False witness

Image result for quotes on false witness

A story is told of two corrupt brothers who succeeded greatly in their businesses. One day one of them fell ill and was later diagnosed with cancer. Upon realizing that his brother was critically ill and would die sooner than later, he approached the local pastor with a proposal that he would donate a huge sum of money to the church if only the pastor would say at his brother's funeral that he was a saint. Eventually his brother died and on the day of the funeral, the pastor having accepted the challenge, looked for a way to say those unlikely words before the congregation. Finally he said,"Before we close this memorial service, I want to say that compared to his living brother, Joe was a saint!" ~ Ravi Zacharias


 Exodus 20:16  " You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. " Bearing false witness basically means misrepresenting the truth. It carries the idea of twisting or stretching the truth and not just limited to telling a lie. We can better understand this by reading another text that illustrates how false witnesses operate: Matthew 26:59-61  Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death,  60 but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward  61 and said, "This fellow said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.' "  
The words were true but the interpretation was wrong. These witnesses misrepresented the truth. Why? Because the Pharisees wanted to discredit Jesus to their own advantage. They knew very well that by doing so, they would gain an upper hand in the eyes of the people. How true this is today? Many resort to this tactic because they're motivated by supremacy. They believe that they would only go up if they bring others down. The ninth commandment prohibited bearing false witness on two grounds:

 1. This commandment protected the reputation of people from libel by others. In ancient Israel law, the judging of a person's guilt or innocence was based on testimony by faithful witnesses of at least two people (Deuteronomy 17:6,7). This was further made serious by a requirement that the witnesses would be the first ones to throw the stones that condemned the guilty man or woman for death so that his or her blood would be on their hands. Today, people easily get away with saying unqualified words about others because there are no consequences on their part.

 2. This command established the ancient system of justice on a firm foundation. The firm foundation of justice was investigation (Deuteronomy 17:2-5). False witnesses would undermine justice and therefore due diligence was a mandatory prerequisite if authorization of an execution was to be given. An investigation rather than gossip, determined the truth of any report of idolatry. Christians are obligated in the same breadth even in the New Testament to establish guilt on the testimony of two or three witnesses (Matthew 18:16; 2 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Timothy 5:19; Hebrews 10:28). 

 Closer home, Wambui Mbuthia wrote an article on the mysterious 'professional' eye witness who gave an eye-witness account of both the Nakuru air crash and the Kabati accident in 2017. In the former, he said he was a pilot and in the later, he claimed to be a businessman. Was he a credible witness? Your guess is as good as mine.

 Here's a warning for false witnesses:

 Image result for quotes on false witness

We will be wise to investigate any information that comes our way rather than playing a part in spreading unfounded rumors if justice on everyone is to prevail. Blessings!

Reference

Mbuthia, W. (2017, November 8). Kenyans react to the man who witnessed the Nakuru crash and Governor's accident. U Report.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MORE THAN YOU'LL EVER KNOW

Image
A story is told  of a man who whispered, "God, speak to me" and a bird sang but the man did not hear. So the man yelled, "God speak to me!" and the thunder rolled across the sky but the man did not pay attention to it.The man looked around and said, "God let me see you" and a star shone brightly but the man did not notice. So the man shouted, "God show me a miracle!" and a life was born but the man did not know. Finally, the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God and let me know that you are here!" whereupon God reached down and touched the man but the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on. ~Author Unknown~ Moral of the story; don't miss out on a blessing because it isn't packaged the way you expect.  This is what the psalmist taught in Psalm 1:1-2 "Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;  2 But his delight is i...
Read more

Same Presence, two different realities

Image
Morning by Morning devotion is inspired by the scripture in Isaiah 50:4  "The Lord GOD has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned."   There are many treasures found in His word and I've decided to spend some time with Him so that He may teach me. In our devotion this morning, we're going to look at three different passages of scripture where God's presence produced two different realities as we seek to find out why?  1. In Exodus 14:19-20    " A nd the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them.  20 So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that nig...
Read more

Bad Name

Image
The only thing worse than bad health is a bad name ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez I remember growing up in a well-knit neighborhood where the elderly were allowed to correct and advise every young person irrespective. I remember in particular how all the parents in our estate unanimously warned all their children against one single boy whose name was always associated with evil. Such was the case with Balaam. This man was bad news!   His name in the scripture always brings a bad taste to the reader's mouth.  From Balaam's story in Numbers 22-24, we're taught in various places in the scripture to avoid:  a. The error of Balaam Jude 1:11  W oe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.   Balaam epitomized the sin of greed. The error of Balaam was that being a pagan prophet and an enemy of God, he believed that he could profit from doing the work of ...
Read more

Permission granted

Image
It is almost impossible not to cause an accident when you ignore the red light especially in areas with heavy traffic. I have noticed that until recently, residents of Nairobi  did not observe these signs explaining why we had numerous accidents. There's a cunning resemblance between how the green light turns on just before the red light and how God gave the permission just before he gave the restriction in Genesis 2:16,17. However, in his quest to ignore the huge "STOP" sign, Adam plunged us all into great trouble.  From the scripture we are seeing how in His great grace, God gave permission before He gave restriction. It is equally worth noticing that the permission was broad (of every tree) v.16, while the restriction was narrow (of the tree...)v.17. It's amazing how their curiosity for the restricted made them miss out on the splendor of the permitted. The entire beautiful garden of Eden that they lived in was now just a beautiful memory simply because their...
Read more

YOU FIRST

Image
Every government on the face of the earth is responsible for setting the standard of the various goods and services used in its country. This is normally done through the establishment of different institutions tasked by the government to undertake this very important duty. For example, in Kenya  the institution tasked with the preparation of standards relating to products, measurements, materials, processes, e.t.c. and their promotion at national,regional and international levels among other responsibilities is KEBS (Kenya Bureau of Standards). With the same breadth, the heavenly government sets the standard for acceptable worship. Genesis 4:3-5 " ... Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD.  4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering,  5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.   reminds me of a lesson we learn...
Read more

Free - dom

Image
If the fish wants to enjoy freedom outside the environment of water, it will die. Its freedom is limited within the water. The same is true of us; our freedom is always found within the limitations of what God has created us to be and become. Yes! our freedom is limited within the will of God. Free-dom like king-dom operates within a certain domain. True freedom has limits and boundaries.  We see this playing out for the first time in  Genesis 2:16-17   And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;  17 "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."   Adam and Eve ignored these guidelines and we all have felt the serious consequences of that one mistake. In today's devotion I'll address a few issues in our society where many have overstepped their bounds all in the name of freedom. On sexual purity,  Hebrews 13:4  say...
Read more

What shocked the wise men?

Image
Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I believe the same is true for many of us. I love the carols, decorations, movies and all that goes with this season. However, reading through Matthew 2:1-18 one easily comes to the realization that the events surrounding the birth of Jesus produced great tension. I'm particularly intrigued by the bewilderment that the wise men found themselves in. Matthew profoundly shares the three major  things that shocked them and thereby helping us understand how God works.  1. The wise men were shocked to learn that Jesus was not born in Jerusalem  Matthew 2:1-2  Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem ,  2 saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him."    Going by the question they asked, it almost appears like the wise men expected to be direc...
Read more

KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY

Image
Carolyne Chebet's article with The Standard newspaper (2018) stated that cases of rangers being attacked and killed by wildlife have been acknowledged and feted for international awards. She said that the Chinese Billionaire Jack Ma, through Alibaba foundation rolled out awards for front line rangers in Africa based on their threats and challenges. Well, 16 Kenyan rangers were among those feted. We salute all our brave rangers and soldiers all over the world for they put their lives on the line just to keep us safe.  In my study this morning, I came across two people who also died in the line of duty. Unfortunately for them, their premature death was occasioned by their negligence and disobedience. In Leviticus 10:1-2 "Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them.  2 And fire came out from the presence of the LOR...
Read more

"Loading..."

Image
"Appreciation alters how you perceive and interpret what happens to you."  Noelle C Nelson; Jeannine Lemare Calaba, The Power of Appreciation: The Key to a Vibrant Life  A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said :  ' I am blind, please help.'  There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words. Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write? "The man said, " I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way." I wrote : ' Today is a...
Read more