Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Ezekiel 20:27–29
“Thus says the Lord God: In this also your fathers blasphemed me, by dealing treacherously with me. For when I had brought them into the land that I swore to give them, then wherever they saw any high hill or any leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices” (Ezek. 20:27b–28a).
Yesterday we saw that the third commandment, which forbids the vain use of the Lord’s name (Ex. 20:7), concerns more than just crude or coarse language and the speaking of God’s name in conjunction with such language. Ultimately, it forbids all words and actions that detract from the glory and supremacy of God. Today’s passage eliminates any doubt that actions, as well as words, fall under the scope of the third commandment. In Ezekiel 20:27–29, blasphemy is associated with unlawful worship, which includes serving other gods or praising the one true God in a manner not agreeable to Scripture. Such worship practices detract from God’s glory and turn our attention away from our Creator, making them a kind of blasphemy.
Since the third commandment pertains to words and actions, every sin ultimately takes God’s name in vain. For instance, to break the first commandment by having other gods before the Lord is to attribute the highest glory to something that does not deserve it, naming that thing as deity (see Ex. 20:3). This is a vain use of God’s name. To kill someone unlawfully is an assault on an image bearer of God and thus, indirectly, an attack on the holy name of the Lord who made that person (Ex. 20:13; James 3:9). Yet, each of the Ten Commandments is similarly intertwined with the others. For example, what is adultery but the theft of another person’s spouse? To break the commandment against adultery is also to break the commandment against theft (see Ex. 20:14–15). Of course, stealing is the fruit of coveting that which does not rightly belong to us, so theft also breaks the tenth commandment, which outlaws covetousness (Ex. 20:17). The interrelatedness of the Ten Commandments is particularly clear when we consider the first commandment (Ex. 20:3). When we break any of God’s laws, we are really saying that His rules do not stand above all other laws, thereby exalting ourselves over the Lord. To sin is to choose our ideas of right and wrong over God’s, making ourselves authorities in His place.
Although the scope of each of the Ten Commandments is broad, we should pay attention to the focus of each law. Regarding the third commandment, commentators note that it features a special emphasis on invoking God’s name in an oath, swearing by His name that He will guarantee the one making the vow will not escape his obligation—that the Lord will punish oath-breakers even if human beings do not. Thus, Scripture stresses that it is better not to make a vow or oath than to make one and not fulfill it (Eccl. 5:4–5).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
One of the ways we can avoid misusing the name of God is to be well-grounded in what the Bible teaches about His character. By studying theological topics such as the attributes and works of the Lord, we come to a better understanding of the God of whom we speak and are thus less likely to misrepresent Him.
For Further Study
- 2 Chronicles 32:9–23
- Matthew 12:22–32
- Matthew 15:1–9
- 1 Timothy 1:12–14