Pay attention to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let it be heard on your lips. – Exodus 23:13

It has long bothered me when someone types “G-d” for “God”. I never say anything because it is an attempt to honor the Third Commandment. As minor as that attempt is, it can still be an honorable attempt.

When I read the above quote from Exodus this morning it struck me that we should actually be typing things like “S-tan” or “All-h” instead! God wants us to honor his name, not avoid it. That involves much more than not employing it as a interjection or curse, it means honoring all of who he is. It is a call to not bring shame to his name by applying it to ourselves and then acting contrary to who he is and how he calls us to live. That is my harder than replacing vowels with hyphens.

But other gods? Their names are not even to be upon our lips! Those are the names to avoid. They are the ones we are to struggle to not be associated with. Maybe we should type “m-terialism” or “s-x” or “y-uth” instead.

Okay, all that said, what was Moses actually commanding here? Obviously God wasn’t prohibiting his people from ever naming the name of Baal, he put that name on the lips of his prophets. Also, there were cities named, for example, Baal-Zephon. The bad god’s name was right there! No, what God was commanding was not the prohibition of names, as if they had power in an of themselves, instead he didn’t want those names to be found amongst his people routinely. In other words, his people are not to flirt with other gods and incorporate their names into their vocabulary. As we speak, so we think.