#45. Thou Shalt Not Take the Name of the Lord Thy God in Vain

Published by Ben Stahl on May 28, 2020May 28, 2020

Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty men. So he went up to him; and there he was, sitting on the top of a hill. And he spoke to him: Man of God, the king has said, Come down! So Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men. And fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. Then he sent to him another captain of fifty with his fifty men. And he answered and said to him: Man of God, thus has the king said, Come down quickly! So Elijah answered and said to them, If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men. And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

II Kings 1:9-12 NKJV

The Westminster Shorter Catechism Question number 55 asks “What is forbidden in the third commandment?” The answer is: “The third commandment forbiddeth all profaning or abusing of anything whereby God maketh himself known.” A very straight-forward answer. For this reason, the Ark of the Covenant was not to be touched except by the Levites. It was not be opened except perhaps by the High Priest on a special occasion. The Lord’s Supper is not to be taken lightly lest it be profaned. In these two elements of worship (an Old and New Testament element) God made/makes Himself known.

In The Old Testament, in addition to the Ark and other objects and places, the Lord also made Himself known through His prophets. The prophet of the Lord spoke the Word of the Lord and was a representative of the Lord. To malign or abuse the prophet of the Lord was in many contexts the same as profaning God’s name.* Korah’s rebellion against Moses was in reality against God who established Moses.

When King Ahaziah sent his captains to do that which Jezebel’s captains could not accomplish – capture or kill Elijah – the first two captains came to Elijah mocking his title. “Man of God, the king has said, Come down!” (vs. 9). “Man of God, thus has the king said, Come down quickly!” (Vs. 11).

The way these men spoke to Elijah was evil for several reasons: 1) As Keil and Delitzsch explain, it showed contempt for the prophetic office Elijah held as the spokesman of the Lord; 2) It showed contempt for the Lord Himself who sent Elijah as His servant; and 3) The captains’ contempt for the prophet elevated the authority of word of the king above the Word of God.

Elijah answered their mockery with their own words. “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” This fire the Lord sent twice, consuming the two captains and their fifty men just as He consumed the sacrifice on Mt. Carmel with fire some years before and the princes of Israel who had sided with Korah, “…for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain” (Exodus 20:7).

May the Lord use this portion of His Word to teach us to “reverence His names, titles, attributes, ordinances, Word, and works.”

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*We will see this again with Elisha, the children, and the bears.

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