Having understood the implication and our stance concerning the third commandment, which is also given in Deuteronomy 5:11 “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.”, let us proceed to examine the process, implications, and impact that it has on our lives.
More than a century back, religion became commercial and many commercial-minded shepherds came in the garb of pastors luring the innocent sheep. Jesus has cautioned us in the epistles of Mathew, Mark, and Luke, about the false prophet/shepherd. This lot traps the innocent sheep through his ingeniously devised multiple spiritual products known as ‘Mutual Happiness’, “Prosperity Gospel, etc.
Rhetoric and mass hysteria are the common tools used by these self-styled preachers. Raising hands, and repeatedly shouting ‘Praise the Lord, Halleluiah, Amen, etc’, have become the common day slogans that purportedly are used to invoke the blessings of the Lord. The Holiness of the Great Holy God is reduced to nothingness. He is merely used as a means to get earthly material comforts. This establishes that the worshippers of the world and its prince satan, can go to any extent for materialistic gains.
When we follow the false prophets and shepherds, who entice us with strange spiritual language, we fall away with the Lord. These pseudo-prophets and apostles are out to make a fast buck. Just as satan promised the wealth of the world to Jesus, they do the same. They can thus be described as the devil’s disciples. To paint the scarlet white, they, inter alia, profane the third commandment and desecrate the name of the Lord by uttering ‘Halleluiah – Praise the Lord’. By this, they try to project a holy and spiritual image that has nothing to do with praising the Lord but is used as a getaway tool. We keep profaning the name of the Lord one way or the other by these utterances for our selfish ends. We thus make the name of the Lord trite and common as against the Most Holy.
The name of the Lord is interchanged with good morning, afternoon, evening, and night. It is loosely used in sermons, as an interjection, conjunction, for thanks, etc. Can a name so holy be used as a form of greeting and substituted for other purposes? Certainly not. The devil makes us profane the name of the Creator God again and again and we follow the master who has no truth in himself. John 8:44 “Ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it.” Similarly, we profane the name of the Lord by using it as punctuation, confirmation, and figure of speech. It is indeed very sad.
There is, however, the true believer with a contrite spirit, who understands and acknowledges the greatness and awesomeness of the Lord. Such worshippers praise the Lord from the bottom of their hearts. If those who we follow make us profane the commandments of God, it is proof enough that we are sailing in the wrong boat and need to take corrective action.
Dr Ashwin Drummond
Laddertoheaven.co.in