Thou Shalt Not Cuss

But our language is not just a reflection of who we are.

Exodus 20:7 “You must not misuse the name of the LORD your God. The LORD will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name. It’s a Reflection of How We View God

When I hear people use obscenities it bugs me and I’m annoyed, it’s like they are polluting my hearing space. But it’s different when I hear God’s name being misused. That makes me cringe inside, because then it becomes personal, they are talking about my God, my Saviour. The sad thing is that society as a whole and even Christians seem to feel just the opposite. They feel like blasphemy isn’t as bad as some other words. I don’t know how many times someone’s told me about a movie and I’ve asked the question, “How’s the language?” And I’m told that “Oh there isn’t any foul language in it” and then when I see the movie I discover that there are very few obscenities but the Lord’s name is misused time and time again. I’ve mentioned to believers about this movie or that movie that I’ve pushed the stop button or walked out on because of the language and they’ll say, “Well it didn’t have this word or that word in it.” And they are right, but the Lord’s name was misused frequently and the sad part is that even believers have become immune to hearing it.

And we shouldn’t be immune to it. It should bother us when we hear our God’s name misused. And there are several different ways that it can be misused. The first of course is the one most of us think about when we hear this commandment and that is when God’s name is used as a profanity. Video clip, From Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

You ever want to do that to someone? That kind of hits home with me. When I was ten or eleven, you know the age trying to be more grown up then you are, I tried out one of the new words that I had heard in the schoolyard on my parents. I very casually slipped it into a joke I was telling them, trying to appear a little more mature. I was spanked as a child, probably not nearly as often as you might think, but I was spanked and I don’t recall any specific spankings that I received. I do however remember the consequences of my actions that day. And it was very similar to what happened to Indy.

So the question is why? Why is this command here? we know the what; Don’t misuse God’s name, but why? Shouldn’t God be bigger then being offended by name calling after all what were we taught as kids, Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. You have to understand how much more there is to this then simply the name of God, which by the way we don’t have. When the Old Testament was written the Gods of the surrounding countries all had names but the Jews wouldn’t even speak the name of their God.

When we think of God in the Old Testament we think of the name Jehovah, but the Jews spelt it YHWH, try pronouncing that. And even then they wouldn’t use it verbally instead they would refer to him when they spoke as “Ha Shem” which literally means “The Name”.