"Does God Condone Lying In Special Circumstances?"
Various Scriptures

(This Sermon was preached at Trinity Bible Church on September 1, 2002. This sermon was based upon a request to explain
this issue of lying in the Bible. All Scripture references used in this sermon are based upon the NASB^®, unless otherwise stated)

Introduction: Did you know that when it comes to our culture we have a vocabulary that has various words for lying? For example, according to the Encarta Dictionary a regular "lie" is to say something that is not true in a conscious effort to deceive somebody or to give a false impression. Whereas, a "white lie" is harmless lie: a lie perceived or intended not to harm, but told in order to avoid distress or embarrassment. And lets not forget the "fib" which is an informal word for a minor or trivial lie, often used by or about children. Did you notice that all three definitions are the same - a "lie," "white lie," and a "fib" are all about being untrue and they only seem to change in degree of intention. You see, if we tell ourselves that there is a difference then we somehow feel that it isn't wrong to tell some lies. After all it really depends on what our intentions are.

    When we read our Bibles, we tend to bring our cultural baggage along to interpret it. As a result we can get confused or even end up misunderstanding God's Word. I believe this is the case when we come to several passages in the Bible which seem to indicate that God condones lying in special circumstances. Let's examine a few of those passages and hold them up to the standard of God's Word to see if God really does condones us telling "little white lies," or "fibs" especially if it will help to save another person's life.

I. Various Examples.
1. Joshua 2:4-7: Rahab lies to the guards to protect the Israelite spies.

A. Background: Joshua had sent two spies into the promised land and into the city of Jericho to gather information about their enemies before the nation of Israel crossed the Jordan River to claim the land that God had promised them. When they had enter the city of Jericho they found their way to Rahab's house where she hid them and helped them to escape from the city.

B. Key verses: Joshua 2:4-7, "But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them, and she said, 'Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And it came about when it was time to shut the gate, at dark, that the men went out; I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.' But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them in the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof. So the men pursued them on the road to the Jordan to the fords; and as soon as those who were pursuing them had gone out, they shut the gate."

A. Background: Newly anointed King Saul sends a false message to the Ammonite Army in order to trap and destroy them, and it worked.

B. Key verses: 1 Samuel 11:9-11, "And they said to the messengers who had come, 'Thus you shall say to the men of Jabesh-gilead [jay'bish gil'ee-uhd], 'Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have deliverance.'' So the messengers went and told the men of Jabesh; and they were glad. Then the men of Jabesh [jay'bish] said, 'Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.' And it happened the next morning that Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the camp at the morning watch, and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day. And it came about that those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together."

A. Background: King Saul tries to get his daughter to help him to kill David, but instead she helps him to escape and lies to cover his tracks.

B. Key verse: 1 Samuel 19:14, "When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, 'He is sick.'"

A. Background: Since King Saul was so unstable in his relationship with David, David devised a plan to find out what Saul's true intentions were for him.

B. Key verses: 1 Samuel 20:6, 27-29, "If your father misses me at all, then say, 'David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city, because it is the yearly sacrifice there for the whole family.'. . .And it came about the next day, the second day of the new moon, that David's place was empty; so Saul said to Jonathan his son, 'Why has the son of Jesse not come to the meal, either yesterday or today?' Jonathan then answered Saul, 'David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem,' for he said, 'Please let me go, since our family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to attend. And now, if I have found favor in your sight, please let me get away that I may see my brothers.' For this reason he has not come to the king's table."

A. Background: King Ben-Hadad became sick and he had heard that the prophet Elisha had arrived in town, he sent his messenger, Hazael, to ask Elisha if he would recover from his sickness. The messenger did as the king asked, and Elisha's answer seemed to be telling the messenger to go and lie to the king.

B. Key verses: 2 Kings 8:10-12, "Then Elisha said to him, 'Go, say to him, 'You shall surely recover,' but the LORD has shown me that he will certainly die.' And he fixed his gaze steadily on him until he was ashamed, and the man of God wept. And Hazael said, 'Why does my lord weep?' Then he answered, 'Because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel: their strongholds you will set on fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword, and their little ones you will dash in pieces, and their women with child you will rip up.'"

II. Understanding The Nature Of Lying.
1. The origin of lies.

A. In John 8:44, Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders of Israel makes this statement concerning Satan, "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 [pater (pat-ayr'); the founder, the progenitor, the originator and transmitter of] of lies."

B. Notice that it is Satan who is the fonder, the originator of lies and not our Heavenly Father.

A. We are sinners who are capable of lying on our own.

1) Psalm 116:11, "I said in my alarm, 'ALL MEN are liars.'"

2) Romans 3:10-18, "as it is written, 'There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving, The poison of asps is under their lips; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; Their feet are swift to shed blood, Destruction and misery are in their paths, And the path of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.'"

B. As Christians, we still struggle with our old sin nature and are still capable of lying.

- Romans 7:14-20, "For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me."

A. Numbers 23:19, "God is not a man, that He should LIE, Nor a son of man, that He should REPENT; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?"

B. Elihu ([i-li' hyoo], a nephew of Abraham in Gen.22:21) spoke this about God in Job 34:10-12, "Therefore, listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do wickedness, And from the Almighty to do wrong. For He pays a man according to his work, And makes him find it according to his way. Surely, God WILL NOT ACT WICKEDLY, And the Almighty WILL NOT PERVERT JUSTICE."

C. Psalm 92:15, "To declare that the LORD IS UPRIGHT; He is my rock, and there is NO UNRIGHTEOUSNESS IN Him."

D. Isaiah 45:19, "I have not spoken in secret, In some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, 'Seek Me in a waste place'; I, the LORD, SPEAK RIGHTEOUSNESS DECLARING THINGS THAT ARE UPRIGHT."

E. Habakkuk 1:12-13, "Art Thou not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. Thou, O LORD, hast appointed them to judge; And Thou, O Rock, hast established them to correct. THINE EYES ARE TOO PURE TO APPROVE EVIL, And Thou CANST NOT LOOK ON WICKEDNESS WITH FAVOR. Why dost Thou look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why art Thou silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?"

    When we place those verses in Joshua, 1 Samuel and 2 Kings up against God's yardstick (i.e., the standard) of the Bible we see that God cannot and does not condone any form of sin. When a person lies, they are either listening to the father of lies, or to their own sin nature. It is against God's very nature to have a person do the thing that He hates; Proverbs 6:16-19, "There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers." Did you notice that God puts "lying" twice on this list of things He hates -- and maybe three times if you include a "heart that devises wicked plans."

    We must remember that God's Word is honest and records the events of life as they happened, warts and all. So when someone lies, God isn't saying that it is all right for us to lie but is only pointing out what sinful man did and said.

Transition: Now lets put these verses that we looked at in prospective. . .

III. Putting Things In Prospective.
1. God never tells anyone to lie.

A. James 1:13-17, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself DOES NOT TEMPT ANYONE. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow."

B. Illustration: A melon farmer's crop of melons was disappearing fast from his field. Thieves were continually stealing the melons under the cover of night. The farmer finally became desperate and in an attempt to save his crop from the vandals he decided to put up a sign. The sign had on it a skull and crossbones, and it read: "ONE OF THESE MELONS IS POISONED" - only the farmer knew that it was not true. Sure enough, for two nights not a melon was missing. But, after the third night, the farmer noticed that his sign had been changed. Someone had scratched out the word "ONE" and replaced it with another word so that the sign now read: "TWO OF THESE MELONS ARE POISONED." Thinking to save his whole crop through deception, he lost it all. (Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, Michael Green Editor)

1) This story illustrates a point about God and lying; it is not in His nature to lie, nor is it in His nature to have others lie for Him - if it were so, then all would be lost .

2) It would make God the worst kind of liar and a hypocrite, especially in light of He says in Revelation 21:8, "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and ALL LIARS, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

C. It needs to also be pointed out that in the passages in Joshua and 1 Samuel, God never told any of these people to lie, not even to save lives.

1) But it can be shown that God made it plain in His Word that it is wrong to tell any kind of lie; the 9^th Commandment is found in Exodus 20:16 and it reads, "You shall not bear [anah (aw-naw'); to answer, respond, speak]  false [sheqer (sheh'-ker); lie, deception, falsehood] witness [ed (ayd); witness, testimony, evidence] against your neighbor [rea (ray'-ah); friend, companion, another person]."

2) These people could have simply refused to speak at all, instead of lying - or they could have refused to cooperate with those who were seeking to harm others.

3) The point that we miss in these passages is that God can protect whomever He wishes, even without us lying - God doesn't need our sinful help!

D. In 2 Kings 8:10 where Elisha states "Go, say to him, 'You shall surely recover,' but the LORD has shown me that he will certainly die," he's not telling Hazael [hay'zay-uhl] to go and lie, but rather Elisha is exposing Hazael's intentions.

1) If the king was left to his natural circumstances, he would have healed and been all right

2) But Elisha exposes here Hazael's desire to assassinate the king and to take the throne.

- This is made clear in verses 11 and 12.

3) So Elisha's statement wasn't granting permission to Hazael to lie, but rather it was given in rebuke for what he was about to do.

- In other words, Elisha didn't tell Hazael WHAT TO SAY, but WHAT HE WOULD SAY and WHAT HE WOULD DO.

A. In all these situations in Joshua, 1 Samuel and 2 Kings, God used the sinful acts of men and women to accomplish His will.

1) Why does God do this? Because works within the confines of sinful men to accomplish His will.

2) If God didn't do this, then He would have had to destroy all of mankind once Adam and Eve sinned.

B. God has allowed sinful governments/kingdoms to punish the nation of Israel in the past for her rebellion against God.

1) We saw this in the book of Judges, with the cycle of sin - the enemies would invade - and the people would repent and God would spare them.

2) We saw this in the Assyrian invasion of the Northern 10 tribes of Israel that led them off into captivity (725-722 B.C.; 2 Kings 17:5-41).

3) We saw this in the Babylonian invasion of the Southern tribes in Judea that led them off into captivity (586 B.C.; 2 Kings 25:1-21; 2 Chron. 36:15-21; Jer.52:4-30).

4) We saw this in the Roman invasion and destruction of Israel in 70 A.D. which lasted until our modern times.

C. You see, the wages of sin is still death.

1) It doesn't matter if it's an individual or a nation, they reap the fruits of what they sow.

2) If you sow sin then you will reap God's judgment, but if you sow faith then you will reap God's blessings - both in this life and the one to follow.

Truths To Ponder:

1. There are no varying degrees of lies in God's eyes - a lie is a lie.

2. God Word never encourages a person to lie, not even to save a life.

3. We are to put our faith and trust in God, and not in our own ability to lie our way out of a situation.

4. Remember what God has to work with, "us!"

A. Sinful man doesn't always do what is right.

B. That is why we need a Savior because we are incapable on our own to live up to a perfect God's standard.

1) Only Jesus Christ was perfect and He never lied to save His life or someone else's.

2) That is why Jesus is capable of saving us, because He was a perfect sacrifice that paid the price for our sins - which includes lying.