Step into the timeless wisdom of Yahweh’s Law as we continue our journey through the Ten Commandments. In this teaching, we turn our gaze upon the Ninth Commandment — a decree not merely against lying, but against treachery of tongue and false testimony, which sow seeds of discord among brethren.

In an age drunk on rumors, half-truths, and spin, the Most High calls His people to be pillars of truth. What does it mean to bear true witness? Join us as we trace the thread of this command from Sinai’s heights, through the Proverbs of wisdom, to the teachings of Yahushua the Messiah Himself — who declared that every idle word shall be brought into judgment.

In this video, you will learn the meaning of “bearing false witness” in its ancient and modern contexts as well as scriptural examples of false witnesses and their grave consequences. We will explore the power of truthful speech and practical ways to guard your lips and honor Yahweh’s command.

Let us be a people whose word is as gold refined, whose testimony shines with the light of the Most High. For the Father delights in truth in the inward parts, and His Word is forever settled in heaven. So join us as we learn the God Honest Truth about the ninth commandment.

#GodHonestTruth #TenCommandments #NinthCommandment #Truth #Torah #BibleTeaching #Yahweh #Yahushua

Transcript

In this video, we continue our journey through Yahweh’s ten commandments. Standing now before the solemn words of the ninth commandment itself, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” In a world a wash with deception and lies, the Almighty calls us to be truthful and to tell the truth in word, in deed, and especially in our hearts. So come with us as we open the scriptures to see what it means to guard our tongues, to speak faithfully, and to not bear false witness.
All right. So this is our next episode in our ten commandment series and this is going to be on the ninth commandment.
This is all about the ninth commandment of do not bear false witness or thou shalt not bear false witness. Now before we get into this particular teaching I want to remind everyone that we have notes available on our website that includes a lot more information than what you’re going to get in this particular teaching. If you go to our website and click on the post for this particular episode, you’ll be able to see the on demand video, the draw slides you see here on your screen if you’re watching on a video platform. You also be able to see the notes that we took for this particular episode and the transcript if that so is of any use to you. And it’s all right there on our website at godhonesttruth.com.
And we have made it even easier. If you go down below in the description, we provided a convenient link for you that will link you directly to that article post on our website. And that convenient link should be down there whether you’re watching on an audio podcasting platform or a video platform. So go check it out in the description today. The ninth commandment, the command itself comes from Exodus 20:16 and also Deuteronomy 5:20. And the statement or the command goes as such in the two the scriptures 2009 translation. Quote, “You do not bear false witness against your neighbor.” End quote. From the King James version, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. And from the NSB, I thought this was rather interesting. It says, “Do not lie or accuse anyone falsely.” from the tendel. Thou shalt bear no false witness against thy neighbor. So, it’s pretty self-explanatory, but what are we actually looking at here? Let’s break it down real quick in an overview kind of way. Here you see it says, “You do not bear false witness.” Now, what does false witness mean? Is that the same thing as lying? Well, actually, as you go through the study, you’ll see that lying and bearing false witness are two separate concepts. They’re not really different. But I’ll explain it in this way. False witness is a lie. All false witnessing is a lie, but not all lying is a false witness. See how that works? As far as false witness goes, that’s more of in the context or the concept of legal or investigative proceedings. Sort of like a courtroom sort of thing, but it doesn’t always have to be inside a courtroom. It could be some sort of judicial thing even outside of courtroom where it be investigative or whatnot. That’s sort of what false witnessing goes towards, what it’s really hinting at because truth in a justice situation is foundational. We’ll get to that in just a minute. But also, you’ll see here against your neighbor. This brings up another idea and another thing to think about is who really is your neighbor?
When you think about it, is it just people in your community, people you live next door to? Is it just other believers? and does not include non-believers. I would actually go and be of the opinion to say that neighbor means anyone. Any human being on planet earth or even not on planet earth. That would be your neighbor. And the reason I say that is because I take the words in the parable of Yeshua when he tells the parable of the good Samaritan. Now the Samaritans were not considered to be believers by the Jews of the day. the Judeans of the day, the Samaritans were part of the northern kingdom that were the remnants that were not dispersed amongst the nations. They were considered unclean. They Judeans didn’t like them and they didn’t consider them to be part of the flock of God. So even in that parable, Yeshua was making a statement that whoever helps, whoever does good, that is your neighbor. When you’re testifying against someone, it doesn’t matter if they’re a believer in covenant with Yahweh or not, they are still considered your neighbor. Or at least that’s the way I interpret and see scripture at this point. If you have a different point of view, go down below in the comments and let us know. But try to be try to expound and be specific about what you’re trying to say so that we’re clear. But as it stands right now, the way we see it is that neighbor includes and means anyone, any human being on planet Earth. Now, these two or actually this concept of not bearing false witness and lying, there’s two different words we’re going to be looking at tonight. And one of these words occurs here in Exodus 20:16.
The two words are skeker and I’m sorry, Shakare and Kazav.
Shakare and Kazav. And Shakare actually occurs here in Exodus chapter 20 verse 16 where it says, “Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.” But Shakare is Strong’s H8267.
H8267. Shakare Shakare. And according to the outline of biblical usage from blueletterbible.org, Shakare means lie, deception, falsehood, deception, deceit, falsehood, lie, things like that. So even though in Exodus 2016 we’re talking about bearing false witness, Shakare still carries along the connotation of a lie. But remember false witnessing is nuanced and dependent on the context whether it’s referred to as false witnessing or a lying or a lie because false witnessing is a lie but not all lies are false witness. See where we’re going with that? According to Strong’s definition for Shakare, it means an untruth, a sham, deceit, falsehood, liar, lie. And then going on here is your Brown Driver Briggs entry for Shakare and your Genus’s Hebrew lexicon entry.
All pretty much saying the same thing, deceit, fraud, lie, perjury, things like that.
And finally, here is your Jaser’s dictionary of the Tarums entry and your Klein dictionary entry for Shakare.
Went on to our second word that we’re be looking at real quick, just for my fellow nerds out there. This is the word kazav. Kazav. And this is Strongs H3577.
Kazav and the outline of biblical usage from blueletterbible.org defines kazav as a lie, an untruth, a falsehood, a deceptive thing. Think back to our previous word shakare. Pretty much the exact same thing. And it’s beyond the scope and purpose of this particular teaching to get into the difference and the nuances of these two different words. But just kind of take it into consideration that both of these pretty much mean the same thing. Means lie, deceit, untruth, falsehood, things like that. Strong’s definition defines it pretty much the same way as Shakare and the outline of biblical usage. Strong’s definition defines kazav as falsehood, untruth, deceitful, false, liar, lie, lying. And here is your brown Driver Briggs entry and your Deenus’ Hebrew lexicon entry.
And then finally, here’s your Jasper’s dictionary, the Targums entry, and your Klein dictionary entry for Kazav. And once again, all these define it as pretty much the same thing. Lie, untruth, deceit, things like that. Now, once again, we cut all these entries down to fit on the slides and for the sake of time in this teaching. But if you would like the full entry, you can go look it up for yourself in each of these particular lexicons or dictionaries. Or you can go make it easier on yourself and look at the notes we took for you where we have the entire entry right there for you on that notes page. Truth, like we said, is foundational to a justice system. Courts have always relied on truth and true witnesses for the justice system and to pursue justice and enact justice. A false witness could mean an innocent person is going to jail or being condemned or punished unjustly. And a false witness could also mean that a guilty person goes free without being duly punished. So a true and faithful witness is paramount to a righteous and functioning. So how should I put this? A righteously functioning justice system.
There we go. The words of a false witness are like weapons. And this is we know this implicitly, but this is just saying it explicitly. The words of a false witness are like weapons bringing harm. And it brings harm not just to the person who says it, but also to the person is directed toward and condemning. Even beyond legal settings, false testimony threatens the peace and cohesion of community life. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a small community or a big community. If we’re talking about in the context of a nation, we’ve all seen the effects in history about national leaders telling lies and how that affects the nation as a whole, millions of people. So truth, true witnessing and not lying, not false witnessing is foundational to a righteously functioning society and a righteously functioning justice system. Every false witness is a liar and every false witness they give is a lie. But not every lie is a false witness. We went over this a little bit before, but just to pretty much beat a dead horse, we’ll say it again. There you go. Lying defiles the speaker. Like when your normal life, you see that when someone lies, it really defiles them even though they think it’s helping them. Lying defiles the person who is speaking the lie. But a false witness also condemns the innocent or the person that they are witnessing falsely towards particularly in an investigative or justice context. Like I said earlier, lying and false witnessing is pretty much the same thing. Although the context with the ninth commandment is with a investigative or judicial context and not just lying in general. So here are some nuances and a little bit of differences between lying and false witnessing. Now if you have anything to say about this, please let us know down in the comments or write to us at team atgodhonesttruth.com. But here are the differences that we see between lying and false witness. And we’ll get to some scriptures that outline and reference both lying and false witnessing coming up next. But for right now, the scope of lying is broad.
It can be anything that is untrue, any kind of falsehood. But false witnessing is more of a narrow concept where it’s false testimony or a false acc accusation or providing false information in a judicial or investigative context like we’ve already covered. The target for lying could be anyone or anything. Could be general personal or even just no one specific. Just telling a lie to benefit yourself for any reason. That is lying in general. But false witnessing directly harms another person. In context, lying is any situation, any conversation, any action or any omission even sometimes. Whereas false witnessing in context usually depend or usually is within the context of a judicial system within context of testimony a legal situation or some kind of accusation that’s being made or some kind of investigation that’s being partaken of. Right? We’ll get to some more verses here in just a minute. But in the Tanakh, lying is condemned outright and specifically in no uncertain terms, such as in Leviticus 19:11, in the book of Proverbs, and many other places. Like I said, we’ll get to those in just a moment. And there’s going to be even more in the notes on our website. So, go check that out. False witnessing, on the other hand, is specifically condemned in the 9inth Commandment, which is in Exodus 2016 and Deuteronomy 5, etc., etc. There’s multiple places where false witnessing is also condemned like lying is in the brhadesha. This continues the same prohibition against lying. We see the prohibition in Colossians 3:9, Ephesians 4:25, Revelation 2:18 and other places. Whereas false witnessing is also continued as far as the prohibition goes. And false witnessing is prohibited in the brhadesha in Matthew 26:59, Matthew 19:18. I don’t know why I got Deuteronomy in there, but sorry, but etc., etc. There’s multiple places and even in the Brhadesha that speak against and condemn false witnessing as well as lying. Now, just to bring the point home a little bit further, lying and false witnessing are two concepts that exist on their own. False witnessing exists within the scope or the context of lying, but not all lying is false witnessing. Now, scripture does reference both lying and false witnessing in the same verse in couple of instances. Let’s look at Proverbsap 6 16-19. These six matters Yahweh hates and seven are an abomination to him. A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands shedding innocent blood, a heart devising wicked schemes, feet quick to run to evil, a false witness breathing out lies, and one who causes strife among brothers. So here we see that these are some things that are an abomination to Yahweh. And two of the things that are included in this list is number one, a lying tongue. Number two, a false witness who breathes out lies. So here we can see that there’s lying in general that the scriptures reference and then there’s a false witness or false witnessing which is a lie in and of itself as well. But both are mentioned in the same verse. Another one, Proverbs chapter 19 verse 5.
A false witness does not go unpunished and he who breathes out lies does not escape. Now in this passage, this could be combined with one another and come out to be pretty much in the same context and the same scope and the same thing. So take it as you will, but seeing as how there’s other verses who that reference both of these at the same time, I’m thinking that Proverbs 19:5 is also doing the exact same thing. And we also go down and look at Proverbs 14:5.
A trustworthy witness does not lie, but a false witness breathes out lies. So a trustworthy witness tells the truth, does not lie, but it’s a false witness who breathes out lies. So if you’re a false witness, you’re putting out lies. So a false witness or bearing false witness is lying. But once again, not all lying is false witnessing. It all depends on the context at hand. And I’ve seen some people over the years try to justify lying by saying that well the ninth commandment is within a judicial context and not giving false witnessing, false testimony. Outside of that, they say lying is acceptable. No, lying and false witnessing is condemned by scripture. We look at Leviticus chapter 19 11. Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another. Straightforward enough for you? And so even if you say that the context of the ninth commandment is within a judicial or investigative context, yeah, that’s true. But lying is still condemned and prohibited. And false witnessing is just one form of lying.
Zechariah 8 16-1 17. These are the words you should do. Speak the truth to one another. Judge with truth and write ruling for peace in your gates. And do not plot evil in your heart against another. And do not love a false oath.
For all these I hate, declares Yahweh. And finally, we’re going to look at Ephesians 4 25 going on into the British. Therefore, having put off the false, speak truth, each one with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Now, here it’s not saying do not bear false witness, but it’s switched around into more of a positive where it says speak truth with your neighbor. Not do not bear false witness against your neighbor, but speak truth with your neighbor. Pretty much the same things, just different sides of the same coin. Do not lie. Tell the truth. Whether it’s in a general context or within a judicial or investigative context, line itself actually contradicts the character of Yahweh. We think of all the attributes and the things that we would say about Yahweh. And one thing that we can say about Yahweh is that he does not lie. But does that reflect what scripture actually tells us? Yes, it does. Let’s look at Titus 1:es 1-3.
according to the belief of Elohim’s chosen ones and knowledge of the truth according to reverence in expectation of everlasting life which Elohim who does not lie.
Hebrews chapter 6 17-20. In this way, Elohim resolving to show even more clearly to the heirs of promise the unchangeableness of his purpose confirmed by confirmed it by an oath so that by two unchangeable matters in which it is impossible for Elohim to lie, we might have strong encouragement. So here we can see that one of the things about Yahweh is truth and truthfulness not lying. So when we lie even when one of those forms of lying is bearing false witness we contradict and we go against the very nature of Yahweh and we are supposed to be in his image. We’re supposed to conform ourselves to him.
It’s an ongoing process or at least it is for me. Maybe some of you have already reached that goal. I know I haven’t. I’m still trying. And one of the things that I’ve got to get better at is aligning myself and making myself more like the attributes of Yahweh. And one of those is being truthful at all cost at all time. We’ll get into some exceptions here in just a minute because I’m I can already feel it. Some of you out there watching this, you’re thinking, “Oh, what about this passage or what about that instance?” We’ll get to that in just a minute. Just hang with me for just a moment. Right now, we’re going on the character and the attributes of Yahweh. And one of those is truthfulness or telling the truth. And when we lie or bear false witness, we are actually contradicting the character of Yahweh or one of the character aspects of Yahweh. But who is it that we’re actually emulating when we lie or bear false witness? It’s the adversary himself. We look at John 8:44.
You are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you wish to do.
He was a murderer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks of his own for he is a liar and the father of it. So who’s the father of lies? The adversary, the devil as it puts here. Side note, we don’t actually know the name of the adversary. It always says something like the devil or the adversary.
Lucifer is a mistransation by the way, but like I said, that’s a side note. Anyways, or the adversary is the father of lies. And when we lie, when we bear false witness, we are actually emulating and going after the character aspects of the father of lies who is Satan. So you be more like Yahweh. Or do you want to be more like Satan? Tell the truth, bear true witness, you’re like Yahweh.
Tell a lie, be a liar, bear false witness, you’re more like Satan. Now, there’s actually punishments in scripture for bearing false witness, even lying. But let’s look at false witnessing since that is the context of the ninth commandment. We look at Deuteronomy 19 16-19. When a malicious witness rises up against any man to accuse him of turning aside, then both men who have the dispute shall stand before Yahweh before the priest and the judges who served in those days. And the judges shall diligently search and see if the witness is a false witness who has falsely accused his brother. Then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from your midst. So here if a false witness comes against someone and they bear false witness and the punishment for the accused is death but the false witness is discovered to be a false witness then the punishment for that false witnessing is death. They are to be given the same punishment as the accused would have gotten if they would have been convicted. Another example, if the sentence for the accused is going to be 10 years in prison, then once the false witness is found out and they’re found out to be providing false testimony, then they are to be punished with that 10 years in prison that the accused would have gotten if they would have been convicted. Make sense? This is something that continues on or was even understood going forward even after the times of the Tanakh. He goes on into the first couple of centuries. We look at the writings of Josephus and he says in the antiquities of the Jews book four chapter 8 but let not a single witness be credited but three or two at the least and those who and those such whose testimony is confirmed by their good lives. So according to Josephus, just like scripture says, you got to have at least two or three witnesses to confirm something and that their testimony is confirmed by the way they live their lives. He then goes on to say, “But if anyone be believed to have borne false witness, let him when he is convicted suffer all the very same punishments which he against which he against whom he bore witness was to have suffered.” So just like we read in scripture, Josephus is relating the exact same thing that when a false witness is found out is to be punished with that which the accused would have been punished with had he been convicted. Then we look at the dedicay in chapter 3 and dedicay is one of those really really early noncriptural writings that we find in history and that was written somewhere around the end of the first century maybe the beginning of the second century but in dedicay chapter 3 it says my child be not a liar since a lie leads to theft.
Does a lie always lead to theft? Well, it’s pretty common, yeah, but probably not always. However, it’s still good advice. Do not lie. Do not be a liar. Do not bear false witness. So, even the early writers continued on with this theme of do not lie. We’ve we’ve kind of lost that over the years, I think, or especially here in America. It seems like everyone can’t be trusted anymore.
You can’t take someone at their word if you don’t have a 30-page legal document to do simple things and have it in writing. It’s nuts anymore. We we should be getting back to that point where a man’s word is his bond. When he says something, you can take it to the bank.
You don’t need a legal document to hold him accountable for it. He should hold himself accountable for what he promises to do or the words that he says. Unfortunately, that’s not the way it is.
But that’s what scripture tells us to do anyways. Do not lie. Do not bear false witness. There’s even eternal consequences for being a false witness or being a liar and not being forgiven or not being repentant of that. We look at Psalms 101 6-7.
My eyes are on the trustworthy of the land to dwell with me. He who walks in a perfect way, he serves me. He who practices deceit does not dwell in my house. He who speaks lies does not stand in my presence.
You want to make it to the new Jerusalem, to the kingdom of heaven that’s going to be established here on earth. Don’t be a liar. Revelation 21 7-8. The one who overcomes shall inherit all this, and I shall be his Elohim, and he shall be my son. But as for the cowardly and untrustworthy and abominable and murderers and those who and drug sorcerers and idolattors and all the false meaning liars, their part is in the lake which burns with fire and sulfur which is the second death. And then finally, Revelation 21 27. And there shall by no means enter into it whatever is unclean, neither anyone doing abomination and falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. So here we can see when it talks about entering into it, it means the new Jerusalem, the new city that comes down out of the heavens to here on earth. No one’s going to enter into it. And who are those that are not going to enter into it? those who are false, who are liars, who are not written in the lamb’s book of life. So here we can see the unrepentant liars are not in the book of life. That’s way what we get from this particular verse right here. But just like we covered with the previous commandments, even with murder and adultery, there was forgiveness for those because King Dewed, King David received forgiveness for both adultery and murder. If you’re a liar, you’ve told lies, you can be forgiven for that. You don’t have to remain that way. So, repent, turn to Yahweh, be washed of your sins, including the lying, and be cleansed and white as snow through the blood of Yeshua. Now, I know a lot of you are asking, well, what about this instance in scripture? What about that instance in scripture where it says that people lied and either good things come about or bad things did not come about? So, it’s kind of condoned that way. Let’s take a look at a couple of those real quick. And Exodus 1:es 15- 21, this is a story of the midwives in the Egyptian slavery time setting. But here starting in verse 15 of Exodus chapter 1. Then the sovereign of Mitzy spoke to the Hebrew midwives and he said, “When you deliver the Hebrew women, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death, but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” But the midwives feared Elohim and kept the male children alive. So the sovereign of Mitzraim called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and kept the male children alive?” And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Mitzrean women, for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.” So Elohim was good to the midwives, and the people increased and became very numerous. And it came to be because the midwives feared Elohim that he provided households for them. Ninth commandment says, “Do not bear false witness.” We’re seeing in other places where it says, “Do not lie.” But here we see the Hebrew midwives lying to Pharaoh.
So what’s going on here? We can also see in addition to all that that they lied to Pharaoh and then they were rewarded for doing so.
But were they really? I mean here you can see that they are preserving life.
They’re preserving and protecting human life. And I think that’s the point that we should focus on more than anything else. Yes, they lied. No doubt about it. But I think that the point of this story and what we can draw out of this, the very top thing is that they feared Yahweh because they knew that all mankind is an image of Yahweh. So they were protecting these young children, preserving their life. Lying is just a secondary thing that comes along with it. Because they protected the children, because they did not shed innocent blood and because they feared Yahweh, they were blessed because of this. They weren’t blessed because of their lying. I don’t see anyone anywhere who’s ever blessed or rewarded for lying, desending like that. But I do think the point here is that the Hebrew midwives were rewarded and blessed for protecting innocent life. And once again, the lying part was just secondary, but it was to protect life.
Keep that in mind because we’re going to get to some more of that here in just a moment. Another example very much like this is going to be with the example of the prostitute named Rahab. When Joshua and the spies went into the promised land to scout it out, we look in Joshua chapter 2:es 1-6. And Yahosua son of Nun secretly sent out two men from Shitim to spy. They went and came to the house of a woman, a and her name was Rahab. But it was reported to the sovereign of Yero. The sovereign of Yerho sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you who have entered your house.” But the woman had taken the two men and hid them. So she said, “The men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.” Then it came to be as the gate was being shut when it was dark that the men went out. I do not know where the men went, but she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax which had which she had laid out on the roof. So once again, we see someone who is lying, but lying to protect and preserve life. These weren’t innocent little babies. I mean, they were Joshua and some spies. Pretty much the spies that went there. Not Joshua, but anyways, they were not guilty. At least we’re not told they were guilty of anything deserving of death. So we can presume that they were innocent and were just somewhere they were in danger for their life. But Rahab was protecting their lives. So she lied to protect innocent life. And she was actually counted as righteous. And when you look at the genealogy of Yeshua, who do you see? You see Rahab, the harlot. We even see her mentioned again in James 2:es 24- 26.
You see then that a man is declared right by works and not by belief alone.
In the same way was not Rahab the also declared right by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so also the belief is dead without the works. So here we can see that Rahab believed in Yahweh.
She knew that Yahweh existed and she actually had a healthy fear of Yahweh.
But just that belief and that faith wasn’t enough to declare her righteous. She actually had to put that into action with her deeds, which she did by protecting the two spies that came to her house.
By protecting them by her faith and by her actions, she was declared right. As James says here, she was declared right by her works.
Once again, it’s like with the example of the Hebrew midwives. This is an example of lying to protect life. Get into that in just a moment. But let’s look at some other examples in scripture that you may be thinking about. We’ll cover just real quick here. We look in First Kings chapter 22 20-23.
And it also gets recounted in 2 Chronicles 18. But this is a story of the lying spirit that is allowed not put but allowed to go into the prophets of Ahab. And it’s talking about well when you read that story in second or first kings you have the council and Yahweh saying well who will go up to entice Ahab to come and there’s a false or a lying spirit that says I will go and be falsehood in the mouths of the prophets of Ahab. So Yahweh allows him or this false spirit to go and lie through the mouths of the prophets of Ahab to entice Ahab to come about and do what it is that Yahweh wants done.
So it wasn’t something that Yahweh lied about. He didn’t even say go lie. He didn’t command the lie. He just from what I see he just allowed it to happen. Still, this is not the Holy Spirit. This is not the spirit of Yahweh. This is another spirit, the lion spirit that was allowed to do this. Wasn’t commanded by Yahweh. He was just allowed to. So take that nuance into account. Another one we see in 2 Kings 10 18-31. This is the story of uh King Yahoo or Ju how you want to pronounce it. He is going out and he actually tells lies to the prophets and the priests and the worshippers of Bal and tells them you know come to this gathering and make sure there’s none of the people of Yahweh there. Just nothing but people of Bal. We’re gonna sacrifice to Bal. have a great time, big party. Right? This is what he told them. But he was lying because once they all got together, King Yahoo slaughtered them all. Got rid of all the worshippers and the priest and the adherence of Ball. He didn’t get rid of all idolatry as the story goes on, but he did get rid of the servants and the priest of Bal by lying to them. Now, what is going on here? Is this acceptable? Well, I’d say it’s still a oh, how should you say this? It’s still breaking of the ninth commandment. Still breaking of the commandment to not lie, but at the same time, it is eradicating idolatry. It is eradicating false gods. So, take that for what it’s worth in this particular story. Just like with the previous stories that we covered that was protecting innocent life, this is also one of those other extremely serious things. Idolatry in other words. But all in all, the command is do not lie. And I would say in my own opinion, the way I read scripture is do not lie for any reason or give false witness for any reason unless it is for the preservation of life. The age-old example goes back to World War II. If you’re harboring and protecting Jews in World War II and Nazis come to your door asking if you know where any Jews are. Well, do you go by the strict adherence of the scriptures and tell them, “Yeah, there’s Jews in my back closet.” Or do you say, “No, I don’t know where any Jews are.” In order to protect innocent life. That’s what I’m saying. When it comes down to protecting innocent life, we have scriptural precedent for lying and setting aside that command temporarily just to protect innocent life. But even within Judaism, there is a concept known as pua nephesh. And this is pretty much the preservation of life or setting aside of the commands for the preservation of life. We went over this a little bit in last year’s adultery teaching. But let’s go over it again just in case some of you all missed that. But here from wikipedia.org, puok nephesh. Paku nephesh which means saving a soul or saving a life is the principle in halaha or Jewish law that the preservation of human life overrides virtually any other religious rule of Judaism. In the event that a person is in critical danger, most mitzvote or commandments become inapplicable if they would hinder the ability to save oneself or someone else.
However, there are certain exceptions. Some rules and commandments may not be broken under any circumstances and thus may require an act of self sacrifice. Go look at that article if you want some the nuances and the instances where you’re not allowed to set aside the commandments. But for the most part, when it comes to protecting a life, protecting an innocent life especially, it’s okay to set aside the commands or bend the commands at some time. And I think in my own personal opinion, there’s actually precedent from the teaching of Yeshua himself when he talks about who would not rescue a lamb who falls in a ditch on the Sabbath. that would technically be work and you’re not supposed to work on the Sabbath, but you’re preserving that life. And I think that’s something that Yeshua was teaching there is that when it comes to preserving a life, you can set aside or even bend the commandments in order to preserve that life. Another example from the teachings of Yeshua when he talks about how David and his men went into the temple and ate the showbread in order to rejuvenate themselves and to save their life. Once again, they weren’t saving other people’s lives. In that instance, they were saving their own lives. That same time that showbread was only for the priest and only for the temple. They weren’t supposed to eat it. But in order to save their life, they set that aside. and ate the showbread.
So I think that even Yeshua himself gives precedent and teaches this concept of preserving life even when sometimes it’s necessary to set aside or bend temporarily some of the commandments. However, in general, when we look at the concept of false witnessing and the ninth commandment or just lying in general, because once again, false witnessing is a type of lying, you should not do it unless it’s for saving life. And I think that’s what scripture really comes about and represents to us.
But as far as each other, we should not be lying or deceiving or false witnessing against each other.
Colossians 3:es 9-11. Do not lie to each other since you have put off the old man with his practices and have put on the new one who is renewed in knowledge according to the likeness of him who created him. where there is no Greek and Yehudi, circumcised and uncircumcised, foreigner, cyian, slave, free, but Messiah is all and in all. So when you come to Yeshua, when you become a believer, you become washed in the blood, become born again, you become a new man, a new person. You should not be like that old man. You should not be like that gentile that you used to be.
You’re no longer a gentile. but off the things like false witnessing, but off the things like lying and put on that new man in Yeshua, the one who tells the truth and acts righteously toward his brothers. So, in summary, you do not bear false witness against your neighbor. That is the ninth commandment. Straightforward, plain and simple. It comes from Exodus 20:16 and Deuteronomy 5:20.
The two words that we briefly covered and looked at some of the entries for are Shakare and Kazav. That is Strongs H8267 and Strongs H3577 respectively.
Truth is foundational to bring about justice and to establish trust and confidence in a society, in a family, in a community, wherever you have it. Truth is necessary to bring about good and righteous things.
All false witnessing or testimony is lying, but not all lying is false witnessing. both lying and bearing false witness are didactically or specifically condemned in scripture. And we went over just a few of the verses which directly and straightforward condemn both lying and false witnessing. There’s plenty of others, but we went over a few of those which illustrated the point beautifully. False witnesses were to be punished with the same sentence as that which was sought after for the accused. We went over and looked at that in scripture and we also looked at Josephus relating the very same thing in his writings of the antiquities of the Jews. Scripture illustrates that preserving life, the ku nephesh is one reason to turn a blind eye to lying. We see the Hebrew midwives when they were preserving life. There was a blind eye turned to their lying which was done in order to preserve life. We see Rahab when she lied to preserve the lives of the spies. There was a blind eye turned to her lying because she was saving lives. And that is the only exception that I can see in my opinion to set aside the commandment to not lie. And finally, on the whole, we should not sin by bearing false witness or lying. Like I said, the only exception I can see is to preserve life. And that is a very an extremely rare circumstance or especially in the modern world. Maybe not in some other places around the world which are war torn and things like that. But we should not lie ever unless it is to preserve life. And that’s just the God honest truth.