“Oh My God”
“Oh my God” is a biblical phrase with a Hebrew equivalent: Eli. This is perhaps one of the most carelessly uttered phrases in our current culture precisely because of its biblical origins. The enemy wants us to unconsciously misuse a statement intended to address God in the form of a personal relationship, into a common but, pardon me for my bluntness, blasphemous expression.
Throughout Scripture, quite a few biblical figures have used the phrase “O my God”, including: David, Solomon, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, and the Messiah Jesus Christ. Being “Christian” – which means “in the way of Christ” – means that we believe that the Word of God is authoritative and we are to use biblical phrases in Its correct context and method. Thus, when we use the phrase “oh my God” as an expression of shock, relief, excitement, or whatever the speaker intends it to be – rather than an intimate prayer, for ALL biblical characters used it in the form of an intimate prayer (2 Chronicles 6:40; Ezra 9:6; Nehemiah 13:31; Psalm 3:7, Psalm 25:2; Matthew 27:46 etc.) – one is using a biblical phrase in a blasphemous manner.
Many use the phrase “oh my God” or “oh my gosh” without deciphering what it really means. The stress on the biblical term is on “my”, for “my God” evokes a personal relationship. “My God” is different from simply saying “God”, “your God”, “our God”, or “the God of someone”. If I say: “my God”, it resembles that I have taken ownership of my faith, for I do not only believe in the existence of a divine being, but the Lord God of Hosts who is my personal Lord and Savior. If you recount of the biblical usages of the phrase, King David or Jesus Christ did not use the phrase whenever they prayed or addressed God. If you look up scripture with the phrase “my God”, you would realize that whenever David or Christ spoke to God, they were addressing Him in a personal, intimate manner – crying out to Him with their all.
King David demonstrated the profound meaning of the phrase in Psalm 31:14, “But I trust in You O Lord; I say, “You are my God”, for “You are my God” once again evokes a personal relationship with between him and God. This is further evidenced as “O my God” and “You are my God” is the same Greek equivalent. In fact, the deliberateness of “O my God” is further evidenced in Ezra 9:5-15. This passage, titled “Ezra’s prayer” begins with Ezra praying an intimate prayer to God, in which he says: “O my God, I am too ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads…” Yet, in verse 9 and 10, he begins to say “our God” instead of “my God”. The reason is that his prayer transcends to a corporate prayer in which he is pleading to God on behalf of the remnant of Israel. This is just an example of how deliberate every “O my God” is used – which is totally not the way it is used in our current culture. Every biblical character who used this sacred phrase, whether it may be Jesus, David, Solomon, Ezra, Nehemiah, or Daniel, they were thinking of God whenever saying it. Nonetheless, do you think of God whenever you mutter “oh my God” or “oh my gosh”? In fact, if God is the center of your life, you should think of Him with everything you say, reflecting through the Spirit whether or not it could be un-glorifying in His eyes.
On the other hand, there were those who did not address God in a personal and intimate manner, evoking their lack of personal relationship with the King of kings and Lord of Lords – even though they had acknowledged who He was. King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon addressed Him by saying to Daniel: “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery” (Daniel 2:47) after Daniel interpreted his dream. The Babylonian king also said: “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants…” (Daniel 3:29) when God delivered them from the furnace, and “How great are His signs, and how mighty are His wonders! His Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation” (Daniel 4:3). King Darius, or Cyrus the Great of Persia, also said “I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for He is the living God, enduring forever; for he is the living God, enduring forever; His kingdom shall never be destroyed, and His dominion shall be to the end…” (Daniel 6:26-27)
Both the king of Babylon and the king of Persia addressed and praised God when they acknowledged His existence as the one true God, yet they did not have a personal relationship with Him nor did they worship Him. They addressed Him as “the God of [someone]”, or “[to a Hebrew] your God”. Neither kings addressed the Lord God of Hosts as “my God”. Furthermore, if you take account of what King Darius said, as shown above, to what apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:17 “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever”, you would probably realize there is not too much of a difference. Once again, despite the similarity in content, it was uttered by completely differently people. Therefore, let us not use the biblical and sacred saying “my God”, or “O my God” like a non-believer would do today. Our personal relationship with God, or, in other words, how much we love God and treat Him as the center of our lives, is reflected in the way we talk – just as how it was reflected in the way the people in the Bible talked. One who loves God will love godliness and holiness, for it is God’s nature. Thus, if we talk carelessly in a worldly fashion, adopting unholy and ungodly sayings, we may as well be careless in our relationship with Him, not loving Him in everything we attempt to do. Just as it is written: “But he who is careless of his ways will die” (Proverbs 19:16 NAS), a careless soldier always puts one’s life and those in one’s camp in danger.
Many Christians use the euphemism “oh my gosh” or other variations because they know that “oh my God” is a biblical phrase and it takes the Lord’s Name in vain. However, to glorify God is to use the phrase in its originally intended manner – an intimate prayer that addresses God in an intimate relationship. There is nothing wrong with saying “O my God” if its used in the way Christ used it. In our current culture, through the media and other schemes, the enemy wants us to use a biblical phrase in a secular fashion where God is forgotten whenever we mention about Him. Oftentimes, we are caught up in a society where offending others is a heavy cause, while offending God is considered as nothing. “O my God” or “my God” is a phrase which epitomizes a personal relationship between the speaker and Yahweh. Let us live in a Kingdom-minded culture and not profane a beautiful biblical phrase and fall into the enemy’s schemes.
-Barnabas Kwok
PS: Kritian Stanfill's song "Always" actually misused 'Oh My God' - not blasphemously, but carelessly. The chorus "Oh My God, He will not delay" is Biblically wrong, for whenever we use 'Oh My God' (refer to the given examples), we are directly and personally addressing God; making it 'You'. Thus, it should be "Oh My God, YOU will not delay..."
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