The pastor of a very rural, ten member congregation opened the mailbox one day to discover 15 envelopes sent from the nearby state penitentiary. Each envelope contained a money order from various inmates, all with the same explanation. A man, who was serving a life sentence for murder, had requested that the money be used to send an at-risk child to summer camp.
You see, the pastor had visited the man in jail, and had helped him accept the punishment that was handed down. The pastor had also given the man a Bible, which was one of the most transformational things that could have ever occurred. One evening, while reading through Exodus, the prisoner discovered something amazing: Moses was a murderer, like him. Moses had murdered that slave driver; yet just verses later, God intentionally chose Moses to do amazing things. Though he was a murderer, God still chose Moses to carry God’s name and to carry God’s gift of the Ten Commandments to God’s people.
“I can carry God’s name too!” the inmate exclaimed, a revelation of God’s warm love in a cold cell of cinder blocks.
And so, he did. The inmate dedicated his life to carrying God’s name well. The inmate dedicated his life to making sure young children did not follow the same murderous path as he. He desired more than anything for at-risk children to learn and be something more than the destructive things they had learned in their broken lives. They needed the transformational power of summer camp.
And, because of this inmate’s dedication to carrying God name, that small, tired, congregation of ten people also discovered what carrying God’s name was all about. This little congregation found their purpose for existing all because a former murderer, just like Moses had done long, long ago, took the lead and showed them God’s ways. They may be ten people, but they are a mighty ten people, now dedicated to being Jesus Christ to at-risk children in their community.
The commandment reads, “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.” You may have memorized it as, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”
As children, we are told that this commandment is about swearing and how we should not use God’s name as a swear word. I can remember the first time that I used the Lord’s name in vain. It was while I was falling the down first enormous drop of my very first roller coaster ride, toward what I assumed was my complete annihilation. God’s name screamed out with a few other choice words from the Jr. High locker room that I had never uttered before in my life. And, God’s name screamed in vain was not screamed in the safety and confidence of my best friends. No, I was riding the ride right next to my mom.
Please understand, I took God’s commands very seriously as a child, and as we walked through the rest of the amusement park, I stared up at the growing threat of storm clouds, praying that I might be delivered from my demise.
Though the commandment certainly includes the idea of using God’s name as a curse word, I want to point out a Biblical truth: cursing with God’s name is not the primary purpose for this commandment. When we say, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,” the Hebrew word for “take” actually should be translated “carry.” “Vain” would be better translated today as “useless.” So, this is how the commandment should read, “You shall not carry the name of the Lord your God in a useless way.”
“You shall not carry the name of the Lord your God in a useless way.”
This was such an amazing revelation to me! You see, so many things in the Bible start to make so much sense when you realize that this commandment is about so much more than using God’s name as a swear word. It now makes so much sense as to why the nations of Israel and Judah were destroyed by God and their leadership sent into exile in Babylon. The prophet Jeremiah lays out the reasoning for the people’s punishment clearly: “Like a cage full of birds, their houses are full of treachery; therefore they have become great and rich, they have grown fat and sleek. They know no limits in deeds of wickedness; they do not judge with justice the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy. Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord, and shall I not bring retribution on a nation such as this?” (Jeremiah 5:27-29).
What Jeremiah is saying is that God’s people had forgotten to carry God’s name in all that they do and say. God’s people had forgotten to care about those that God cares about. God’s people had forgotten to “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, [and] plead the widow's cause” (Isaiah 1:17).
The priests performed their temple rituals perfectly, but they forgot to care for the lowest and least of God’s people. The people sang their praises, but forgot to serve their God and their neighbor in need. The people that God designated to be God’s image on earth had forgotten to carry God’s name. They had become useless to God and useless toward the causes that God cares about.
“You shall not carry the name of the Lord your God in a useless way.”
Jesus is worried that the exact same thing might happen to his disciples. They are brought together to be the hands and feet of Jesus in all that they do and say. But, there is always a temptation to fashion God into our image rather than fashion ourselves into God’s image. There is always a temptation to justify what we think by proclaiming God’s support, rather than taking the time and effort to change what we think to be aligned with God.
When a fight broke out among the disciples as to who was the best…who was the most important, Jesus rebuked them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves” (Luke 22:25-26). Jesus is clear that we are a people who serve God. God’s name does not serve us. We are servants of God; nothing more, and nothing less.
How many times has God’s name been used to throw support behind our wars? How many times has God’s name been used to support our hatred for certain people? How many times has God’s name been used to justify forgetting the poor, forgetting the outcast, forgetting the foreigner, forgetting the widow, forgetting the orphan, and forgetting the sinner?
But, God does not carry our name. We carry God’s name. We care about all God cares about. We love those who God loves. We serve Jesus. We are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ on this earth, carrying the love of Jesus for the world.
“You shall not carry the name of the Lord your God in a useless way.”
You were not created to be useless.
You are not useless. It does not matter what others may have told you. You are not useless. You are not a murderer. You are not a lazy good for nothing. You are not a lost cause. You are not an abomination. You are not stupid. You are not any of those names that are designed to push you down and degrade you from being who you truly are.
You are the image of God. You are the ones chosen to carry the name of God. You are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. You were worth saving on the cross. You were worth dying for. You are the people of God who do not carry God’s name in a useless way.
“Useless.” That is what that little congregation of ten people felt before their very own Moses led them from the confines of his jail cell. Previously, the shrinking congregation honestly felt abandoned by God. They felt old and powerless. They felt small. They felt tired and useless as a congregation. But, that murderer, that man deservedly serving his time, that forgiven child of God, that carrier of God’s name and his fellow prisoners had led that congregation of ten people from the barren sands of uselessness into the lush green fields of Jesus’ love, and into the life of Jesus’ purpose as they devoted themselves to helping wayward children.
The Ten Commandments are given as a gift by God in order to give all of us life on this earth. And, God will certainly provide us with the gift of life and purpose whenever we carry the name of the Lord our God in a way that serves God and neighbor.
“You shall not carry the name of the Lord your God in a useless way.”
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