Listen The Lord Is Speaking Third Commandment

Listen, the Lord is Speaking

The third commandment

Exodus 20.4, 7; Deuteronomy 5.11

“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.”

Song 2.10

My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away…”

They who bear Christ’s Name listen to His Word.

In response to Solomon’s speaking, the bride calls out, “O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the crannies of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely” (2.14). I wonder if that’s the way we feel about the Voice of our Bridegroom. How eager are we to hear the Lord speaking in His Word? All Scripture is the Word of Christ and all Scripture is about Him in some way (Jn. 5.39). They who bear the Name of the Lord, who are bound to Him in a covenant of love, will surely find His Voice as pleasing and exciting as Solomon’s bride found his. But do we, do we really? We take the Name of the Lord in vain if we make little or no time to sit before Him while He speaks to us from His Word. We need to feed at His banquet table every day, to drink deeply from His fountain of life (Ps. 36.9) and to consume His Word more readily than our morning meal (Job. 23.12). Then His Word can be our meditation all day long, guiding us in the way He wants us to go, along the paths of righteousness (Ps. 1). The Lord is calling, day by day, “Arise, my love, my beautiful one, you who bear My Name.” Let us obey His call and come to Him in His Word.

In your time of reading and meditating on the Scriptures, do you sense the Voice of the Lord calling to you? How might you improve your ability to hear Him there?

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.