Ten Commandments - 9th

You shall not lie

Exodus 20:16 ESV

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Fabrication

False

Falsehood

Deceits

Lying

Phony

Prevaricate

Untruth

Satan is called The Great Deceiver

The temptation of Adam and Eve started with a lie.

Proverbs 19:5 ESV

A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape.

Proverbs 25:18 ESV

A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow.

The fall started because of a lie.

Genesis 3:1–5 ESV

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Genesis 2:16–17 ESV

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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.”

Even a slight change, an addition to the truth can have severe impact.

The Pharisees took the commandments of the OT, like not working on the sabbath and they added to them what that looks like.

600 rules that needed to be followed.

Q: Lying for a good cause?

The Gibeonite Deception

Joshua 2:1–7 ESV

And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, “Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.” Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.” But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.” But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. And the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out.

Hebrews 11:31 ESV

By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

James 2:25 ESV

And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

God’s plans for Jericho were not fulfilled because of the lie that Rahab told, God’s plans were fulfilled despite the lies that she told.

The wall of Jericho fell down because the people marched around the city 7 times. Clearly God did not need Rahab to do anything and they would have succeeded.

She was praised for believing in God and choosing to turn her life around. She was in the lineage of Jesus himself.

Matthew 1:5 ESV

and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,

Q: Why is telling the truth so hard to do?

The truth shall set you free.

God is good and all truth is God’s truth so speaking truth is speaking God’s language, inversely speaking lies is the devil’s language

Q: How do we sometimes lie to ourselves?

Its painful to arrive at the truth that we have weaknesses, that we are not able to complete something, that something is our fault.

That the place where we are in life is a result of our decisions.

It would mean that we would have to face our shortcomings, our bad decisions and we would have to change.

It is good to realize those things.

You need to lose weight

You need to get smarter

You need to work harder

Girls arent interested in you.

Realizing the truth will allow you to face it and ask yourself. Ok, thats whats true right now, what can I do to change that.

Radical Honesty

Being open and completely honest about something with a person. If its on your mind to just tell them that.

Call for us.

Can we attempt to be completely honest with each other in this group?