The Call to Truthfulness

Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning, we're going to wrap up Deuteronomy chapter 19. We're going to be looking at verses 15 through the end of the chapter, all about how do you get witnesses and how do you make sure witnesses are telling the truth and things like that? So we could have some coffee or milk. We'll pray. We'll get into God's word.
OK, so you had your milk. I'm going to have my coffee. You're going to have coffee, too. Hmm. It's gotten cold. You may not like it. All right, that's good. That's good. Let's have some, well, we've had coffee. You ready to pray? Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. Thank you for what a gift it is to get to read your word and spend time together. Lord, we pray that you please help us as we read your word, that you would teach us, instruct us, let us walk in your ways in Jesus's name. Amen. All right. So Deuteronomy chapter 19, beginning at verse 15.
You ready? one witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits. By the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established. If a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, then both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who serve in those days. and the judges shall make careful inquiry. And indeed, if the witness is a false witness who has testified falsely against his brother, then you shall do to him as he sought to have done to his brother. So you shall put away the evil from among you. And those who remain shall hear and fear, and hereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you. Your eye shall not pity, life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
That's it. What do you think this passage was about? Oh, you weren't paying attention. OK, so you're ready. We'll work through it. So in the very first part. It's about versus 15 and 16. Well, first 15, sorry, verse 15, is that if there's somebody who's going to make an accusation, like say, oh, he stole from me or oh, he hit me.
And there's no evidence of it. Can I take the witness of one person? Nope, you have to have two or three. Yeah, if 100 people saw it, that's fine. But especially if it's going to be like a capital punishment where someone has to be put to death. Can you just take one person's word for it?
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You got to have witnesses, right? but if you're going to have somebody who's going to come to a law court and they're gonna stand before God and the judges and the elders the priests They're gonna stand there and there's gonna be judgment and you find out the person was lying What do you think should happen to that person who is found to be lying? bearing false testimony What do you think the Bible says can happen? Well, this, the judge is the one finding out the truth here. Yeah. So it's one of the witnesses who's lying or the, or one of the people who's bringing an accusation saying, Oh, let's say, Oh, he stole my money.
Let's say you, you really wanted Daniel's money. And so you came to mommy and daddy and you said, uh, Daniel stole my money when really it was his money. What do you think? And God's, if you were an Israelite back then, what do you think God's telling them should happen? Not only do you not get Daniel's money, but guess what? Now you have to pay him the money that you tried to steal from him.
Yeah, right. But now say instead of begging, she came to mommy and daddy and she said, Ellie stole that $5 from me. And she was just lying because she wanted your $5. Right. If she was telling a lie and we found out about it and she would have to pay the money that she was trying to get you to have to pay. Yeah. Yeah. And so this this is the law. Right.
And so it's so the whole point of this is that other people would see that and go, oh, boy, I don't ever want to lie like that. I don't want to bear false testimony because then it's going to hurt me. If they find out the truth, it's going to be bad. I'm going to get that instead.
Right. And. Well, we're not talking about the money that you may or may not have right now. Right. But the point is that they needed to have judges who were going to be just and they weren't going to just go, oh, you know what? It's not a big deal. You can lie in court and it'll be fine. No, no, no. No. When somebody commits perjury, which is lying under oath, you Yeah, when when there's perjury, when somebody lies under oath, the judge cannot take pity.
Right. Because they're they're not just they haven't just broken the law, but now they're even making it worse. Well, yeah, you just explained all of it to me. Yeah, right. We're talking about when people lie. Yeah. Can you see why God hates lying? Yeah. Can you see how it would ruin people's lives? Mm hmm. Yeah.
So I think you're calling mommy a pirate. Well, no, I didn't call her pirate, but I called her something else. Yeah, that was that was years and years and years ago. But I'm not going to live that down because I sinned when I did that. Yeah, I called her. I didn't call her a pirate, though. I called her.
Yeah, you were listening through the door, weren't you? Mm hmm. Yeah. Daddy wasn't nice to mommy then, was I? Did I love her like Jesus loved the church? No. Mm hmm. Oh, I was mad. I was mad at how she was behaving. And so I called her a name. And that wasn't good. I called her I called her a tyrant, not a pirate. And that and that was not loving. It wasn't good. I be tearing from your door.
Yeah, I know. Yeah, you told me. I hear a pirate. Well, you might have heard that because it's it's pretty close sounding. So so this is about bearing false testimony and how would they hear witnesses? Yeah. Well, what do you think we're called to do, Ellie? Well, I think we're to tell the truth. Yeah. Especially in witness bearing. Especially in witness bearing. Right. We're to promote the truth between man and man. We're to be those who would be like Jesus, who's the way, the truth and the light.
Yeah. You ready to pray? Yeah, of course you can go out of the room after we pray. OK, you ready to pray? OK. Lord, we thank you so much. That you'd call us to tell the truth. It's hard, Lord. Because the truth is ugly. Sometimes we sin. But Lord, we pray that we would be. Not just a land filled with just judges. but also truthful people. Lord, we pray that you would please help us to be salt and light in telling the truth, even though it may hurt us. Lord, please let us love you and follow you all of our lives in Jesus's name. Amen. Oh, may the God of all truth bless you as you walk in his ways. I'll see you next time. Can I say bye? Bye.