Exodus 20:16
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
Throughout all of Scripture, God is revealing His living Word. Everything God does or says comes to us through His Word. And the Word became flesh to reveal His Father in terms we could understand, and to serve as our Covenant Representative and indwelling, New Covenant Life. Therefore, we can see that God’s Word is The Truth that is contained in God and who comes to us from God. He contains the Fullness of Almighty God in Himself. And so, it is in Him and from Him that God requires us to live and operate at all times. That being the case, if our thoughts, words, choices, actions, reactions and interactions do not flow out of, and embody, God’s indwelling living Word, then we are bearing false witness in all that we do. And we are living a lie.
Perhaps seeing the ninth commandment, and all the others, in this way, will help us realize that all the commandments are intimately linked to how we respond and relate to, and interact with, God’s living Word made flesh, Messiah Yeshua. We are made to be the image and likeness of God’s Truth, as it is revealed, contained in and given to us by and through Him. So God is ultimately concerned with each human being’s attitude toward, and relationship with, His Son, the living creative Word of God.
With this in mind, let us consider the ninth commandment as it relates to those precious and vitally important disciples that Yeshua has called to serve Him as His image and likeness. In light of what we just said, it’s easy to see that the commandments come into play whenever we interact with our neighbor… any neighbor… including ourselves, and our fellow humans and God, who continually reveals Himself and reaches out to us through His Word, our Messiah. We are not to live a lie or speak a lie, or try to twist or disfigure or mar or change God’s Truth and Reality that are contained in and revealed through His Word. In Him is contained all the Truth that concerns us and the other humans that were created to serve God as His image and likeness. We are all made to embody and reflect our indwelling God and His ways – under the guidance of His Holy Spirit – in perfect alignment with Truth, as found and embodied in Yeshua.
So if God’s living Word and Holy Spirit are not free to live and rule within us and operate in God’s Truth through us, we are failing to live and operate as God’s image and likeness. And if we fail to do that, we are operating in worldly radical independence from God. Thus we are bearing false witness… to ourselves, to God, and the rest of His Creation. So, if we’re in that God-less, radically independent state of being, it doesn’t matter what else we may do, or how we try to do it. Whether it is more or less ‘decent’ and ‘nice’ behavior, or whether it is vicious and demonically destructive, in either case, we’re failing to meet God’s Perfect Standard of Righteousness.
So the ninth commandment involves much more than merely cautioning us against ‘telling fibs’ or perjuring ourselves, or slandering our neighbors. This commandment requires us to serve as God’s true image and likeness in our heart of hearts. We are made to reflect the Truth that is in His Word with precise, accurate integrity. Imagine God’s living Word made flesh, saying the following to His Heavenly Father:
Psalm 31:4-5
“You will pull Me out of the net which they have secretly laid for Me, for You are My Strength. Into Your hand I commit My spirit; You have ransomed (resurrected) Me, O Lord, God of Truth. (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Notice that as His Perfect Humanity was dying on the Cross, Yeshua, God’s living Word, fulfilled the Truth contained in the above text through His death and resurrection. The text, like so many others, is thus a revelation of our Messiah. All the time He was here serving as our Perfect Representative, He was limited to operating in our human weakness and dependency upon God. We have to live that way because we are ‘the living dead,’ thanks to Sin; but He had to live that way because He identified with us in order to represent us before God.
Yeshua Reveals and Fulfills Father’s Perfect Plan and Provision
Yeshua is the Source of Life! Nevertheless, as our Covenant Representative, He too had to look continually to His Heavenly Father and be completely subject to His Holy Spirit. God had to be His Strength and only Source for everything He needed, just as He must be for us. To represent us legally and properly, Yeshua had to identify with, and live as…one of us all the time He walked the earth. But regardless of what His demonic and human enemies tried to do to destroy His faith and prevent Him from fulfilling His God-given mission, Yeshua remained true to His Father and obedient to His Holy Spirit. Not even once, did He break away from God and try to take independent, self-originated action. If He had done so even one time, He would have sinned like the first Adam did, and the Serpent could have legally claimed the right to dominate and kill Him too. But Yeshua resisted, persevered and overcame the Serpent!
Romans 5:18-19
“So then as through one transgression (by the first Adam) there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness (by the Last Adam) there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.” (Amplification added.)
So as His Perfect, Righteous Human life’s blood was being poured out in Atonement, to the last drop, our Representative entrusted His spirit into His Father’s care. In those agonizing, excruciatingly painful moments, while His Humanity was being stripped of everything, including his earthly existence, Yeshua continued to be as one with God, worshipping and obeying and embodying His Father, in the Holy Spirit and in Truth. Nothing could prevent Him from being God’s Human Mirror, His Perfect Image and Likeness:
Luke 23:44-46
“It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, because the sun was obscured; and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ Having said this, He breathed His last.” (Emphasis added.)
And it is this same wonderful relationship with God’s Holy Spirit that He enjoyed as a Man, that through His Resurrection and absolute Authority over all of Creation (including the powers of Darkness) that He made it possible for all of His New Covenant disciples to have it as well:
John 14:16-18
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be IN you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (Emphasis added.)
1 John 4:6
“We (New Covenant apostles of Messiah Yeshua) are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know (are able to discern) the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error (deception).” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
John 4:23-24
“…An hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and Truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth.” (Emphasis added.)
The ninth commandment deals with what is actually happening inside of us when we decide, for whatever reason, to violate God’s Truth and manufacture false, alternate ‘realities’ to put in its place. Whatever we think, do or say, and even what we choose not to think, do or say, must be the embodiment of the Truth that God is our God and that His living Word and Holy Spirit indwell us, as our Lord and Eternal Life, and that whatever we are and do comes to us from Him. So to live and act in Spirit and in Truth, we must reveal and embody the Perfect Presence of Yeshua, who is God’s Eternal Truth and Reality. And we must do it out of Yeshua’s own Spirit-imparted Integrity and Purity.
The Wisdom of God as Revealed Through Yeshua
When our Master fills us with His Holy Spirit, not only are we equipped to be compatible with the nature of the Spirit of Truth that abides within us, we are to be led and directed by Him at all times, to embody and reveal Yeshua, in everything we do. And so God’s Wisdom and Loving Compassion equip us to have the mature discernment we need, to know when we should speak, what we should say, and when we should remain silent. Because disciples must operate in this dark, dangerous, demon-possessed world, God Himself must be with us to protect and guide us at all times. So notice how the ninth commandment came into play in the following incident in John’s Gospel, and how Yeshua observed it with such wisdom, discernment, strategy and integrity:
John 8:4-8
“…They said to Him, ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?’ They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’”
Throughout that critical, danger-filled interchange, the Holy Spirit was leading and guiding Yeshua and enabling Him to handle the truth about Himself, and Israel, and the poor adulterous woman, and her accusers… in light of the full meaning of God’s Torah commandments. He did it with incisive, relentless accuracy and laser-like, piercing holy discernment. Deadly enemies surrounded our Master. In their hearts, they intended to use Torah texts, such as Deuteronomy 13, as a means to find fault with Him so that they could legally get rid of Him. They were waiting for Him to say or do anything they could interpret as a violation of what God entrusted to Moses to put into the Torah. If they could do that, they would be able to condemn Him to death…legally.
This was the deadly dynamic that was playing out during most of Yeshua’s earthly teaching and preaching ministry. He and His disciples were always under the most intense scrutiny imaginable. And such was the case during this incident. Yes, the woman was guilty. And the accusers were doing everything they could to try to pull Yeshua into the middle of that issue so they could force Him to declare Himself as either being with the Law, or against it, according to their understanding of what the Torah was demanding.
God’s Requirement – The Whole Truth
So this was the situation: the accusers were dealing with something that was ‘true’. The woman was guilty and the Torah commandment had been violated. But, they were only focusing on a part of God’s Whole Truth. There were other things that are true that they studiously ignored and bypassed. So what they were doing lacked integrity; it was not the Whole Truth. Therefore, it was a demonic lie. These hyper-religious, legalistic men were not standing by God; they were trying to drag His living Word into a no-win situation. They were not operating under the influence of the Holy Spirit’s discerning wisdom and prompting. They were under the influence of the Father of Lies. That’s why they were so anxious to publicly expose the woman’s sin. Then they could trap Yeshua into either helping to kill her, or publicly go against the Torah. And of course, they were doing all of this under the pretense of being faithful and obedient to God and upholding His Torah.
They were following the letter of the Law, but only in one respect. However in their hearts, they were grossly violating God’s Love and His Spirit’s intent. God’s Perfect Self-less Love is the underpinning of the entire Law. So the ninth commandment, and all of the others, can’t be properly understood and observed, unless we are truly seeing and operating out of the Whole Truth. The Whole Truth includes the Spirit-imparted Love, Mercy, Compassion and Covenant Faithfulness of God! God sent His living and written Word to cover our nakedness, and reconcile with us and deliver us from all Sin and all demonic domination. The Torah is His instrument for revealing the covering forgiving, cleansing, redeeming and restoring that His Word was sent to be to us! He didn’t come to disgrace and destroy us! He loves, cherishes and agonizes over us!
So this deadly tension-packed situation was about much more than whether or not the woman committed adultery. And the spirit underlying the actions of her accusers was proving to be radically opposed to God’s Holy Spirit. Those men were far from doing what they wanted people to think they were doing. They were convoluting and confusing the situation… adding other levels and factors to it. Thus they were not upholding God’s Righteous Holiness; they were setting a trap for His living Word! And they too were sinning, even while they kept focusing all attention on the woman’s sin.
So when Yeshua stooped down and wrote on the dust of the ground with His finger, these hyper-religious ‘Torah experts’ would not have been able to escape the association that Yeshua was making with something else that was in the Torah. When they saw Him writing with his finger in the dust, they would have had to remember what Moses said about God’s living Word in the book of Exodus:
Exodus 31:18
“When He (God’s living Word) had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.” (Emphasis added.)
So this is what was happening: the living Word of God, who centuries before, had written the commandments on stone tablets, and entrusted them to Moses, was now kneeling before them… and writing once more, with His finger, on the dust of the ground. It was as if He was saying to them:
‘Israel, you are this dust…and I am here to redeem and cleanse and provide new, righteous hearts for you. I am here to fulfill My Father’s New Covenant Promise to write His Law on your innermost being, on your heart of hearts! But even now, you refuse to repent and come to Me so that I can be your Righteousness. Instead, you choose to hide behind your phony religiosity, thus choosing to remain slaves to the Serpent!’
Perhaps this is why Yeshua repeatedly cautioned His disciples that on His account, they, and all the rest of us, would suffer persecution. And no doubt that is why He commanded them to follow His example and to live as He lived… operating at all times, not by slavishly trying to observe the letter of the Law, which fallen flesh so easily misunderstands, but to abide always under the Authority and Guidance of His Father’s Holy Spirit:
Matthew 7:6
“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”
Matthew 10:16-20
“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” (Emphasis added.)
All of this was involved in this incident of the woman that violated the seventh commandment. And the way Yeshua responded to the danger presented by the decapitated men that surrounded Him and the woman, shows us how He will handle our situations from within us! He is showing us the true meaning of the ninth commandment that forbids us all from bearing false witness… to ourselves, to God, and the people we encounter. We must allow God, who indwells us through His Holy Spirit, to reveal His Word to us and in us, so that the Word can guide us and observe His own Law, according to His Wisdom and Discernment, from within our yielded flesh!
The woman’s self-righteous accusers were unbelievably biased. They were pursuing a hidden agenda. Therefore, they were very selective concerning which portions of the Law they highlighted, and which they chose to ignore. They focused exclusively on the woman’s act and the penalty the Law said she deserved. But they ignored all the other elements of the Law that had to be considered to deal with the matter according to the Whole Truth…truthfully.
It bears repeating that there are many things in life that are ‘true.’ But the way fallen flesh often deals with true things is self-serving, rather than God-serving. In that case, people pick and choose which aspects of the Truth they will uphold, and which they will ignore. And when they do that, they bear false witness by failing to uphold ‘The Whole Truth.’ And because they do it in the Perfect Presence of Almighty God, they won’t get away with it when the time comes for God to judge them. His living and written Word will be the standard against which they will be judged.
In this case, the accusers were publicly divulging a true fact: the woman did commit adultery. And the Law did require such people to be stoned to death. But Yeshua’s response pierced and gored the accusers to the core:
John 8:7-8
“…when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court.”
The Lord reminded them that they, and every other child of the first Adam, are just as guilty as the woman, and they were therefore, also liable to the same death sentence! There is not one of us that can say that he or she is innocent! This fact is part of the Whole Truth! So when we deal with the sin of one, we must deal with it in the context of the sin, guilt and condemnation we all share! That’s why God’s Word also forbids us from judging other people, as if we were Almighty God:
Luke 6:36-38
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”
Matthew 6:12-13
“And forgive us our debts (sins), as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil…” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Yeshua was sent to cover, protect and redeem us all, not just some of us. If that were not the case, He would automatically, immediately be forced to condemn every human being that inherited Adam’s living death state, including Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David and all the prophets, and even his own mother and immediate family. All humans, except for Yeshua, inherit Adam’s Sin state and are condemned to death from birth! All of us, except for Him, are corrupted and mortally wounded by Sin. He alone is the Resurrection and the Life. And because those qualities come only from Him, He is the one the rest of us need so desperately and so continuously.
The Whole Truth is What Sets Us Free!
The Whole Truth is, that in the first Adam, all have sinned and all fall short of the Glory of God’s Perfect Righteousness. Therefore all are guilty and deserve the death penalty incurred because of our inherited ‘decapitation’, which is, radical independence from the Word of God, who is our Creator! We were all born into that state! BUT… the Word of God was sent to represent all of us in God’s Covenant… so that we could ALL be redeemed and exonerated and set free, including the poor adulterous woman!
Can you see the enormous difference between the demonic murderous spirit that was driving these men, and the Spirit of God that was guiding and speaking through Yeshua? The judgments, thoughts, agendas and actions of the woman’s accusers were far removed from God’s full Counsel. They lacked His Wisdom, Love, Compassion and Redemptive Mercy. Thus, despite their religious trappings, they were acting in opposition to God’s living Word, who was there to cover, protect and redeem the Israelite woman who, unlike many of the rest of us, had the misfortune of being caught in her sin and was therefore, publicly exposed.
This is what the entire Bible is revealing about all of us. Those hyper-religious men were pretending to be loyal to God and His seventh commandment. But they were also refusing to repent and acknowledge their own Sin and guilt. Therefore they refused to recognize and embrace and obey and ‘follow’ Yeshua, the living Word of God! They would not admit that He was the very one who originally wrote that commandment on tablets of stone with His finger and entrusted it to Moses! The Giver of the Law was standing before them! Only He has the Authority and Power to forgive and redeem us, and only He had the Righteousness required to obey and fulfill the Law perfectly! But they rejected Him. And in our day, are there not many people with the same demonic self-righteous religious spirits that perpetuate the attitudes and practices of the men who wanted to stone the woman (and Israel’s Messiah) to death?
People like those accusers clench their spiritual eyes to God’s Whole Truth. And it is significant to remember that the meaning of the name, ‘Satan’ (HaSatan in Hebrew) is ‘The Accuser.’ The Serpent is what those men were embodying, despite their Israelite religious trappings. And by focusing exclusively on her act of adultery, while ignoring all the other facts involved, they were bearing false witness against themselves, against God, against that poor woman, and against all of the bystanders who were witnesses to all that was taking place.
And right there in their midst, the living Word that the Father had sent to cover the Sinful nakedness of Adam and Eve and of the entire human race, was now covering that poor woman and protecting her from their demonic venom! And while the self-righteous accusers were accusing the woman of violating the seventh commandment and seeking her destruction, they themselves were violating the sixth and the eighth and ninth commandments! That is what happens when we deal with something that is true in a way that twists and morphs it out of its proper, God-given, Entirety, and causes it to become something false.
The accusers proved that they were not truly concerned with God’s Honor and Righteousness. They didn’t give a fig about how He sent His Word to forgive, redeem, cleanse and restore His Righteousness to His image and likeness humans. Those men were embodying the Serpent that wants us all to be destroyed, and disgraced, and certainly, not restored.
So, true to what His Father had sent Him to do for Adam and Eve, instead of siding with the accusers, God’s living Word defended and protected her. Yes, she was guilty. But all the other people were equally guilty. But God’s ‘Coverer’ never loses sight of our true, God-given identity, purpose and destiny. He reacts to each one of us with our redemption, cleansing and restoration in mind. In that woman’s case, He didn’t obsess over one isolated aspect of the Law. He upheld and protected and proclaimed His Father’s Whole Truth because the Holy Spirit was enabling His Humanity to see the demonic spirits hiding behind the false religious fronts of those men. So, even while they tried to strip the woman of her God-given identity, purpose and destiny, Yeshua covered her and restored those things to her; but at the same time, He stripped the accusers and exposed their demonic self-righteous hypocrisy!
Genesis 3:15
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise Him on the heel.” (Emphasis added.)
In the Last Days, the world will be bombarded by myriads of religious ‘prophets,’ ‘experts’ and gurus, movements, organizations and theologies that will all claim to be ‘speaking the Truth.’ Many will focus on certain facts that are ‘true.’ But because they omit or reject other aspects of God’s Whole Truth, they will actually be operating out of demonic malice and extending the Serpent’s Darkness by violating the ninth commandment, as well as all of the others.
Freedom is Found in Yeshua Alone
Beloved, I hope you can see that the Whole Truth is a Person…God’s living Word. Only He contains the Fullness of Almighty God within Himself. And He lives in us to set the entire human race free from the coils of the Serpent and from Sin, Guilt and Condemnation and Death. And because the Serpent is intent on destroying us all, he continues to try to deceive us by beguiling us with ‘half-truths’ that sound and seem ‘so right.’ But half-truths actually mutilate, twist and destroy what God Almighty has established as His Whole Truth. This is why it is so important for us to remain connected to, and under the Guidance of, God’s Holy Spirit. The Spirit makes Yeshua real, and alive and actively fruitful in us and through us. He keeps us safely planted upon Yeshua, for He is ‘The Rock’ that contains and protects and fulfills God’s Entire Truth:
Proverbs 14:11-13
“The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish. There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of Death. Even in laughter the heart may be in pain, and the end of joy may be grief.” (Emphasis added.)
Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
John 16:12-14
“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into ALL the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify ME, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.” (Emphasis added.)
Matthew 7:21-27
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice Lawlessness.’
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the Rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the Rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.” (Emphasis added.)
The Holy Spirit is in us to guide us into God’s Whole Truth and equip us, by the Perfection that is in Yeshua, to meet God’s Perfect Standards. He also becomes our ‘Spiritual Eyes’ equipping us to see through all the demonic ‘smoke’ and to spot the concealed ‘mine fields’ that the powers of Darkness keep placing in our path. The Serpent will do everything he can to make sure none of us will finish our Exodus. He’ll keep trying to confuse, blind and dishearten us so that we give up and stop following our Master to the Ultimate Destination into which He has come to bring us. As the turbulence and conflict of the Last Days continues to escalate, we will have to be equipped with God’s Wisdom and Discernment, so that we can know when to speak and act and expose the powers of Darkness, and we must know when to ‘cover’ and ‘protect’ God’s beloved human beings from their deceptive traps. To be apart from our indwelling Lord even for a minute, is to be ‘spiritually decapitated’; and that always leads to disaster.
Fruitful Lives for God’s Eternal Glory
Genesis and Exodus reveal the spiritual war that rages between God’s Light and the Serpent’s Darkness. This conflict underlies everything that is going on in this fallen world. Keep this in mind whenever you are tempted to violate one of God’s commandments: Unless we are truly connected to and led by the Holy Spirit, we will be sucked into the delusion with which the powers of Darkness keep trying to enshroud the minds, hearts and lives of mankind. But if we remain under the guidance of God’s Spirit, He will cause Yeshua, our Resurrected Lord, to truly live and operate and produce the fruit of God’s Whole Truth from within us! In that case, the powers of Darkness will be powerless to do anything to harm us. Our Master won’t permit it. He will cover us with His absolute Authority and overwhelming Triumph over Satan, which are eternal. And that is why He is our only possible Covering, Protection and Armament in the sight of God.
1 John 4:1-6
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We (Yeshua’s Israelite New Covenant apostles) are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
The demonic powers dangle half-truths before our eyes in an effort to deceive, mislead and cause us to mutilate and violate God’s Whole Truth. So we need God’s Spirit to protect us, just as He protected our Master when He walked the Earth. This is why Scripture tells us in another place, we must be equipped to discern when to cover and protect, and when to expose and confront:
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
“There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—a time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to shun embracing. A time to search and a time to give up as lost; a time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; a time to be silent and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.” (Emphasis added.)
So let’s consider another instance in which Yeshua was prompted by the Holy Spirit to act very aggressively and forcefully, in public. But this time, He did not cover and protect; He confronted and exposed another group of men within whom the Serpent was operating:
John 2:13-17
“The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, ‘Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.’ His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume me.”
John 8:43-45
“Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My Word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the Truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the Father of Lies. But because I speak the Truth, you do not believe Me.” (Emphasis added.)
The Real Issue
So beloved, can you see what the real issue always is? The Father of lies rejects God’s living Word. So in that case, everything he does or says as he continues to reject and bypass God’s Word, is a Lie. And in this fallen world, the Serpent dominates myriads of decapitated people that he is able to manipulate and through whom he is able to work, speak and pursue his agendas. So, for humans to be able to speak and live God’s Whole Truth, God’s living Word must be our indwelling Life and Preeminent Lord! This is how the Holy Spirit of Truth will handle the entire range of God’s Truth with Heavenly Precision, Accuracy and Integrity. He is here to reveal Yeshua to us…and reveal Him living and working in us…so that He can reveal Yeshua through us, to the rest of Creation. Yeshua is God’s Light and God’s Truth! He is His Father’s Love and Compassion and Redemptive, Restorative Agenda! That’s why He never handles Truth in a way that strips, debases, condemns and destroys God’s humans. He strips, debases, condemns and destroys whatever leads to their harm, destruction and Death! The Serpent is the one that our Master is after. It is his head and works that God’s Word is here to crush!
Genesis 1:3-4
“Then God said, ‘Let there be Light’; and there was Light. God saw that the Light was good; and God separated the Light from the Darkness.”
This is how we can discern between the Light of God’s Holy Spirit of Truth, and the Darkness-producing tactics of the Father of Lies:
1 Corinthians 13
“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have (selfless agape) love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have (agape) love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have (agape) love, it profits me nothing.
(Agape) Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the Truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (Amplification added.)
Romans 13:8-10
“Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law (Torah). For this, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.” (Emphasis added.)
Perhaps now we can see how desperately in need of God’s Salvation this fallen, Sin-adoring world really is. Realize that even when fallen human flesh focuses on things that are ‘true,’ if it fails to act out of Yeshua’s indwelling Life, then it fails to act our of God’s Love and Covenant Faithfulness! Many man-made religions and organizations and governments survive and thrive by highlighting their pet half-truths and make them preeminent in the minds and hearts of their duped followers. But if they were truly fulfilling the commandments of the Law of Almighty God, it would be because they have submitted to the Authority of His Word and the Power of His Spirit. It would be because they allow God to live, rule and act from within their yielded flesh, according to all of the facts that are involved.
But as long as men and women remain radically independent of God’s Word, they are like branches that are cut off from their Vine. In that case, even the most seemingly wonderful, noble and ‘good, righteous’ acts they perform will be subhuman and unacceptable in the sight of our Creator. So anyone who acts in opposition to God’s living Word made flesh, automatically bears ‘false witness’ against God and against himself and against his neighbors. The ninth commandment requires all of mankind to be very sensitive to God’s Whole Truth at all times… in everything we think, judge and imagine. We must interact directly with our indwelling Lord in all things, and deal indirectly with other people in our lives in a way that reveals that God truly is loving them, through us. The way we think, act, react and interact must be the image and likeness of Almighty God and His Perfect Righteous, Compassion that flow out of His healing, restoring, and redeeming Nature. That’s why we must always be following His living Word.
As we’ve already seen, we can’t achieve such lofty levels of behavior simply by willing it or striving for it or by gritting our teeth and forcing our Sin-corrupted souls to undergo rigorous disciplines in order to try to ‘get there’ by our own efforts. Only God’s living Word, our resurrected Messiah Yeshua, is able to do this in a way that satisfies Almighty God. And so, if He is not truly living and operating from within us by the Power of the Holy Spirit…everything we do will be a lie in the sight of God and a false testimony to the people around us. No matter how religious and ‘spiritual’ and noble we may appear to be to other fallen men, as far as God is concerned, we are decapitated and dead. And that always falls short of His Perfect Standards.
So, this commandment, like all the others, does not focus primarily on us and what WE do… or how WE do it. It focuses on who is truly living and working from within our heart of hearts! God is concerned with how much of His beloved Son is free to live and act from within us, to share with us what is contained in the infinite eternal Treasury of His Perfect Finished Work of Creation and Redemption! As we said elsewhere, God wants to know: “How much of My Son (My living Word made flesh) is in you and in what you think, do and say?”
Philippians 2:12-13
“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who (through His living Word) is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure!” (Emphasis added.)
Colossians 1:26-28
“…that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of Glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete IN Christ.” (Emphasis added.)
Disciples of the Last Days MUST realize that when the Holy Spirit of Truth is truly free to operate within them… He will make sure that our risen Covenant Representative, Messiah Yeshua, is free to live and reveal Himself from within us. At the Judgment of Almighty God, it will not matter which philosophy or religion or self-proclaimed prophet we might have embraced and followed during our days in this world. All that will matter is what our relationship to God’s living Word and Holy Spirit truly was. It is through Him that God testifies to the fallen world. And so, when we embody God’s beloved Son in Spirit and in Truth, Almighty God is able to testify to Him and validate and endorse Him and prove that He truly did send Yeshua, and that He truly is Israel’s Messiah… and that He truly is the living Word of Almighty God, who became flesh, lived, died and rose from the dead! That is why His Son’s Resurrection Presence MUST be seen and experienced coming out of the crucified flesh of the New Covenant disciples! And when He truly is our Life, He, as only He can, will truly and completely fulfill God’s Perfect Law in our name.
Acts 3:3-7
“When he (the crippled paralytic) saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, ‘Look at us!” And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, ‘I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!” And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened.” (Emphasis added.)
“…but what I do have, I give to you…”
What did Simon Peter have that was now suddenly empowering and authorizing him to work such a miracle? Did he have a diploma from some arcane mystical academy of sorcery? Was it because he had rigorously disciplined his Sin-corrupted soul in order to delve into hidden mysteries and gain skills that finally enabled him to achieve supernatural powers? Was it because he attended a seminar and finally learned the formula of, ‘Five Biblical Steps to Triumphant Resurrection Healing?’ Was it because he had practiced his Israelite religion to such an exceptionally excellent degree that he earned the right to coax God into giving him extraordinary supernatural healing power?
No, it was none of that. What happened was that the time for the beginning of God’s Fulfillment of His New Covenant promises to Israel, was finally at hand. God, through His Resurrected living Word, was now beginning to operate from within these Israelite apostles and revealing Him, the risen Yeshua, from within their flesh! Peter had finally forsaken his original, living-death existence… that thing that in the past he had referred to as, ‘my life’. And in exchange, the Holy Spirit began to fill him with God’s living Word, Yeshua, and His Perfect Resurrection Humanity. Yeshua’s electrifying Presence and fruitfulness was coming from within Peter, John and the other apostolic witnesses of His Resurrection!
This is what all of God’s commandments in the Torah are about: The Resurrection Presence of Yeshua begins to appear as soon as we die to our original self-life! This is what God wanted to demonstrate to Israel in the barren, desolate wilderness. And it is what He has always had in mind to do for and through His chosen people throughout history! So the commandments, like all other revelations given in Scripture, are not primarily focused on improving human behavior and helping them achieve their goals and aspirations. They focus on allowing God to achieve His goals and aspirations! They focus on the Divine Intervention… the Divine Action…that MUST take place among the Sin-decapitated living dead humans of this fallen world. So it is from within true disciples of God’s Word who fully yield to His Authority and Reality, that God’s living Word will prove and back up all of His promises and claims.
Jeremiah 31:31-33
“‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the Covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My Covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,’ declares the Lord. ‘But this is the Covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will put My Law (living and written Torah) within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’”
It’s Always About Him, and Never About Us!
The revelation of the Gospel is not primarily about us. This is virtually inconceivable to humanistic, self-absorbed people. Nevertheless, we must remember that, because of Sin, we, in ourselves, are the living dead! So God sent His Son to bring the dead back to Life! Therefore, the revelation is about the awesome living Word of God! He is the Law Giver, and He must also be the Eternal Life which dwells within us in order to be the Law Fulfiller. He is the only Human that fulfills God’s Law to Perfection. So the Holy Spirit is given to us so that He can reveal and exalt YESHUA, the RISEN Lord of Glory, as He lives and operates from within, and in the midst of, His Jewish and non-Jewish New Covenant disciples, like Peter and John and the rest.
This is the miracle of God’s awesome Grace. His Word and His Spirit abide with us and in us… to prove that Yeshua is everything He claimed to be, and to prove that He is with us to cover us and empower us so that He can fulfill everything God promised that He would do! This is some of the awesome difference that exists between God’s Mosaic Covenant with Israel, and the New Covenant He promised to make with the very same people. The Sinai Covenant failed, but the New Covenant is going to be fulfilled to Perfection. What is the critical difference? It is the Messiah, of course! He is the Fulfillment that will consummate and display God’s Glory in the Last Days Finale of the Story of Salvation. He will do it through the disciples that will be equipped to embody their risen Lord:
Ezekiel 37:11-14
“Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to Life (with the Life that is in My living Word), and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it (by and through My living Word),’ declares the Lord.’” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
Obviously, since God requires us to fulfill His commandments based on His Love, with which He intends to bless us and every other human He creates… we dare not think, speak or act in ways that are calculated to deceive, misinform or take advantage of other people in any way. We are not allowed to twist or manipulate things that are true, in order to achieve self-gain or any immoral advantage. The ninth commandment forbids us from depriving our neighbors of the Whole Truth in ways that would do them harm, or defraud them, or do damage to any part of God’s Creation. The image and likeness of God must handle the Whole Truth with honesty and integrity and justice… and deal with Reality accurately, precisely and realistically. And that’s where the trouble comes in for decapitated people. They CAN’T do it, no matter how religious they try to become!
This is why our Master must train us to interact with His Holy Spirit in all things, at all times. We need God to abide within us so that He can guide and direct our steps, to make sure that His Plan and Interests and those of His beloved creatures are protected, enhanced and ‘gardened’ properly, at all times. And the wonderful News is, He is real…He is risen from the dead…and He is truly right here, right now…ready for you and me and the rest of us…to repent and open ourselves to Him, so that He can come in, take over, and please God to Perfection…in our name.