3. Do not take Yahuah’s Name in vain: in my opinion, this is a frequently misunderstood commandment.
The name of our Creator is powerful. When Moses met Yahuah in the mountain, Moses could only see some smoke coming out of a bush and he was understandably concerned on how he would convince the Israelite to follow him. ‘Who do I say you are?’ and Yahuah answered ‘Tell them that I AM’. Wow… that part gives me goose bumps all the time…
His name YHWH has many different translations, as for me, I am satisfied with Yahuah, which many people with better understanding of the Hebrew language concluded. I might do my own research in the future, but that’s beyond the point here.
‘I AM – the one who makes other things be – wow, wow, wow, this is powerful! By calling out His name, you better really want His attention. And I feel He is happy to be called by us for everything concerning our life and our prayers, but let’s be reasonable.
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word vain has the following meanings:
1- having undue or excessive pride in one's appearance or achievements: CONCEITED
2- Market by futility and ineffectiveness: UNSUCCESSFUL, USELESS
3- Having no real value: IDLE, WORTHLESS
4- (archaic): FOOLISH, SILLY
While Yahuah wants to be part of our lives even for the smallest things, we must be careful not to use His name for useless or proud reasons. Would you like someone to ask for your help to do something useless? Well, I bet you would not!
Now, we know we are made in His likeness. What is the sound that gets your attention most instantly? Your name! Your name is music in your ears, you quickly hear your name even in a loud room and you easily find your own name in a text. So it goes for our Father.
Now, if we agree that His name is powerful and that He will really pay attention once He hears His name, shouldn’t we make sure we call Him by His real name so we can call Him accordingly? Curiously though, all references to Yahuah in the Scriptures were substituted for ‘Lord’ or ‘God’. This is wrong for many reasons. ‘God’ or ‘Lord’ are generic words. It’s like saying ‘person’ instead of John or Anna. Of course John and Anna are indeed persons, but our Father is not ‘a’ God, He is THE One and Only and He has a name.
This generalization brings situations like Psalm 110:1, with this confusing passage:
A Psalm of David. The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
The Cepher Bible, which is my favorite for a more faithful translation, has most of the terms and names of people and cities in Hebrew and in this Bible you can read the same Psalm as follows:
‘Yahuah said unto my Adonai, sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’
As we know, the Psalms book's recurrent message is about the Messiah, or Yahusha. David’s Adonai is also our Adonai, He is our Savior. It makes sense now with the correct translation that Yahusha will seat by Yahuah’s right side until the upcoming Apocalypse.
Not related to the Commandment, but also regarding the strength in the name: Yahusha’s name is also very powerful. He is clear to His disciples that they will be able to cast out demons and perform miracles when they use His name. Quite cool, huh? Even if the disciples did not walk on water or feed 20 thousand people with two fishes and five loaves of bread, they could bring people back from the dead, cure diseases and cast out demons using the name of Yahusha - their most impactful miracle, though, was bringing the gentiles to become ‘The Church’ beyond the borders of Israel by spreading the Gospel (good news).
So why are we calling his name Jesus Christ? The name of the Messiah also stirs a lot of debate. Many advocate that His name is actually Emmanuel (God with us) others go with Yeshua (Salvation), from which Jesus or Jehovah (this last one also used for Yahuah) is supposedly derived. I will once more follow the Cepher study and rest my case on this matter.
The name deserves debate and research, not only for the power it brings but also because if your name is ‘Maria’ it makes no sense to call you ‘Mary’ in another country or at a later time (or worse, call you ‘person’). Your name should not be interchangeable and so shouldn’t be Yahuah’s.
Why is this Commandment more important now than ever: It is clear that we are heading for very troubled times and as believers, we need to be prepared to be attacked both physically and spiritually. The powerful Names of Yahuah and Yahusha combined with an unconditional trust on their plan is our shield against the world.
Important: Am I implying that when you pray for Jesus or for God they are not listening? No way! My understanding is that once you are reborn, the Holy Spirit (Ruach Hakodesh) lives in you and has direct communication with our Father and His Son. The question is: what would you prefer? Being called by your real name, or by something else? ;)
Photo Credit: https://drjamesgjohnson.org/namesofyhwh/
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