What does it mean to take the LORD’S name in vain?

When exploring Scripture, there are two places in which the text tells us to not take the LORD’S name in vain.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. (Exodus 20:8)

‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave unpunished the one who takes His name in vain. (Deuteronomy 5:11)

As seen in a previous study, we explored what the LORD’S name is. But what does the word “vain” mean?

Vain Definintion
In both Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, the word translated as vain is the Hebrew word “sav”. Sav is used 53 times in the Old Testament. It means empty, falsehood, lying, worthlessness (of conduct). It is from the root word sho which means devastation, ruin, waste or ravage.

The first time sav is used in the Bible is in Exodus 20:8. When Moses tells a second giving of the ten commandments, he uses the word sav in the following verse:

Neither shall you bear false (sav) witness against your neighbor. (Deuteronomy 5:20)

The words translated as “false” is the Hebrew word sav. We can see from this context, sav means to lie and be deceitful. A persons who is a false witness deceives those around him. The motives of a false witness are to harm the one whom he is testifying against. False witnesses damage the character of the other individual.

If we extend this example to taking the LORD’S name in vain, we can get a better picture of what the meaning of this phrase may be. If we take upon ourselves the name of the LORD, we can make it void (of no value or worthless) if we claim to be one thing but in reality are of another sort. Moreover, we damage God’s character.

For example, if a person claims he gives charity and is a devote man to God, if in reality he steals candy bars from the vending machine at work and only remembers God for the one hour he is at church for weekly service, he is a false witness to God. When the man’s real character is found out, his actions give God a bad name.

Shem
And this leads us to what the word name means. In Hebrew, the word for name is “shem”. Shem means character, reputation, authority, fame, glory, or memorial.

If we think about how we use the word name in our society, someone’s name is his character, reputation or memorial. When a person mentions the name Martin Luther King, Jr., we immediately conjure up a man who gave his life for the civil rights movement. Anyone in his family which bears the King name has bestowed upon him the greatness of MLKJ. If a relative of MLKJ does something which brings shame to the name, it soils the glory and honor bestowed upon it.

This same concept can be extended to God. When we say we follow God, we take upon ourselves His name. If we do something which brings shame to His name, we have made God’s name soiled.

Vain versus blaspheme
When reading Scripture, it can be easy to confuse terms. A person may believe using the LORD’S name in vain and blaspheming God is the same thing. However, it is not. The words vain and blaspheme are very different.

In Hebrew, the word often translated as blaspheme is the word “gawdaf”. Gawdaf means to revile or to reproach. Gawdaf is first used in Numbers 15.

 ‘Also, if one person sins unintentionally, then he shall offer a one-year-old female goat as a sin offering. 28 And the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who goes astray by an unintentional sin, making atonement for him so that he may be forgiven. 29 You shall have one law for the native among the sons of Israel and for the stranger who resides among them, for one who does anything wrong unintentionally. 30 But the person who does wrong defiantly, whether he is a native or a stranger, that one is blaspheming the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. 31 Since he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt will be on him.’” (Numbers 15:27-31)

We see from the text, to blaspheme means to despise the word of the LORD and to break His commandment. This should be a rude awakening for us. The passage states if a person does something wrong defiantly (which is in opposition to the previous text which states a person sins unintentionally), the person will bear his guilt and be cut off from his people. This means if we know something is wrong to do, and we still do it, we will bear the guilt of the sin.

We see this every day. If we intentionally tell a person a lie, the lie is often found out. A friendship may be ruined or trust is broken. The consequences for our intentional sin are often felt for many years and sometimes for many generations. Many times sin cuts us off from our family and friends.

On the contrary, an unintentional sin may never be discovered or if it is brought to light, it may have no consequences. For example, if you are at the grocery store and unintentionally grab seven sweet corn instead of six, when the cashier asks how many ears of corn you have, you reply six. Most likely nothing will ever happen due to this unintentional sin. If the cashier does count them and tells you that there are seven ears, you can apologize for miscounting. You then can ask the cashier to put back one ear of corn as you only wanted six. If the cashier does not count them, you may only discover the extra ear of corn once you get home…or if you do not prepare the food, you may never notice there were seven ears and not six ears.

If we look at the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Hebrew word gawdaf is translated into the Greek word blasphemeo.

Jesus tells us what will happen to those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit:
“Now I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before people, the Son of Man will also confess him before the angels of God; 9 but the one who denies Me before people will be denied before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him. (Luke 12:8-10)

Jesus tells us the one unpardonable sin is blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. This is such a major part of Jesus’ teachings it is also included in Matthew and Mark’s Gospels.

“Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons and daughters of men, and whatever blasphemies they commit; 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” (Mark 3:28-29)

The one who is not with Me is against Me; and the one who does not gather with Me scatters. 31 “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. (Matthew 12:30-32)
Blaspheming against the Holy Spirit is such a serious offense, Matthew tells is it shall not be forgiven in this age of the age to come. Again, this points us back to Numbers 15 in which blaspheming is an intentional sin. There is no sacrifice (no atonement) for intentional sin. Jesus is telling us the person who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will have to endure the punishment for his sin.

Paul also tells us the fate of those who blaspheme:
This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, 19 keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. 20 Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme. (1 Timothy 1:18-20)

What does it mean to be handed over to Satan? I am not exactly sure, but if we look to the Book of Job, God allowed Satan to take away all of Job’s worldly goods, kill all his children and afflict Job with an awful skin affliction. Job was faithful to God. He had not done anything to merit these awful consequences. I cannot imagine what a person may go through if God was angry with the person for blaspheming.