Spiritual Light

Chapter One - The Third Commandment

Marriage

"Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, and say, Thus says the Lord God unto Jerusalem: Your birth and your nativity is of the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite. And as for your nativity, in the day you were born, your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water to supple you. You were not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things unto you, to have compassion upon you; but you were cast out in the open field, to the loathing of your person, in the day that you were born. And when I passed by you, and saw you polluted in your own blood, I said unto you when you were in your blood, Live!

"I have caused you to multiply as the bud of the field, and you have increased and waxed great, and you are come to excellent ornaments. Your breasts are fashioned, and your hair is grown, whereas you were naked and bare. Now when I passed by you, and looked upon you, behold, your time was the time of love, and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness. Yea, I sware unto you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord God, and you became mine."

(Ezekiel 16:1-8)

God was speaking through the prophet Ezekiel to His wife, Israel. He was recalling the time, nearly eight centuries earlier,1 when He rescued His beloved out of Egyptian slavery and led her to a desolate mountainous region of the Sinai peninsula, where He entered into a covenant of marriage with His beloved Israel. It was an incredibly eloquent proposal of marriage which the Lord had made:

"You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you will be a peculiar treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And you will be to me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation."

(Ex. 19:4-6a)

When Israel accepted God's marriage proposal (Ex. 19:8), the date was set for the marriage ceremony:

"And be ready against the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai."

(Ex. 19:11)

What follows in the next chapters of Exodus is the account of that sacred ceremony, the making of the covenant of marriage at Sinai, when Israel was joined to her God and became His people.

Taking the Name

When a man and a woman are united in a covenant of marriage, they become "one flesh" (Gen. 2:24), and this "one flesh" bears but one name. For example, when Barbara Myers married me, John Clark, she became Barbara Clark. She took my name.

Similarly, when we enter God's covenant, we become one with Him in spirit (1Cor. 6:17). And in entering into God's "family", we take the family name. Paul once wrote: "I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named" (Eph. 3:14-15).

This is what happened at Mt. Sinai. Israel took God's name, promising to be His alone, while He promised that she would be "a peculiar treasure unto me above all people."

Now, there are fundamental conditions to every covenant, whether it is a business contract among men or a spiritual covenant, as here at Sinai. In a marriage ceremony, these fundamental conditions are called "wedding vows", and the wedding vows of God's covenant with Israel are preserved for us in Exodus 20:1-17. They are popularly known as "the Ten Commandments". But what they really are is the agreement between God and His people concerning the fundamental requirements of life as a part of His holy family. The third of these ten commandments is this (Ex. 20:7):

"You 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."