The Name of God 2

March 3, 2011 By scotmcknight 2 Comments

The Name of God. Speaking the Name of God. But not using or speaking the Name of God lightly or misusing or using in vain is what the Third Command is all about:

“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name (Exodus 20:7).

Or, “Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD (Lev 19:12).

The Name is central to Israel’s worship. The Name is also central, ultimately, to Christian worship. How much does the Name have to do with our worship at the conscious level? How often to do we give our people time to ponder the Name of God — what it means — when we worship? Or do we barge in?

We are reading the exceptionally complete and readable book by Patrick Miller’s, The Ten Commandments: Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church.

In our last post we sketched the commandment itself, and today’s post concerns Using and Misusing the Name of God, beginning with how God’s Name is used in worship.

Miller investigates the Name when the text moves from the Ten Commandments to the Book of the Covenant (Exod 20:22–23:33), and he does so under these themes:

1. There is an intimate connection between revering the Name of God and the exclusive worship of the Lord. The Name fills the sacred space.

2. The primary place, the originating place, of the name of God is the sanctuary and worship.

3. It is the name of God that specifically characterizes the true and proper worship of God. How true: the Name provides the content and boundaries of true worship. God is defined by and filled by “YHWH”.

[Read more...]

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The Name of God

February 14, 2011 By scotmcknight 12 Comments

The Name of God. Speaking the Name of God. But not using or speaking the Name of God lightly or misusing or using in vain … but how? And what about Christians, non-Hebrew speaking Christians, who never use YHWH and use translations that have LORD and not YHWH? What about us? What are we to learn from this? Does it even “apply” to us? What about you — Do you have any scruples, rules, or principles to follow when it comes to the Third Commandment? Do you pronounce the Name? Or do you reverence that Name by using “Lord” or “LORD” or “God”? Does the Bible prohibit the use of the Name or the misuse of the Name?

The Third Command:

“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name (Exodus 20:7).

Or, “Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD (Lev 19:12).

We are reading Patrick Miller’s new book, The Ten Commandments: Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church.

We begin with this: the Third Command is about using the Name of God deceptively in oaths. It is about using God’s Name in oaths that are false. It is about using God’s Name in oaths that are worthless.

At the core of this is irreverence.

At the same core is the Name, YHWH. While many connect this Name to Exodus 3:13-15 (after the jump), the so-called Yahwist source of the Pentateuch has it from Genesis 2 on. (Thus, see 2:4; 4:26; 12:8.) [I'd rather not get into a discussion of the origins and development of the Pentateuch; I'm using the categories of Miller's book.)

In essence, to use the Name is to connect oneself to the realities of that God. It is to claim a relationship to that God, but that God is revealed in and through that Name, and that means using it means standing under the realities of God. To use that Name is to invoke all that YHWH has done, is doing and will do -- and it invokes all YHWH is.

[Read more...]

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The Lord Alone 4

February 2, 2011 By scotmcknight 4 Comments

The Second Command is not to make a graven image — an idol. Here is the text from Exodus 20:4-6:

4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

We are reading Patrick Miller’s new book, The Ten Commandments: Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church.

A major interpretive method for reading the Second Command is to read it with Deuteronomy 4′s sermon, which he calls a Mosaic sermon on the Second Command.

What’s obvious there is that Israel was not to make an image because when God spoke — when Israel encountered God in person — they only got a Voice and no physical “form.” Human-made forms of God are wrong because God is formless.

This Command protects the First Command.

God’s “Word” immanence and God’s formless transcendence are breached when one makes an image of God. To make an image of God is to domesticate God, to tame the fire.

Most importantly, God is the one who determines how God is to be known. How is God known? [Read more...]

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The Lord Alone 3

January 26, 2011 By scotmcknight 19 Comments

What does “You shall have no other gods before me” mean? Are there any reliable or insightful indicators when we have crossed the line of this command? Or, as too many have suggested, is this really only about being a monotheist — a person who thinks there’s only one God? Are we assaulted with temptations to other gods today?

Patrick Miller’s new book, The Ten Commandments: Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church, is an exceptional study of the Ten Commandments. A gifted Old Testament scholar and a churchman, Miller gives us a book that is eminently useful in the church.

The “this is not to happen” element is the easy part.

Miller cuts to the chase immediately when he examines the four dimensions of “before Me.”

No god is to be “in front of me” or “alongside me” [in worship, devotion] or “instead of me” [replacing me] or “competing with me” [in hostile confrontation].

And there are many who strive for that place in our devotion: “no other gods” is plural. Thus, “Those other realities, single or multiple, may not take the place of the Lord, may not come before the Lord, may not be set alongside the Lord as objects of equal devotion, may not be placed in conflict with our devotion to the Lord” (20).

What might they be? Fame, power, reputation, money, status, pleasure, things, work, success, time.

There are important connections here: [Read more...]

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The Lord Alone 2

January 18, 2011 By scotmcknight 11 Comments

What does it mean to be saved? to be redeemed? to be ransomed? It means to be a person who lives out that salvation, that redemption and that ransom by making God the Lord alone. It means obedience to the God who sets us free.

The biggest mistake of Christians today is to make obedience legalism and to think that God’s commands are somehow an inferior form of religion or spirituality. The second mistake when it comes to the Ten Commandments is to fail to see how they flow out of redemption and don’t stand alone as if they are arbitrary commands. The third mistake is to think they are only for the ancient world, or for Israel, and have nothing to do with gospel.

How are the Ten Commandments “liberation” theology? Has our “grace” theology swung so far that we can no longer see the necessity of commands?

The First Commandment (No other gods) and the Second (no images) are connected to one another, and they both flow from the Prologue to the Ten Commandments (or Ten Words).

For this series on the Ten Commands/Words, I am reading Patrick Miller’s new book, The Ten Commandments: Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church.

The Prologue and the first two Commands belong together, and here’s why: grammar. These verses, found in Exodus 20:2-6 have God speaking to Israel in the first person; at v. 7 (the Name Command) it becomes third person. Read this:

Prologue: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

Command one: “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. Command two: You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

And then notice how it changes here in v. 7: Command three: “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” [Read more...]

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The Lord Alone 1

January 11, 2011 By scotmcknight 17 Comments

For a variety of reasons, not least a dispensational upbringing, some Lutheran law vs. gospel theology, and then a radical New Testament theology that the Torah was in use only until the era of the Holy Spirit, the Ten Commandments have not figured prominently in my own ethical thinking. I memorized them as a kid in Sunday School class, and they are #3 in memorized portions behind the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23.

This is not to say they don’t appear, for it would be nearly impossible to avoid the Ten Commandments. When I did the Jesus Creed project I became convinced that Jesus’ love God-love others applies to the Ten Commandments in that there is a section about loving God and another section about loving others.

What role do the Ten Commandments play in your life? Have them memorized? Recite them often? What about the role they play in your catechism or your church’s liturgy?

But I have not done enough work on the Ten Commandments, and so when I saw Patrick Miller’s new book, The Ten Commandments: Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church, I decided to purchase it and work through it — and I want to do this for my Introduction to Bible classes. It’s a big, complete, theologically rich book about the Ten Commandments and it is helpful to the Church and to the Christian.

So, we begin a new series, and I hope I can flank RJS’s posts each Tues and Thurs with reflections on the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments are given twice in the Old Testament (Exod 20; Deut 5); God speaks them “face to face” (Deut 5:4) and they are inscribed by the “finger of God” (Exod 31:18); they are the first face we see of the Old Testament ethic; they were placed in the Ark of the Covenant (Deut 10:5). Miller: “here is the foundational word for your life as God’s people. All you need to know is given to you in these Ten Words” (4). They are a sufficient guide for one’s life with God and with your neighbor. [Read more...]

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