And God spoke all these words, saying:
- “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
“You shall have no other gods before Me.
- “You shall not make for yourself a carved image–any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
- “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
- “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.
“For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
- “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
- “You shall not murder.
- “You shall not commit adultery.
- “You shall not steal.
- “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Exodus 20:1-17, NKJV
Essentially and for most purposes, it requires that we be truthful.
In the culture of the day, witnesses were required to affirm truths. For a person to be convicted of murder, for instance, two witnesses were required — if I’m not mistaken, of course.
So bearing false witness would be testifying untruthfully about your neighbor.
The commandment stems from the fact that God is Truth, that Jesus is Truth, and that the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of Truth. Untruth is, essentially, an offense to God’s nature.
We never did get #9 quite right. What does it mean?
Referring to Rahab, Gill comments on Josiah 2:5 that “she might not scruple telling a lie, being brought up a Heathen, and being done with a design to save the lives of persons that belonged to a people she was persuaded were the people of God, and to whom he had given the land; though her lies are not to be justified; evil is not to be done that good may come; nor are men to tell lies one to another upon any account; but these sins, with others, the Lord forgave her.”
Evil is never justified, but it can be forgiven.
And as Dr. Gill points out, Rahab was at the time a heathen and likely wouldn’t have thought twice about telling a lie.
So, hypothetically speaking of course, let’s say a rapist enters your house and wants to know where your wife is. Do you tell the truth and let him find her, or do you lie to him and prevent him from raping her?
Did Rahab sin when she hid the Israelite spies and lie to those seeking them in order to kill them?