Freedom is Good News Part 153

It seems to me that there are many people who consider themselves Christians and yet they do not take this notion seriously.  Let me suggest to you that God does take it seriously – very seriously!!  Let us take a look at one example from the bible.

When we read through the history of Israel, we find that they were a rebellious lot.  And yet God, in His mercy and compassion continued to work with them.  Why?  Because they had entered into a covenant with God.  I am sure you remember the story of how God brought the children of Israel out of bondage to Egypt.  They came through the Red Sea and into the wilderness and settled for a while near Mount Sinai.  In Exodus 19:4-6 we read this, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.  Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

Moses went down the mountain and told the people what God had said.  Their response; “We will do everything the LORD has said.”  God took this answer seriously – the people did not.  It did not take them long to rebel against God.  In short, Moses went up the mountain, spent 40 days with the LORD and when he came back down with the two tablets of stone (the 10 commandments) he found the people were in the midst of an orgy, worshiping an image of a golden calf.  Oh, they called the calf by the correct name of God, “Yahovah” and they applied to it the miracles they saw in coming out of Egypt.  But they had quickly forgotten the second commandment, “You shall not make for yourself and idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.”  God was not pleased!!

But I get ahead of myself.  Let’s go back to Mount Sinai before Moses received the 10 Commandments.  (Ex. 19:10-25)  The people were to consecrate themselves and on the third day they were to stand before the mountain.  God would signal for them to meet with Him, “Only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast may they go up to the mountain.”  And so on that morning there was thunder and lightning, a thick cloud and a very loud trumpet blast – the people trembled.  The sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder and even the mountain trembled.

God then gave to His people the Ten Commandments verbally.  The voice of God frightened the people to where they thought they would die.  They desired that Moses be their intermediary and so Moses approached God.  We find in Exodus chapters 20 through 23 a very concise but complete list of laws that God gave to Israel as a precious gift and then in chapter 24 we read about the confirmation of this covenant.  Verse 3: “Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and His laws. And all the people answered with one voice and said, ‘All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.’  And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD”.

It is quite interesting to read what Moses did next but we will have to wait till next time.  May the good news of God’s law enlighten all of you.

Freedom is Good News Part 107

“It is not about us and what we want.  Rather it is about Him and what He wants!”  And so we come once again to the Third Commandment.  Here we see that God’s name is not something to be taken lightly.  It is this name that one may call on to attain salvation.  We find this statement in both the book of Joel in the Old Testament, and the book of Acts in the New. (Joel 2:32 & Acts 2:21)

But what does it mean to “call upon the name of the LORD”?  In our previous article, we saw that this statement in Joel is shown to mean “Everyone who calls on the name of the One who is LIFE itself will be saved.”  The God that we serve is not only good and kind and loving, He is also awesome.  The book of Hebrews tells us this: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us hold to grace and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

The name of God – I AM THAT I AM – is not just His moniker; it is a statement of who He is.  It is the awesome name of an awesome God!!  His name is indeed a heavy name.  What do I mean by this?  In Psalms 29:2 we read, “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name.”  Have you ever thought about the word glory?  And why is it that God’s name is due  glory?  In Hebrew the word for glory is “kabowd” and by definition it means, “a weight, a great quantity, a copious amount”.  When applied to God it means “to recognize His importance, worth and significance.”  (Vines Expository Dictionary)

Backing up one verse in Psalm 29 we are admonished to, “Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.”  God himself is due glory from us His children and as such, His name is also due glory.  So when I said, up above, that we should not take God’s name lightly, it was because His name is due a great weight of glory! 

Now, back to the Third Commandment, “You shall not take the name of God in vain (that is, in an empty manner).”  God’s name is not empty.  It is full.  His name is not light.  It is heavy.  And so God says, “For the LORD will not hold guiltless anyone who takes His name in vain.”

May I run a few scriptures by you?  Psalm 5:11, “May those who love your name, rejoice in you.”  Psalm 8:1, “O LORD our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”  Psalm 9:2, “I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praises to your name, O Most High.”  Verse 10, “Those who know your name will trust in you.”  This stroll through the book of Psalms could go on and on.  Psalm 34:3, “Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt His name together.” 

When you read in the scriptures the all capitals “LORD”, it is a signal that the name of God “YHVH” is being used.  This is a convention that most of the translators have used over the years. 

Call upon the name of God for salvation, but do not do it lightly.  There is a weight to that name and it is to be used reverently.  It is God alone that we must revere!!

Freedom is Good News Part 106

A couple of articles ago I made the statement, “It is not about us and what we want; rather it is about Him and what He wants!”  I added it at the end of the article as a passing comment.  However, this statement is one that should be forefront in our minds.  God is Sovereign and so it is His jurisdiction to dictate the rules that we live by!!  This is important to understand.

We have been looking into the 10 Commandments recently and find ourselves in the midst of the third Commandment; “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.  For the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who takes His name in vain”.  In our last article we covered the first half of this by considering what is meant by taking God’s name in an empty manner.  But what about the second half?  This is the only one of the ten that tells us that God will not hold us guiltless if we break it.  Why?

In the book of Acts chapter 2, Peter addresses the crowd on the day of Pentecost after having received the Holy Spirit.  In this episode, the crowd is confused as to what was happening – in fact some were accusing the disciples of having drunk too much wine.  Peter assures them that they had not and then proceeds to tell them, “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel …”.  He then quotes from Joel 2:28-32.  This is an important piece of scripture and I will leave it to you to read the entire segment.  But in keeping with our discussion today I want to center in on the last part of the quote:  “And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”

In our previous article I mentioned that God’s name consisted of 4 Hebrew letters that transliterate into the 4 English letters: “YHVH” which have been pronounced in various ways.  It was Moses, who was talking to God in the incident of the burning bush, who asked God to tell him what His name was.  We find this in Exodus 3:2-15, “And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.  This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.’”

In our day, names are only a series of letters, such as Bill or Jerry or Mary, that allow another to get our attention or address us specifically.  In ancient times it was not so.  Names meant something.  God changed the name of Abram (which means, “exalted father”) to Abraham (which means, “father of many”).  Because both Abraham and Sarah laughed when told by God that they were to have a child in their old age, God said that the name of the child would be Isaac.  In Hebrew the word Isaac means, “he laughs”.  And on and on it goes.  It can be an interesting study into the meaning of some of the names in the bible!

God’s name, however, is unique!  It can be transliterated as “I AM THAT I AM” or “I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE”.  The emphasis upon His name is LIFE itself!  Some, in an effort to bring this name into English, translate it as “THE ETERNAL ONE”.  And so, “Everyone who calls on the name of the One who is LIFE itself will be saved.”

We will go further with this, God willing, in our next article.

Freedom is Good News Part 105

So we know that we are not to have any other gods besides the one true God – the Creator of heaven and earth!!  And that’s not all.  Even if we know who God is and desire to worship Him, we must not do so by any means other than what He has prescribed.  There are to be no images made “in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations, of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6)

So let’s say we understand these first two Commandments and we proclaim to worship the one true God and we have not considered any images of Him to utilize in our worship – and now we come to the third Commandment, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.”  If you are following along, you will notice I only quoted the first half of this commandment.  But let us pause here and consider this first half.  Some translations tell us we must not “misuse the name of God”.   This is not the true meaning here.  God is telling us that He will not have us take His name in an empty manner.  The Hebrew word “shav” has the basic meaning of, “deceit, vanity emptiness or falsehood”.

It is not good to falsely use God’s name.  And most of us probably consider this in conjunction with using His name as a profanity by cursing; this is true.  But it goes much deeper.  I shall assume that most of us would consider ourselves to be Christians.  This name is derived from our being followers of Jesus Christ.  In other words, we have taken upon ourselves the name of the Son of God.  Do we take upon us this name as something sacred and something to be held in high esteem? 

The true name of God is made up of 4 Hebrew letters – in English the letters are YHVH.  This has been translated at times as Jehovah, Yahovah, Yahweh and Yahveh.  The name of the Son of God, in Hebrew, is Yahoshea.  (Jesus is an Anglican version of the Greek.)  The first two letters “Ya”, being the shortened form of the Father’s name and the last six letters spell out the Hebrew word for “salvation”.  In other words Jesus’ name in the original Hebrew means, “The Salvation of Ya”.  The name our Savior was given encompassed the shortened form of God’s true name. 

Other than that it is a nice bible study, why am I telling you all this?  Jesus did not take upon Himself the Father’s name “in vain”!  He understood the gravity, the seriousness and the responsibility of having the name of God placed upon Him.  So I must ask you, do you take upon yourself the name of God?  Do you take upon yourself the name of the Son of God?  There is a heavy weight attached to this name we sometimes so carelessly use for our own honor. 

Oh … the second half of this third Commandment?  “For the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who takes His name in vain”.  Think about it.  There is still more to come!!