This commandment, like the second, has a warning connected to it. Guiltless, God says. Sometimes I think that God deliberately understates, as a subtle form of emphasis that ultimately - upon meditation - magnifies its meaning. Brethren, the penalty is death! Guiltless sounds soft, but the penalty for breaking the third commandment is the same as breaking all the others. It is death!
There are four words here that I feel need to be defined as to their usage. The first of these is take. The second is vain. The third is guiltless. And the fourth is name.
The first - take. Would you believe that - throughout the Bible - there are seventy-four different Hebrew words that are translated into the one English word take? But this one (that is used here) means, to lift up, to bear, to carry, to use, or to appropriate. So, let us put that back into this commandment. You shall not lift up, bear, carry, use, or appropriate the name of the Lord your God.
How about the word vain? The root word has a sense to it that implies desolating. It is that which is lacking in reality, in worth, value, or truth. Thus, it is translated in the Bible as lying, false, worthless, profane, foolish, reproachful, cursed, blasphemed, without purpose, useless - in addition to vain or vanity. You shall not take, you shall not use, you shall not bear, you shall not appropriate, you shall not lift up the name of the Lord your God in a lying, false, profane, foolish, reproachful, curseful, blasphemous, useless way.
Now, guiltless. This one is very interesting. It does not have many English synonyms. It means to be free. It means to be clear - implying clear of guilt. It means innocent. It means to be clean - either inside or out. It means to be blameless. It means to be unpunished. So, You shall not bear, lift up, appropriate, use, or carry the name of God in vain - that is in a useless, purposeless, blasphemous, reproachful, curseful, lying, false, vain way. For the Lord will not hold clean, or blameless, or innocent someone who does that.
Now the word, name. We are going to expound on it a little bit more in depth. The root here denotes something that is high, elevated (as a monument). It implies majesty and excellence. It is a mark, or a sign, standing out the way a billboard does on a highway, or a neon sign does along the road. It is a mark, or a sign, standing out. It is a word by which a person, place, or thing is distinctively known. A name signifies, identifies - it specifies.
This commandment has nothing at all to do with proper pronunciation. The Jews got into a superstitious mode in saying that one should not pronounce the ineffable name of God. It has nothing at all to do with that! The application is much broader, and deeper, than that.
In biblical thought, a name is not a mere label of identification. It is an expression of the nature of its bearer. Indeed, there are some commentators who say that the Hebrews thought that a name had a life of its own - an existence of its own.
Now Adam, in all probability, named the beasts that God had pass before him by observations on their nature. Hence, by extension of that principle, to know the name of God is to know God as He has revealed Himself. That is, to know His nature - even as you would know someone whose name with which you were familiar. For example, Jacob means supplanter, and twice Jacob supplanted his brother Esau. And it is remarked in the Bible that Esau said, These two times has Jacob supplanted me. [That is, in terms of the birthright and in terms of the blessing.] Is he not rightly named Jacob? You see the name supplanter fitted his personality.
Again, in another place, when Abigail was appealing Nabal's case before David. Nabal means fool or folly. And she said, As his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. Thus the Bible shows something that is very interesting, and maybe ought to jog something in your mind in regard to naming … . . .
