“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
Exodus 20:16, NKJV
Like our last commandment regarding stealing, this commandment seems very clear, and quite obvious. And like many of the commandments that we have examined, this one is often misunderstood. Most people interpret this commandment as saying “You shall not lie.” And this interpretation makes sense! Should we lie? No! In fact, our adversary, Satan was once referred to by our Lord Jesus as the “Father of Lies”. In speaking with the Pharisees, who were trying to trap him through attacks and deceit, Jesus said this:
“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
John 8:44, NKJV
So it stands to reason that lying would be one of the key acts spoken against in the commandments. But is it really? Let us examine the commandment again:
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
Does the commandment mention lying? Yes. But is it a broad injunction against the act of lying? No, it is not. It is a very specific aspect of lying – that of bearing false witness against one’s neighbor. Since this is such a short commandment, let’s examine several of the words.
לֹֽא־תַעֲנֶ֥ה
“You shall not עֲנֶ֥ה (`anah)”
`anah means to speak, or testify. Examining the first mention, we find the following interesting passage. The context is a visitation by God to Abraham, in which He communicates to Abraham His immediate plans. Sodom and Gomorrah are nearby, and these two cities were full of wickedness. God is visiting these two cities in order to destroy them with His righteous wrath:
Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way. And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” And the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”
Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”
Then Abraham answered and said, “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five?”
So He said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.”
Genesis 18:16-28
God has plans to judge Sodom. He is the Creator of all Heaven and Earth. Does He owe it to anyone to reveal any of His plans? Of course not! I find it absolutely fascinating that He would choose to tell His plans to Abraham as if Abraham were a close friend. And, so he is! How blessed was Abraham that God considered him a friend to visit and relate with! And blessed are we when the Creator of the universe does the same with us in our minds and heart!
As it turns out, Abraham had a close relative, his nephew Lot, living in Sodom. Lot was a Godly and righteous man. So when Abraham heard what the Lord planned to do, he was immediately concerned about his nephew and Lot’s family! So it is no wonder that Abraham chose, very carefully, to speak out on his nephew’s behalf? The passage that contains our word עֲנֶ֥ה is the following:
Then Abraham עֲנֶ֥ה (answered/testified) and said, “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five?”
So, in essence, this testimony, as recorded in the first mention, is one in which someone is being either spoken for (as was Lot), or against. And in this case, the hearer of the testimony is the Judge – the One that holds the power of salvation and destruction – of life and death.
בְרֵעֲךָ֖
Our next word is רֵעֲ (rea`): “against/in (בְ) your (ךָ֖) neighbor (רֵעֲ)”, or “against your neighbor”
רֵעֲ rea` (ray’-ah) means an associate (more or less close). This is not simply another person, it is a person that one has had contact with – personal contact.
The word רֵעֲ comes from a primitive root, רָעָה (ra-ah), which, interestingly means to shepherd a flock: a primitive root; to tend a flock; i.e. pasture it; intransitively, to graze (literally or figuratively); generally to rule; by extension, to associate with (as a friend) (from OliveTree enhanced Strong’s Dictionary)
It is interesting to make note of the final kaph on the end of the word in our text (רֵעֲךָ֖). This ךָ֖ indicates that the associate is “your” associate. It now becomes possessive – not just any associate or friend, but “my” associate or friend! The King James version most often translates our word רֵעֲ as: brother, companion, fellow, friend, husband, lover, neighbor. Note the close relationships.
Let’s now examine the first mention of רֵעֲ:
Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
Gen 11:1-9, NKJV
Notice that, in this passage, we see all people working in unity with one another. In this case, the word, רֵעֲ, seems to indicate associates that are not only close, but also aligned in work and vision.
עֵ֥ד שָֽׁקֶר
Our next word is עֵ֥ד `ed (ayd); contracted from עוּד: a witness, or abstractly, testimony or a recorder. The root, עוּד `uwd (ood) means to duplicate or repeat; by implication, to protest, testify (as by reiteration); intensively, to encompass, restore (as a sort of reduplication) (OliveTree enhanced Strong’s Dictionary)
And what is the first mention of our word עֵ֥ד? Interestingly, this first mention takes us right back to the story that we spent so much time in in the last Commandment! Do you remember? It is the story of Jacob and Laban. We will pick up with Jacob’s strong indictment toward his Father in Law:
“These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. That which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it. You required it from my hand, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. There I was! In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from my eyes. Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”
And Laban answered and said to Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and this flock is my flock; all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne? Now therefore, come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me.”
So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. Then Jacob said to his brethren, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there on the heap. Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. And Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore its name was called Galeed, also Mizpah, because he said, “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent one from another. If you afflict my daughters, or if you take other wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us—see, God is witness between you and me!”
Then Laban said to Jacob, “Here is this heap and here is this pillar, which I have placed between you and me. This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, for harm. The God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, and the God of their father judge between us.” And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his brethren to eat bread. And they ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain. And early in the morning Laban arose, and kissed his sons and daughters and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his place.
Genesis 31:38-55
Did you notice all of the instances of the words “a witness”? This sets the standard for our word עֵ֥ד. It is something that sees – and has a story to tell. It is a story of truth, regardless of consequence. It is an eternal statement of fact.
עֵ֥ד שָֽׁקֶר
Our final word is שָֽׁקֶר, sheqer (sheh’-ker), which is simply an untruth, or by implication, a sham. It is a lie.
It is interesting to note that the first mention of שָֽׁקֶר is a turnabout of sorts. In this passage, Pharaoh chooses to increase the hardship on the Jewish people because he regards God’s words as false! Is it not interesting that the first use of the concept of a lie come from the father of lies?
Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ ” And Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.”
So they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”
Then the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor.” And Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor!”
So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, “You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words.”
Exodus 5:1-9
So we could now expand on these words and present this Commandment as such:
Do not testify about your close associate, neighbor, or friend stories of personal witness that are false.
Now that we have a new understanding of this seemingly simple Commandment, let’s take a look at the first recorded instance of the breaking this command:
Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”Genesis 3:1-5
Do you see it? The first breaker of this Command is none other than the father of lies, Satan, manifested as the serpent. And who was the object of the lie? None other than our Creator Himself! Satan used a deception that caused Eve (and through Eve, Adam) to question the Words of the Living God. And he continues to do so, even up to the present. If Satan is the primary and original perpetrator of this Commandment, then how does Christ fulfill the Command? By being the embodiment of the truth and the object of the false witness. Let’s examine how:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
John 14:6
Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered him, “Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.
John 18:33-38
As a side note, I find it very interesting that Pilate responded in the way that he did. This seems like a response that one would expect in today’s world: “What is truth?”
So Jesus is the embodiment of Truth, and the witness bearer of the Truth. And, as we shall see, He became the object of the bearing of false witness – from the most devastating of sources – His close friend. This was prophesied thousands of years in advance. Let’s take a look at some messianic psalms prophesying regarding His betrayal:
Fierce witnesses rise up; They ask me things that I do not know. They reward me evil for good, To the sorrow of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, My clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting; And my prayer would return to my own heart. I paced about as though he were my friend or brother; I bowed down heavily, as one who mourns for his mother. But in my adversity they rejoiced And gathered together; Attackers gathered against me, And I did not know it; They tore at me and did not cease; With ungodly mockers at feasts They gnashed at me with their teeth. Lord, how long will You look on? Rescue me from their destructions, My precious life from the lions. I will give You thanks in the great assembly; I will praise You among many people.
Psalms 35:11-18, NKJV
All who hate me whisper together against me; Against me they devise my hurt. “An evil disease,” they say, “clings to him. And now that he lies down, he will rise up no more.” Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me. But You, O Lord, be merciful to me, and raise me up, That I may repay them. By this I know that You are well pleased with me, Because my enemy does not triumph over me.
Psalms 41:7-11, NKJV
Do you see it? His betrayal came at the hands of His close associate and familiar friend. It was none other than one of His chosen twelve disciples – Judas Iscariot. Let us look to three of the gospels to examine the fulfillment of these prophecies:
Now His betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the One; seize Him.” Immediately he went up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed Him. But Jesus said to him, “Friend, why have you come?”
Matthew 26:48-50, NKJV
And immediately, while He was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now His betrayer had given them a signal, saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the One; seize Him and lead Him away safely.” As soon as he had come, immediately he went up to Him and said to Him, “Rabbi, Rabbi!” and kissed Him.
Mark 14:43-45, NKJV
And while He was still speaking, behold, a multitude; and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him. But Jesus said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”
Luke 22:47-48, NKJV
So Jesus was betrayed by His close friend and associate. But it didn’t stop there. There needed to be more false witness in order to convict Him of a crime worthy of death:
Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council sought false testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward and said, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’ ”
Matthew 26:59-61, NKJV
Now the chief priests and all the council sought testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but found none. For many bore false witness against Him, but their testimonies did not agree. Then some rose up and bore false witness against Him, saying, “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.’ ” But not even then did their testimony agree.
Mark 14:55-59, NKJV
Do you see that even the false witnesses were not able to bring an accusation against Jesus that was able to stand together and deserve the punishment they had chosen? Satan was almost thwarted in his bid to rid the world of Jesus. And it was only then that Jesus gave Satan (and the High Priest) what they wanted: the Truth.
And the high priest arose and said to Him, “Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?” But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!” Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, “He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy! What do you think?” They answered and said, “He is deserving of death.”
Matthew 26:62-66, NKJV
And what did the High Priest do with the Truth? The same thing that Pharaoh did in the first mention of the false witness: discard it as a lie. Satan used the High Priest in just the same way he did Pharaoh and the serpent – to discredit the King of Kings, Lord of Lords and the Creator of the world. And so Jesus was sentenced to the death that you and I deserve. A sentence that He could have easily escaped, but willingly accepted. The Truth allowed a lie to put Him on the cross so that we could inherit the gift of the life-giving Truth! Amen – Praise be to the Lord Jesus! Selah.
There are many other beautiful word pictures in this story that I have not presented here. See if you can recognize some of them in your own study. And may God richly bless your study of His Word until my next post!
YouJi