Sacred Commandment: Putting Words in God's Mouth

Recently, a friend was at my house and he made an interesting point. One of the ten commandments is to not "take God's name in vain." Do we really think that up there with "Don't murder", "Don't rape", and "Don't covet" is the command "use geez instead of Jesus when you're angry"? Maybe there's more to this commandment than what we think. So what could it mean? Let me give a three stories that could shed light on what this commandment might mean.

Last year, at the Christian university where I work, we were told that we needed a boost in enrollment. So, we consulted all the specialists and experts and they told us that we could, in an ideal situation expect X number of students. But we were going to trust God for 20% higher enrollment than that! The speaker reiterated "this is impossible, but with God nothing is impossible." We were told (as staff) to get involved: tell young people you know that they should consider our university; consider donating money to the cause; work extra hard at your work so we can achieve this goal. "We are trusting God for this increase, because this is his work." A year later we fell far short of the goal. We were just shy of the highest possible goal the experts told us we could get.

Less than a year ago, a young girl (around 18) was diagnosed as being at risk for cancer. Further tests were needed. At church, they prayed over her and said "God does not want you to die. He is not going to let this young life be snuffed out. We rebuke the devil and pray in confidence knowing that you will live." And the girl did live. The next set of tests came back negative.

Two weeks ago at church, a speaker got up and said "I have a word from the LORD for you. The LORD wants to use you this church to further his kingdom in a big way. You are going to be a big blessing and bring many souls into the kingdom." I don't know whether this is true or not (its only been two weeks) but I know that no one recorded the prediction, to check to see if it does come true.

That's the danger. Talk is extremely cheap. We can invoke God for all sorts of things. We say that we will "trust God" to do the impossible for our university. It didn't work out. So let's process that. Obviously our trust was misplaced. Now there are only a few options.

A) The fault is God's. He was supposed to follow through and he didn't
B) The fault is ours. We trusted God to do something that he in no way indicated that he was going to do.

If either of these options are true, then we have a big problem. I'm going to assume something along the lines of option B) occurred. But what does it mean? It means that we were rallying the troops around a promise that God never made. It means that irresponsible financial choices (choices that assumed God would come through ... after all, that's what having faith is ... isn't it?) were authorized by exploiting people's 'trust in God' even though God had promised no such thing. People put in overtime because we were supposed to collectively believe that God was supposed to come through. People used God's reputation (his 'name') to achieve their own goals, that God had in now way communicated as his own. I will not even begin to go into the repercussion this has on the attitudes, beliefs and behaviors of students and staff - who adopt similar decision making policies on their own ... grabbing a goal of their choosing and then saying that it is God's responsibility (I mean we're trusting him for it right?) to ensure that it happens. However, we NEVER REVIST such statements. The speakers are never held accountable for their words.

The young girl from church did turn out to be OK, but is that because God had come through on his promise? Was God really obligated to heal her? Lots of people do die right after such prayers of victory are prayed. What does that do to the people who heard the prayer? People get angry at God because our language requires it ... we pray things like "We know this isn't what God wants ... he has claimed victory over this disease" and then the person dies. Of course, I'd be angry at God if he was the one who was responsible for taking care of things. ( Does this remind you of the verse in Romans:"The 'name of God' is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you"?) Our unfortunate gift is the ability to do mental gymnastics and reread any event as working out for the best - but usually this rereading happens because we are trying to cover our own misuse of God's name, and what we are supposed to expect from him.

And just like the lady at church, we can say things (especially long term 'blessings') and never be accountable, never actually check to see if what we are saying happens to be true. Instead we baptize our impulsive good wishes as a "word from the LORD" - a statement we are claiming comes from the throne of heaven, from the most powerful and flawless mind in the universe - a word that must be infallible. We are claiming that the words coming out of our mouths have this quality when we call something a "word form the LORD" or when we say publicly "we are trusting the LORD for ..." or when we tell an anxcious person "God wouldn't let this happen, he is going to rescue you."

And what if we are wrong? What if we are using God's reputation, and the implicit trust people have in his name to market our ideas (similar to how you see a famous swimmer on a box of cereal) What if those things we are spouting are not from God. On a small sacle, I would be very angry if people said "Kent says that this movie is great." People go see the movie, find that it sucks and then no longer trust me - ESPECIALLY if I hadn't said the movie was great!!!! But this is exactly what we do with God's name (and by extension his reputation) when we talk about far more serious things - like someone's life or soul. "God says your son is going to come back to Christ." "You can trust God that you are going to get the numbers needed for your university to survive." ... and then things don't work out. The hearers are definitely not going to trust him any longer (and if they are going to trust him, then they should think of you as a charlatton, one who puts words in God's mouth)

The thing is, we should be very careful what we attribute to God. There are promises from God and we should promote them, cherish them and share them. We should be very zealous to make sure that our actions, words and deeds give God a good reputation. We should be reflecting his image to the world (kindness, generosity, goodness, forgiveness, humility, meekness) and as ambassadors of his kingdom, we should be giving him and his kingdom a good name.