Leviticus 19:12 - Homiletics

Name of thy God,

contains three injunctions: First, a command that on due occasions we are to make appeal to God by solemn oath; secondly, a prohibition of perjury; thirdly, a command to reverence God's Name.

I. TO SWEAR BY GOD 'S NAME IS COMMANDED , AS BEING A RECOGNITION OF HIM AS SUPREME LORD . Thus in Deuteronomy we read, "Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his Name" ( Deuteronomy 6:13 ); in the Psalms, "Every one that sweareth by him shall glory (or be commended)" ( Psalms 63:11 ); in Isaiah, "He that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth" ( Isaiah 65:16 ); in Jeremiah, "Thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness" ( Jeremiah 4:2 ); "Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods" ( Jeremiah 5:7 ); "And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my Name, The Lord liveth; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of my people" ( Jeremiah 12:16 ).

II. GOD SWEARS BY HIMSELF . "By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee" ( Genesis 22:16 , Genesis 22:17 ). "I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear" ( Isaiah 45:23 ). "For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee … Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation" ( Hebrews 6:13-18 ).

III. GOD 'S COMMAND MADE OF NONE EFFECT BY JEWISH TRADITIONS . These are summed up in the following passage of Philo Judaeus:—"Let the word of the good man be a firm oath, immovable trust, free from falsehood, based on truth. But if this be not sufficient, and necessity compel him to swear, he should swear by the health or sacred age of his father or mother if they are alive, or by their memory if they are dead. For they are images and representations of Divine power, inasmuch as they brought into being those that did not exist before. They too deserve praise who, when they are compelled to swear, suggest the thought of reverence both to the bystanders and to those who impose the oath by the limitation and unwillingness which they show. For, saying aloud, 'Yes, by …,' and, 'No, by,' and adding nothing, under the appearance of sudden interruption, they show that they do not swear a complete oath. But let a man add thereto what he pleases, such as the earth, the sun, the stars, the heaven, the whole world, provided he does not add the highest and most awful Cause" ('De Special. Legibus').

IV. CHRIST FORBIDS SWEARING . "Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil" ( Matthew 5:33-37 ). Nearly the same words are repeated in James 5:12 .

V. CHRIST 'S COMMAND LIMITED IN ITS EXTENT . His prohibition refers to ordinary swearing, not to solemn oaths taken in courts of justice or under similar circumstances. This is plain by the fact that at his own trial he replied to the adjuration of the high priest, which adjuration was the Jewish manner of taking an oath in a court of justice, "Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said unto him, Thou hast said" ( Matthew 26:63 , Matthew 26:64 ). Because the high priest's words were "the voice of swearing" ( James 5:1 ), Jesus broke his silence and spoke in obedience to the adjuration; and oaths are spoken of with approval in the Epistle to the Hebrews ( Hebrews 6:13-18 ).

VI. WHAT AS OATH IS . It is an appeal to the tribunal of God, the person swearing (or adjured) calling God to witness to the truth of his words. Its purpose is "an end of all strife" ( Hebrews 6:16 ). When no circumstantial evidence is forthcoming, the only means of arriving at truth is the awe of God solemnly invoked by an oath, and the dread of offending him by perjury. Where either sophistical casuistry or a secret—still more an open—skepticism undermines or destroys the sense of the obligation of oaths in a nation, that nation is hurrying on its way to destruction.

VII. PERJURY . The more solemn an oath is, the greater is the sin of perjury. If to swear by God's Name is a method of arriving at truth appointed by God himself, to swear by his Name falsely subverts the purpose of the command and insults the majesty of God.

VIII. IRREVERENCE . Not only deliberate perjury but any kind of irreverence is forbidden by this injunction. "The Christian man … will endeavour to recognize with faithful respect that holy Name wherever it meets him in his walk of life. As it is an appellation of the most high God, he will never utter it hastily or thoughtlessly. He will surely not use it at all except he have occasion to speak of it seriously and carefully. It is needless to say how totally he will refrain from such wanton profanation as that of garnishing his common speech by using the Name or referring to the doings of the Most High; still less how impossible it would be for him to allege the sacred Name, literally or by implication, in support of falsehood; nay, how impossible it would be that he should assert what is false at all, seeing that the Name of God is all around him, and that the most secularly sounding asseverations are nothing else than allegations of that Name. He will be much on his guard in prayers, lest, while he utters the sacred Name and the words which belong to it, his mind should wander away from the thoughts which ought to accompany it, and he should break the commandment. He will not shrink from the seemly reverence which the Church orders to be paid to the Name of Christ' (Moberly, 'The Law of the Love of God').