by David Chadwick

"A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape… A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish." Proverbs 19:5,9

Today, I want to look at two verses from Proverbs 19 that are very similarly worded and carry the same message. Verse 5 says, "A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape."

Then, almost to make sure we get this truth solidified in our heads, Solomon essentially repeats it verbatim in verse 9, which says, "A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish."

One of my friends, who has a PhD in theology, once said, "If God tells you something once in his Word, take it seriously. If he says it twice, you'd better pay attention and obey it! It's very important to God!" In these two verses, God says the same thing twice with only a few verses separating the two! So we had better pay attention!

So what is God trying to say here? Someone who lies, who bears false witness, will not go unpunished. Someone who breathes out lies will not escape God's judgment but will perish.

We live in a culture where lies are rampant. Deception is commonplace. In fact, I would say it is more common to twist and deceive than to be truthful. People love themselves and pandering to the crowd more than they love the truth.

Every judicial system in the world is dependent on the truth and on truth-tellers. It is heavily reliant on strong witnesses and accurate recollection of TRUTH. God, as the supreme judge and jury, is no different. He places a very high value in Scripture on accurate witnesses and on the truth!

It hurts when lies are told against us and are seemingly never corrected. But don't become discouraged. God will deal with every idle word (Matthew 12:36-37) and every lie raised against us! Every lie stated by someone will one day be held accountable before a holy God.

May we always be people who speak truth. Let your yes be yes and your no be no (Matthew 5:37). Jesus said, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31-32).