47 Days of Justice 2024 - Day 33: Many injustices are perpetrated through false accusations.

“One day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work. She came and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, “Come on, sleep with me!” Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house. When she saw that she was holding his cloak and he had fled, she called out to her servants. Soon all the men came running. “Look!” she said. “My husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to make fools of us! He came into my room to rape me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream, he ran outside and got away, but he left his cloak behind with me.” She kept the cloak with her until her husband came home. Then she told him her story. “That Hebrew slave you’ve brought into our house tried to come in and fool around with me,” she said. “But when I screamed, he ran outside, leaving his cloak with me!””

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭39:11-18‬ ‭NLT‬‬

My uncle once told a story about a woman who had falsely accused her pastor of some sort of bad behavior. As time went on she became convicted over her lies. She told the pastor that she wanted to make things right and he agreed to meet with her to talk about it. Upon coming to talk to him, she was confused to find that he had a large fan blowing and was holding a feather pillow in front of it. When she asked what the meaning of this was, the pastor took a knife and cut open the pillow in front of the fan. As you can imagine, the feathers flew everywhere, even going out the open door and beyond. He then said to her, “If you can go recover each of those feathers, then you can make this right.”

Now, what was the pastor’s point? The accusation she had made against him had already gone so far, into so many unknown places, there was no way, in the natural, to make it right.

Certainly a person guilty of such behavior, should repent before the Lord, along with making every effort to withdraw what they have said, to everyone to whom they have said it. But sadly, the lie will forever be out there somewhere.

God looks with great disdain on those who engage in false witnessing. In fact, it earned its way into the 10 Commandments:

“You must not testify falsely against your neighbor.”

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭20:16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

When instructing the children of Israel, the Lord put quite a penalty on being a false witness.

“If a malicious witness comes forward and accuses someone of a crime, then both the accuser and accused must appear before the Lord by coming to the priests and judges in office at that time. The judges must investigate the case thoroughly. If the accuser has brought false charges against his fellow Israelite, you must impose on the accuser the sentence he intended for the other person. In this way, you will purge such evil from among you. Then the rest of the people will hear about it and be afraid to do such an evil thing.”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭19‬:‭16‬-‭20‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The Bible is fraught with examples of false accusations being used by evil people to get rid of their enemies.

Jezebel used false accusers to get rid of Naboth when he refused to sell his vineyard to Ahab.

“So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the elders and other leaders of the town where Naboth lived. In her letters she commanded: “Call the citizens together for a time of fasting, and give Naboth a place of honor. And then seat two scoundrels across from him who will accuse him of cursing God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death.””

‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭21‬:‭8‬-‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The Jewish leaders not only got rid of Jesus through false accusations, many early Christians were abused, even killed, because of lies told on them. Such was the case for the first Christian martyr, Stephen, when he bested some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves.

“But one day some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. They were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia. None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke. So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen, saying, “We heard him blaspheme Moses, and even God.” This roused the people, the elders, and the teachers of religious law. So they arrested Stephen and brought him before the high council.”

‭‭Acts 6‬:‭9‬-‭12‬ ‭NLT‬‬

After preaching quite a sermon to the high council, Stephen was summarily stoned.

Jesus promised that there is great reward for those who faithfully endure false accusations.

“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭5:11-12‬ ‭NLT‬‬

When facing false accusations, let’s take hold of this promise to the people of God:

“But in that coming day no weapon turned against you will succeed. You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you. These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the Lord; their vindication will come from me. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭54:17‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Make no mistake, people do often use their tongues as a weapon. Tragically, that weapon has assisted many injustices and destroyed many lives.

As a practical statement: Let us be careful not to be guilty of spreading false information. Some juicy tidbit “just too good not to share,”may be the undoing of some innocent soul.

Remember, false accusation is the devil’s work, let’s not assist him.

We see in our opening scripture that Joseph, having spurned the overtures made by Potiphar’s wife, is being falsely accused of attempted rape! There’s a saying, “Hell has no fury as a woman scorned,” and Joseph certainly found this to be true the hard way. But, Potiphar has seen how trustworthy Joseph is; surely he’ll give him the benefit of the doubt….

Peace to you.

Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!

#resolveforhim #47DaysOfJustice