THE LAW OF GOD by E. J. Hibbard

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 11, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 50.

THE LAW OF GOD

By E. J. Hibbard

THE THIRD COMMANDMENT.

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.” “Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? ‘For Thou only art holy.’” “Holy and reverend is His name.” Therefore, let all the children of men say, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.”

We have already observed, in this series of studies, that the name of the Holy One is what He is. When asked of Moses His name, God said, “I AM THAT I AM.” We therefore understand this name only to that degree that we are acquainted with Him. And we are acquainted with Him to the same extent that we have partaken of the divine nature. In our God what an infinity there is, beyond all that we have seen or heard!

“And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am Jehovah; and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name JEHOVAH I was not known to them.”

Was He not Jehovah in the days of Abraham, the same as in the days of Moses?—O yes. The name means, He that is, and was, and is to come; that is, from everlasting to everlasting; the Self-existing One; the Eternal. Being that at any time, He must have always been, and must needs always be. Yet because of the polytheism of Egypt, the minds of the Israelites had become darkened, and they must needs be informed, and made to understand, that there is none other than one God, and He from everlasting to everlasting, even Jehovah.

The first introduction of God, is as the Creator of heaven and earth. Hence the name God Almighty. “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number; He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power; not one faileth.” “Upholding all things by the word of His power”—The Almighty. The name tells simply what He is.

But there came a time when the revelation of another element, yet little known among the people who had so recently been delivered from the oppressor’s yoke, was needed. The golden calf had been made. Israel had prostituted himself to the level of the basest idolater. The people merited instant destruction. The rebuke, and the burning displeasure of God was upon them. It was felt in the condemnation that pressed on their hearts at the open rebuke of Moses, the servant of God. Stripping themselves of their ornaments at God’s command, they humbled their proud hearts before Him, and awaited His final sentence. Moses approached the Lord with this confession and plea: “O, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written.” “And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” O how welcome such a proclamation! and at such a time.

All this is now included in the name of the Lord. Hearts so lately filled with condemnation, are now at peace with God. What a burden is lifted. What joy remains. “Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage?”

But it was left for Jesus, the Only Begotten, to reveal to the lost and ruined race the crowning name—“Our Father.” “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name; which were born . . . of God.” “Being born again . . . by the Word of God.” “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart; for I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts.” Or, literally, “Thy name is called upon me, O Jehovah, God of hosts.” This is the way we take His name.

Now the command is, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord Thy God in vain.” This command means to me more than a prohibition of the profane or careless use of the words which have been used to define the Deity. Of course it includes that; but of how much deeper import it is, we shall hope to catch a glimpse.

The wife takes the husband’s name, and the children the name of the father. Now one disgraceful deed from that wife or from one of the children will do more to tarnish that name than the evil-speaking of the whole world outside. What would be thought of a lady who would take the name of some man, through marriage, and afterward pay no more regard to her relation to him than she did before she knew him? Suppose she gave her affections, her time, her every talent to others than her husband, and simply bore his name in order to give her standing in the world; that she used his money only to lavish on others besides her own. From his standpoint, would she have taken his name in vain? Would that husband be anxious, in the course of time, to give such a wife a bill of divorcement, and allow her to relinquish her title to his name, and her misuse of it?

Now the church, in all ages, bears the same relation to God as does the wife to the husband (Jer. 3:14; 2 Cor. 11:2); and the individual members, as children to a parent; which is, indeed, the exact relation, when we are born from above. In this way, whole churches, and sometimes nations, are, among men, called by the name of the Lord. To-day, though our God has never applied the title, we hear of Christian nations.

Now Israel, by divine permission, was called by the name of the Lord. After the division of the kingdom, the ten tribes first forfeited all right to the title; and then the two proceeded to profane it so far as to make it necessary to send them into captivity, and to reduce their cities and all their possessions to a heap of ruins. When all had lain thus for nearly seventy years, the allotted time, Daniel prayed, “O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for Thine own sake, O my God; for Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name.” Even in their captivity, with their homes in ruins, they were still called by God’s name. And His name was far less disgraced by their calamity than by their sins. In fact, through that calamity, and through such men as Daniel and his companions, the name of Jehovah, in all its purity and power, was heralded to the entire world.

After the first captivity, before the final one, and the destruction of Jerusalem, the Lord spoke His mind through Ezekiel the prophet. Said He, “As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God: Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto Me; but pollute ye My holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.” In other words, if you are determined to serve the devil, go ahead and do it; but do it in the name of the devil, and not any longer in My name. Get out of My house, out of My cities, and out of My land. Go, serve your idols, not only now, but hereafter also, if you choose, but leave My name out of it. “Pollute ye My holy name no more.” “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”

Purged from their sins, purified and humbled, many returned from the seventy years of captivity. But in process of time, many of these also became corrupted. Of some of these Jesus said, “In vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” All such worship, and all such teaching, is vain. And every time God’s name is uttered in the course of such worship or such teaching, is it not uttered in vain? “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”

But if the teaching and the observing of the commandments of men constituted vain worship in those days, would it not be such at any time? Let each reader of these lines cast about himself to see whether he has a thus-saith-the-Lord for all his habits of life. Of course I mean this for the professing Christians. The others know they have no such sanction. “The friendship of the world, is enmity with God.” “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

Am I a church-member, and thereby a professed member of the body of Christ, while at the same time I live and act like the world? If so, I bear His name in vain. Is not my life a living violation of the third commandment?

“And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name written in their foreheads.” Thank the Lord for this testimony. “These were redeemed from among men.” This shows that it is possible to have the Father’s name in deed and in fact. “God hath said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk in them.’” “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?” “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” These are filled with His presence, and have a right to His name. None of these are breakers of the third commandment. “He that is born of God doth not commit sin.” E. J. HIBBARD.