The world in which we live favours the telling of lies, not truth-telling. Our arch enemy, Satan, is the father and source of lies. He is the self-proclaimed god of this fallen world! On one particular occasion, Jesus rebuked certain listeners with these words, “For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

Friends, on a number of occasions during my six-years of service as a police officer I found myself in hot soup… not for telling lies, but for exercising the truth… “nothing but the truth, so help me, God!” At the police academy we were taught, trained, and examined according to the veracity of the laws of Queensland. However, I can still remember our squad sergeant saying to us, “After you graduate and are assigned a station, don’t be surprised that ‘out there’ the law at times is practiced with some flexibility.”

Practiced with some flexibility! It wasn’t long before I realised that our sergeant had greatly understated the “some flexibility” standard of truth being practiced by a number of police officers “out there”. Several years later, I was eventually pressured by my peers to resign from police service through my reluctance to sign-off on a minor traffic related incident report that had been sent to me for adjudication (I was at that time the Traffic Adjudicator of the police district). After examining the details in the report I respectfully disagreed with the reporting officer’s recommendation and returned the report to the issuing station to be amended accordingly. By doing so, I had knowingly signed a death warrant of my social standing with my peers. I knew my days as a police officer was quickly coming to an end.

I was pressured to turn a blind-eye in the exercise of my authority in order to protect an off-duty police officer who had been involved in the traffic incident. The cover-up would have saved his hide from sharing minor guilt with the driver of the other vehicle, and would have saved him from having to pay a paltry sum of $20… the going rate at that time for the infringement.

Friends, the world’s attitude to the truth today is the same since the day Satan was permitted to “control the world” [1 Jn. 5:19] through his dark, deceitful, and deadly lies.

Isaiah must have been one tough character, a man with the hide of a rhinoceros. He was a chosen handler of God’s truth. His life-long calling as a prophet was to advise the reigning kings of Judah the truth of God. Their obedience to the truth would provide, protect, and prosper the people of Judah. Sounds like an attractive arrangement? How did the reigning king/s of Judah respond to Isaiah’s truth-telling? What do you think? (Concluding Part 2 next week.)

Best wishes,
Bill Joukhadar