the Industrial Revolution came along. The Industrial Revolution allowed people to now own more than one or two sets of clothing. In fact, a lot of ancient Christians would go a step further. They'd just wear their garments as is and they'd rub dirt or something on their face and they'd walk into their assemblies for worship. And their whole and ideas in their heart as they're going through this is we don't want to look greater in the eyes of God than we really are as we worship Him.
Industrial Revolution comes along and everyone all of a sudden doesn't own one or two pieces of clothing. They now own like 30, 40, 50. I have no idea how many clothes I own today. It's a bunch of them.
At this point, in the midst of funerals, in the midst of job interviews, in the midst of other things where we're wanting to show respect, people began to dress up.
So here's the question. Is it right or is it wrong to dress up and worship? Well, that's a false question. It's a false dichotomy. Cause ultimately what it comes down to is, is your heart considering God above all else as you dress up or as you don't dress up, is it thinking about your relationship with him above everything?
When it comes to me essentially saying that, this verse is not primarily referring to the idea of not saying oh my God, in the midst of surprise or anything else, I'm also not trying to say it's just cool and everybody should start doing it now. It's the idea that we are called to show respect to God in the midst of anything that we do.
Alright, so moving on to the next idea, is the idea of bearing someone's name associated with a vow. Would Aaron have walked into the holy of Holies and would he have said, God, I promise that these things will take place, Benjamin signs on or something like that at the end?
Probably not.
The idea, the core idea is behind Aaron bearing the names in front of God, which that language is only used in Exodus 20:7.
Outside of that is the idea that he is a representative of the people coming before the throne of God.
So based upon that, how are we to Interpret Exodus chapter 20, verse 7, do not use or do not pick up the Lord's name in vain. Well, the core way that they would have thought about it is in that day and time is likely the idea that I am not supposed to pick up this name without also willingly representing it in my actions and in My life now, digging into this verse, there's only one other Hebrew word I would love for everyone to know, and it's the word Shem.
Shem is interpreted in all of our Bibles as name. It's probably the best idea that we can gather for what this word is could be translated in in our society today. However, it's not just name to a Hebrew individual. The word shem dealt with someone's reputation, dealt with who they are as an individual. Not simply what you're called, but who you are, what you do, what you've done, what you are going to do.
Building upon the first two commands of accepting God above all else, denying idols.
Number three, do not misuse, do not pick up. The Lord's name in vain. Deals with the idea that to carry God's name, to accept the first two commandments is not enough because it's not simply about claiming him as your God, it's about representing him as your God.
So what I want to do at this portion is I'd love for everyone to think about the Hebrew people and put yourself in their shoes for a second.
Moses in Exodus chapter three, as an older man comes upon this burning bush.
When he comes upon this burning bush, the Hebrew people have not experienced God for hundreds of years.
He steps in front of this burning bush and God reveals his name to him. He says, my name is Yahweh. I am who I am. The idea behind this is it was a combination of verbs that were past, present and future. It's a nonsensical word, but the idea is I am the God who has always been, who is acting right now, and who is going to continue to act in the future.
Now, the problem for Moses is he doesn't know yet in Exodus chapter 3 how God is going to act in each of those situations. He knows his name, but he doesn't necessarily know what God is all about.
So you fast forward through the remainder of Exodus. You have God saving his people from Pharaoh, rescuing them with the ten plagues. You, you have the parting of the Red Sea. You have God providing manna and quail and everything else in the wilderness, feeding his people. And then we get to Exodus chapter 20. And if you've never read it this way, I challenge you to what you read in Exodus chapter 19 leading up to chapter 20 is Moses goes up the mountain and down the mountain and up the mountain and down the mountain. Right before the Ten Commandments are read, he actually comes back down the mountain.
So the idea is there's this scary lightning Mountain with everything rumbling.
Moses has walked down to the people, and God is speaking down to them all what his 10 words, 10 things, 10 commandments are.
And if you are a Hebrew person standing in that setting, here's what you're probably thinking when he gets to Commandment 3, supposed to carry God's reputation.
This is the God who defeated a Pharaoh with all of these insanely crazy plagues.
This is the God who has just parted the Red Sea for us. This is the God who is feeding us. And this is now the God who's dark on a mountain with lightning going around.
How in the world do I represent his name?
In fact, their response to Moses after God begins to speak is Moses, you talk to him from now on. We can't even deal with talking to him. We can't deal to hear from him. They're freaking out because of the power of God, and they're called to represent that. How could we represent that?
Going throughout the narrative, though, one of the worst things of all happened soon after this.
Moses is on the mountain.
He is receiving and gathering these 10 commands. He's probably asking God questions, getting notes on him. Everything else. We see that in the Book of the Covenant and a couple chapters right after Exodus 20. But he walks down from the mountain, and when he walks down, he sees the people worshiping a calf, which was likely an Egyptian God. So they're trying to go back to their roots, ascribing to that God the reputation of Yahweh.
They're saying, this is the God whose name, whose reputation has rescued us. This is the God who parted the Red Sea. This is the God who did all these things. And Moses wasn't just a toddler who was upset in the breaking of those ten commandments.
What Moses is doing here is he is saying, the peace treaty with us, and God is done for.
They've broken the first three commandments immediately upon me walking down this mountain. And he smashes the covenant. He smashes this peace treaty on the ground.
And he's so upset. And you gather that God's upset.
And then you get to Exodus 34.
And I think this is one of the most significant chapters in the entire Bible, because if you are reading Exodus at large, you get to Exodus 3, and God tells Moses his name.
And then you get to Exodus 34, and God says, moses, I'm about to tell you my name.
And as you're reading it, you're thinking to yourself, why is this significant?
God has already told him his name. He's the God who Was, who is, who always will be, who will always be acting. But instead of saying, my name is. I am who I am. Instead of saying, my name is Yahweh, verse 5. The Lord came down in a cloud, and he stood there with him and proclaimed his name. The Lord.
He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming the Lord. The Lord, compassionate, gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.
Immediately after Exodus chapter 34 are six of the most boring chapters in the entire Bible.
These six chapters detail exactly how the Israelite people are supposed to set up the tabernacle.
And as you're reading it, it will say, like, this curtain should be this length. This pole should be made out of this wood, this thing. And you're reading it, and it's really easy to get into. Like, this is so boring. This is ongoing. How does this matter to me today?
What happens immediately after Exodus 34 is that God, who has not dwelt with mankind since the days of Adam and Eve thousands of years before, this is saying, I'm going to dwell with you, and I'm choosing to dwell with you again immediately after you go after and worship another God and break my covenant.
What's the significance of Exodus 34?
Well, it's the idea of Shem, God's reputation in God's name.
He's not simply the God who makes big crazy things happen.
He's not simply the God of the burning bush or the plagues. He's not the God who parts the Red Sea. He's not the God who provides food and waters. He's not the God on the mountain alone.
He is all of those things.
But he's also a God who is gracious, compassionate, who shows mercy, and who is just.
So what does picking up or carrying God's name or reputation look like for us today?
I told Adam, he was sitting behind me, that his Lord's Supper talk was so perfect this morning.
Because ultimately, when it comes to carrying and lifting up God's name, the best example for us today is obviously Jesus, who literally had the name of God.
And while Jesus is on earth, interestingly enough, he begins his ministry with a Sermon on the Mount, where he mentions multiple of the Ten Commandments.
And here's some of the things he says. He says, hey, it's not you've heard that you shall not murder. It's not just that. It's that you shouldn't hate other People that you shouldn't call them names you've heard that was said, you shall not commit adultery. It's not just that. It's lusting after others.
The premise that was attempting to be set here is that God is a God of power.
Yet in the midst of all of that power, he chooses love and mercy and compassion.
So to end this sermon, I wrote out a few different things that apply to me, but I think might apply to all of us as well, that I want us to consider when it comes to deciding whether or not we are people who are lifting up God's reputation, which is what Exodus 20, verse 7 is really referring to.
You see, some of us, myself included, will go our whole lives claiming to be the followers of a God who forgave people who spit on and who crucified Him.
And yet some of the same people who claim that God will refuse to forgive their brother or sister for a misspoken word or comment.
We claim to follow a God who ate with drunks, tax collectors, and the worst of sinners, while we tend to gossip and stay away from anyone we see living such a life, we claim to love a God who sought to love those who were the most difficult to love.
And yet we can struggle to love our spouses.
We can say we're devoted followers who follow a God who asks us to give our all and who gave his all, while many of us struggle to make time to even pray to Him.
The question this morning for everyone to answer is, are you truly someone who is not simply claiming God, but lifting up his reputation?
Are you someone who's taking God's name in vain?
Or are you someone who is attaching his name to yourself in a way that causes you to show the world exactly who he is as an ambassador of His?
Taking the Lord's name in vain has been thought of in a very isolated box for a long time.
And I don't want anybody to think that I'm trying to just destroy or blow up that box. But I believe the principle of Exodus 27 is much greater than we've sometimes made it.
Are we truly people who are lifting up God's reputation? Please think about that as we stand and as we sing.
