GOD’S MARRIAGE COVENANT – DON’T TARNISH TRUTH

“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour” Exodus 20:16

This command appears to be straightforward. “Don’t tell lies about other people,” but God’s intention goes much deeper than that. In Egyptian society there was terrible injustice because the Egyptians used false witnesses to get their own way. In the community of God’s people, God wanted justice for everyone.

This commandment is not so much about gossip, slander or starting rumours as it is about restoring humanity to people who obey God so that other nations would see God in them.

Behind the commandment not to lie is the Hebrew concept of darkness and light. We all have has a “yetzer harah”, an inclination to be greedy and selfish and to serve ourselves, not caring how we make other people feel. The “yetzer harah”, which they called “the evil eye” was anything that unravelled completion, and the “yetzer tov” – the eye of light – was anything that restored completion. If my words unravel completion, then it is darkness. What restores completion is light.

According to Genesis 1:14, God created the sun, moon and stars on the fourth day to determine time and seasons. How were the days measured in the first three days without them?

 Before the creation of physical light, there was second light – Genesis 1:3 – “And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.” The literal Hebrew translation is “Let Him who is the light shine.” There are two kinds of light, a physical light that allows me to see physical things and a second light that comes out of God, outside of space and time, out of spirit and has nothing to do with how we see or how we measure time.  It is a force that affects the way we live. It is a force that changes what we believe; that makes it not okay to kill, lie, steal etc.  Light is a force that brings things together, that reveals who God is and the best way to live, that holds the universe together. Jesus is that light.

God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. John 1:4 (a commentary on Genesis 1) tells us that Jesus is the light that came into the world to bring completion to us where darkness and disarray have unravelled our lives, Light reveals, a lie hides or twists the truth. A lie is the opposite of light so, to bear false witness is to bring harm and darkness to the other person and to yourself. A lie tears us apart because it goes against what holds the universe together.  A lie is a purposeful intent to deceive; a lie hides the truth.

Light frees us to be more complete; a lie creates slavery. The purpose of the Ten Commandments was to get us out of slavery. If a lie keeps going long enough it mingles with the person’s being and destroys him because he cannot distinguish between lies and the truth.