The Third commandment: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

Remember the days of “Your Mama” jokes? Yo mama’s so stupid…She stared at a cup of orange juice for 12 hours because it said “concentrate.” Yo mama’s so ugly…She threw a boomerang and it refused to come back. Yo mama’s so fat…When she fell I didn’t laugh, but the sidewalk cracked up. Yo mama’s so poor…The ducks throw bread at her.

Used to be, and more than likely it still is, when anyone denigrates the reputations of our mothers it’s prone to send us into a blind rage. But why? Because our mothers are sacred to us. Because when anyone smears, or disgraces the memories and fond feelings we have towards our mothers they are dishonoring us. Thus we fly into a rage to defend the honor of our mothers while it’s our dishonor we are concerned about.

The third commandment speaks of dishonoring the Name of God by using it in vain. Yet what does King David imply? Isaiah 1:13 says it best: Bring no more offerings of vanity (emptiness, falsity, vainglory, and futility); [your hollow offering of] incense is an abomination to Me; the New Moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure—[it is] iniquity and profanation, even the solemn meeting. Vain use of God is comparable to the vain use of God’s Name. We are using it in emptiness, without depth of meaning or honor.

Psalm 24:3-6 echoes this idea and adds one more: Who shall go up into the mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His Holy Place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted himself up to falsehood or to what is false, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation [description] of those who seek Him [who inquire of and for Him and of necessity require Him], who seek Your face, [O God of] Jacob. Selah [pause, and think of that]! 

Those who aren’t seeking God to know, or to draw near to Him, are simply deceiving themselves. Like rubbing a magic lamp for a genie to grant us three wishes many times church goers “rub the lamp” through invoking God’s Name in prayer while their hearts are from Him. They are speaking falsehood as in when we mumble through, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be one.” Truth be known we don’t want His Kingdom for with it comes the King who requires dominion. The Bible states that in the final and last day of satan’s earthly kingdom every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is LORD! (Php. 2:10-11) Satan and his demons will be bowing, and confessing that Jesus is Lord. But you can rest assured it will not be out of love, adoration and worship.

When you see this commandment in light of their various nuanced meanings you see clearly just how guilty we all are. Sad to say but we have honored the memories of our mothers, guarding their reputations, more than God’s. May God forgive us for our casual approach to His Name and honor. Have mercy on us all.