“17So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with and oath, 18so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast tot he hope set before us.” – Hebrews 6:17-18 (ESV)
It seems as though I may have found something in God’s word that I was not fully engaged with before. The commandment below clearly states not to take the name of the LORD in vain.
“7You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” – Exodus 20:7 (ESV)
As I am a sinner, I will lie. Therefore, my swearing to God about something is clearly in vain as I have all of the good intentions not to, but my capacity as a sinner is flawed and I will at some point fail to live up to the oath I make with God. And as such I will be taking His name in vain. I am not capable of swearing and fully holding to it. So I have found that swearing by the name of the LORD is indeed not possible. It is not about using bad words with God’s name attached to them, it is really about my incapacity to hold to the words I utter being that I am a sinner.
God does not have the capability to lie and therefore when He swears by Himself as He did with Abraham, His word is His full and trusted bond that I can count on, always. When God swears, it is the truth and He is bound to His words.
What swearing have you done lately? Have you sworn to God and taken his name in vain? What if you took the approach that you are incapable of holding to your words, and therefore would avoid calling on the name of the LORD in your swearing?
Trevor's Thoughts 