The Third Commandment

"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” the third commandment.  Two questions come to my mind when I read this, the first is just what is the name of God, and second is what does vain mean.

 Is God’s name God?  We know that it is not for when Moses asked Him He responded, “I am who I am”.  And Moses said to God, Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and shall say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, I AM (YHWH) has sent me to you.

If God is not God’s name how is saying “God damm it” or “Oh my God” taking his name in vain?  And what about saying “Jesus Christ!!” when you see something shocking?  In the Old Testament, bringing dishonor on God’s name was done by failing to perform an oath or vow taken in His name (Leviticus 19:12). Any man who swore by God’s name to legitimize his oath, and then broke his promise, would demonstrated his lack of reverence for God as well as a lack of fear of His holy retribution.  This would be the same as denying God’s existence. For Believers there is instruction not to use God’s name to legitimize an oath, letting our “yes be yes” and our “no be no” (Matthew 5:33-37).

Now on to the vain part: The Hebrew לא תשא לשוא is translated as "thou shalt not take in vain". The word here translated as "in vain" is שוא shav' "emptiness, vanity; emptiness of speech, lying", while "take" is נשא nasa' "to lift, carry, bear, take, take away" (appearing in the second person as תשא ). The expression "to take in vain" is also translated less literally as "to misuse" or variants. Some have interpreted the commandment to be against perjury, since invoking God’s name in an oath was considered a guarantee of the truth of a statement or promise. Other scholars believe the original intent was to prohibit using the name in the magical practice of conjuration.  The object of the command "thou shalt not take in vain" is את־שם־יהוה אלהיך at-shem-YHWH elohik "this-same name of YHWH, thy elohim", making explicit that the commandment is against the misuse of the proper name Yahweh specifically.  Wikipedia.

Webster Dictionary Definition of VAIN

1

: having no real value : idle, worthless <vain pretensions>

2

: marked by futility or ineffectualness : unsuccessful, useless <vain efforts to escape>

3

archaic : foolish, silly

4

: having or showing undue or excessive pride in one's appearance or achievements : conceited

From this it seems as though saying “God dam it” does not fall into the taking of God’s name in vain category, but what about the “Jesus Christ!!!” part?  In the OT God declared that His name was YHWH (Exodus 6:3; 20:7; see also 3:14). Scholars believe that "YHWH," or "Yahweh" is the third person singular form of the ancient Hebrew verb, "haya," meaning "to be." The basic thrust of this verb describes the state of existence. As the third person form of haya, Yahweh literally means "He is," or "He exists." It is a description of who God is. He is the self-existing one.  God's name, YHWH, is a full sentence. It just so happens to be the shortest sentence in any language--"I am.

In Hebrew Jesus' name is spelled as "Yeshua." The "Ye" in Yeshua is the abbreviated form of YHWH. "Shua" is from the Hebrew word for salvation, yasha. Jesus' name literally means "YHWH is salvation.  Christ means: anointed, the Greek translation of the Hebrew word translated “Messiah”.  Thus when you say, “Jesus Christ!!!” you are in effect saying “the anointed bringer of YHWH’s salvation”, and still is no more the name of God than God is the name of God.

I am not saying that you should not strive to keep our euphemism for the Lord’s name as holey as we can, I am saying that neither saying “God Damm!” or “Jesus Christ!!!” will dam you to hell.