I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 19-21.

Two months to the day after leaving Egypt the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai.  I will point out that we do not really know which mountain was Mount Sinai.  There are several theories, and I have heard one that sounds likely, but there is unlikely any way to be sure that any of them are correct.  At Mount Sinai, God made His presence known to the Israelites.  The Israelites were so intimidated by God speaking to them as He gave them what we know as the Ten Commandments that they asked that He just speak to Moses and Moses convey His commands to them.

I want to focus on what is the second or third commandment, depending on how you divide and number them, Exodus 20, verse 7.  In the King James Version it reads, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”  This led me, and many others, to misunderstand what it means.  To a large degree my misunderstanding resulted from those who taught me its meaning misunderstanding it.  I was taught that using “God” was a violation of this commandment.  I want to note that this interpretation derives from something many Jews still practice, and something which influenced the use of YVWH by many of those who wrote portions of the Old Testament.  Somehow, using other foul words as an expletive was a violation of this commandment as well. 

This training was so thorough that I did not notice for a long time that the NIV (and other modern translations) say something completely different: “You shall not MISUSE the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”  What we realize is that the teaching to avoid using “God” or “YVWH” derived from a desire to make it harder to misuse God’s name.  However, that misses the point.  When you use God, or people’s desire to be righteous, to further your self-interest, you are violating this command, even if you do not explicitly say “God”, or “YVWH”, or any of the other terms we use to refer to Him.