“Oh my God.” There it goes again. We hear people say it all the time and we get our Christian selves riled up over it. How dare they? That’s breaking the third commandment:
“Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.”
We actually miss the boat if those three words are the focus. While we shouldn’t go around saying “oh my God”, the commandment is bigger than that.
How do you use God’s name? How do you talk about Him? Is it with respect? Our culture is so flippant with everything that the concept of anything being sacred is alien.
The Jews thought of God’s name as holy to the point they wouldn’t even fully write out “Jehovah”. And after every time an Israelite scribe would write the shortened form of God's name, he would wash himself.
The Jews thought of God’s name as holy to the point they wouldn’t even fully write out “Jehovah”. And after every time an Israelite scribe would write the shortened form of God's name, he would wash himself.
They would die before they said, “Oh my Jehovah.” In fact, Israelites wouldn’t even say God’s name out loud. That’s reverence.
When you talk about God, are you giving Him the respect He deserves? I’m not going to get into the supposed gray areas (is “oh my gosh” okay? etc.), but the third commandment is much bigger than a three word phrase.
God is holy, and so are the names used to describe/denote Him. Do our conversations reflect that? What about our hearts? Actions?
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