Proverbs 20:19 One who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a gossip.
I was shaking my head the other day when a news reporter was describing a new tell-all book about a person of celebrity status. The gist of the report was that this person was not who she made herself out to be, and the most profound secrets about her bad behaviour would be exposed in the book. First of all, who but God knows the deepest secrets and hypocrisies of us all? Plus, who can say they have all the facts about anyone? Are the readers of these gossip books so bereft of emotional life that reading the dirty laundry of a public figure is the only way they feel part of society? Yet, the writers of these titillating scandals bring in millions of dollars by tapping into the nosiness that is lurking within a segment of the population who need to know all the dirt and lascivious details of the rich and shameless.
There are whole media industries that cater to those who are hungry to know the worst about others and these platforms depend on the foundations of gossip. The very thing God asks us to avoid is the thing that is embraced with full vigour and passion. Prov. 20:19 One who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a gossip. Some might say, “This is all done in innocence and good entertaining fun.” Not so! If it happened to you, how would you deal with it? Slandering a person with half-truths can affect their lives and livelihoods for a long time. It does not take much for a lie to catch fire and burn the ears of a gossip, only to have the misinformation repeated. Solomon says that just a whisper can reach the ears of the king and you can be held responsible. Eccl. 10:20 Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird in the sky may carry your words, and a bird on the wing may report what you say. I wonder if the bird, in this case, might be Twitter.
If I can turn your attention to the most revealing tell-all book of all time. The Bible holds nothing back when it comes to revealing secrets. It tells it like it is and tells the truth about every situation. In the beginning, we have Satan lying to Eve and deceiving her and Adam into mistrusting the integrity of God. You can read how Cain premeditated the murder of his brother Abel, then tried to use the “I didn’t know what I was doing” defence with God who saw it all. You can read about the declining social moral decay within the world population to the point that every thought that came out of the hearts of man were evil continually. Gen. 6:5 The LORD observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.
Want more ugly stuff about the human condition? How about the cowardly report the ten spies brought back to the nation of Israel and ended up influencing the whole nation into not trusting God’s ability to deliver them? Except for a few Godly men, all the people ended up dying in the desert because of their misguided choices. We can’t forget to talk about King David who committed adultery with Bathsheba who ended up pregnant because of the affair. Then David plots and succeeds in the murder of Bathesheba’s husband Uria, to cover up the whole mess. The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. King David’s son Amnon, rapes his half-sister Tamar despite her saying, ” No do not do this!” 2Sam. 13:12 “No, my brother!” she said to him. “Don’t force me! Such a thing should not be done in Israel! Don’t do this wicked thing. Then when Amnon completes the crime of rape, he has nothing but hate for Tamar who is the victim. 2Sam. 13:14 But Amnon wouldn’t listen to her, and since he was stronger than she was, he raped her. 15 Then suddenly Amnon’s love turned to hate, and he hated her even more than he had loved her. “Get out of here!” he snarled at her.
Yes, there’s more. The revenge plot in this tell-all Bible is revealed. David’s son Absalon waits two years to get back at Amnon for what he did to Tamar. 2Sam. 13:28 Absalom told his men, “Wait until Amnon gets drunk; then at my signal, kill him! Don’t be afraid. I’m the one who has given the command. Take courage and do it!” The doublecrossing in murder plots, business schemes, and war games goes on for centuries right into the New Testament where we find out the very nature of the religious leaders is as corrupt as many governments in power today. This Bible tells and reveals all the sins that take place when we leave no room for God in our lives. The human condition is in a sorry state. The only way to be right with God is to hand over our lives to Him.
When Solomon said, “there is nothing new under the sun,” he was right. There is nothing new that can be found in the gossip tabloids, slander websites, and tell-all books in this world. It has all been done and said before. Only the characters change. The only way out, and the best part available to us all, is that God brings us to a place where we can repent and be forgiven of every imaginable sin there is. We can have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ the Lord. Eph. 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, Now this is a story worth telling. May God’s face shine on us all because we sure need it.
A timely word. Thank you