DAILY BIBLE DEVOTION

 

The Name Of God

God's name as it is written in

Scripture is either Jehovah or

Yahweh, or just YHWH. All are

translations of He is Who He is.

Because the Jewish people did not

call God by the name he gave

Moses. It is for this reason that the

Jewish people were so angry when

Jesus said that before Abraham

came to be I AM. To say God's

name was to blaspheme. For the

people of Moses' time, names had

power. They felt that to use the

name of God was to say that they

had power over God, and so the

name was sacred. I can remember

an uncle of mine who would often

take not just the Lord's name in

vain when he was angry, but

would also use it to curse whoever

he was angry with. I'm sure you

know many people who do the

same without even blinking an

eye.

Good Christians, all, who would be

horrified if they were called on it.

We are offended when people use

foul language, why are we not

offended when the Lord's name is

taken in vain? A friend of mine

used to work in the office of a

major manufacturing company

and the man who sat behind her

Was continually cursing the

company and its managers. One

day she had had enough and

turned to him and said, "No

wonder the company is going to

pot, you keep asking God to damn

it." He had never considered that

he was both swearing and cursing,

but he stopped. What about us? Do

we need to clean up our speech, or

ask other to do so?

PRAYER

Lord, your commandments ask us

to not swear or curse, to not take

your name in vain and yet we hear

this commandment being ignored

all the time. Help us to keep your

name sacred and to ask others to

do so as well. Amen.