Exercise in Ethics
Devotions for Growing Christians
Exercise in Ethics
1 Samuel 16:13 - The Lord said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king." But Samuel said, "How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me." The Lord said, "Take a heifer with you and say, `I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.' 3Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate."
Read 1 Samuel 16:1-13 and also Genesis 12:10-20, Genesis 20, Genesis 26:1-11, Exodus 1:15-22 and Joshua 2.
In 1 Samuel 16, was the prophet Samuel deceptive? Is deceiving the same as lying? Is lying ever justified? These and other questions come to mind when we read 1 Samuel 16. We’re immediately plunged into the hard area of biblical ethics. What is the Bible teaching here about deception and lying? A well-thought-out and biblically-based answer involves an exercise in ethics.
Before we analyze Samuel’s situation, let’s briefly discuss other biblical cases where the question of lying comes up. The lies of Abraham and Isaac about their wives (Genesis 12, 20 & 26) pose no real problem to the bedrock biblical ethic of "Thou shalt not lie!" Abraham and Isaac did lie, and the Bible makes it clear that they were wrong.
Abraham and Isaac
The Bible records the acts of faith of the patriarchs - and it also records their mistakes. Abraham and Isaac are in the "Hall of Faith" in Hebrews 11, but not because of their lies. Abraham can’t get off the hook by calling his sin a "white lie" - because Sarah actually was his half-sister. The Bible is not teaching that the “ends-justify-the-means.” The end was to selfishly preserve one's own life at the expense of the wife's purity. The means (lying) almost met with tragic results! Disaster was averted only by the grace of God.
Rahab
What about Rahab? She definitely lied to protect the Hebrew spies, and God preserved her and her whole household when Jericho was destroyed. However, the Bible doesn’t say that Rahab was blessed for her lie. No - she was blessed for her faith and trust in the Lord God of Israel (Joshua 2:11)! Her works of faith of receiving the spies (Hebrews 11:31), hiding the spies (Joshua 6:25) and redirecting the spies (James 2:25) are praised. Her works meet with divine approval, but her lie is never approved.
And Rahab's lie is not justified on the basis of "wartime ethics." If we justify lying to the enemy in time of war, it won't be long before we begin to justify lying to any of our "enemies" who are at "war" with us. Some individuals even attempt to justify lying on their income tax returns because they say the State with its unfair taxes and social injustice is an "enemy" at "war" with them!
God did not need Rahab's lie, even though it was a time of war. God was not down to His last resource for protecting the Israeli spies from the king of Jericho! Rahab is included in the genealogy of Christ - not because God approved of her lie, but because of God's amazing grace!
Hebrew midwives
The case of the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1:15-21 is a little more complicated, because there are two possibilities. The first possibility is that the midwives were not lying. If so, then God miraculously intervened to shorten the labor of the Jewish women. The second possibility is that the midwives were lying. But if so, their lying is not sanctioned by Scripture. The Bible indicates that the midwives were blessed by God - not for lying, but for fearing God, and for refusing to participate in Pharaoh's program of infanticide.
But wait! Weren't the midwives forced to lie? Wasn’t it was their only option, other than killing the babies? No! They could have simply refused to obey, and taken the consequences. That might have resulted in their deaths, but does preserving one's own life justify lying? Consider the biblical concept of martyrdom.
At times we, too, will find ourselves at in difficult and perplexing predicaments because we live in a fallen world. However, God doesn't put us in situations where we are forced to disobey Him. No individual is ever forced to choose the lesser of two evils. Our Lord Jesus also lived in this fallen world, with all of life's complicated circumstances. Did He ever disobey God's laws because He was forced to choose the least evil course? No! He always chose the right course, no matter how difficult or unpopular the choice. Throughout the New Testament we are exhorted to be holy, and to follow our Lord's example.
Protecting Jews in World War II
How does this apply to the classic case of hiding Jews from the Nazis during World War II? What would we have said if the authorities asked “Are there any Jews in your house?’ Do we tell the truth, and betray the Jews - or do we lie to preserve their lives? Aren’t we forced to choose one of two evils? No! We could refuse to answer, and to remain silent while our house is searched. We could even question the legitimacy of Nazi authority! This may result in our imprisonment and death, and the death of the Jews as well, but we haven't betrayed them and we haven't lied. We've obeyed God, and left the consequences in His hands.
Lying to the authorities would not guarantee safety anyway. Whether we would have the courage and presence of mind to do the right thing in circumstances like this is another question. However, in 1 Corinthians 10:13 God promises that we will never be in a situation without a right way to go, and we will never be without the necessary strength to go the right way. A fantastic promise!
Situation Ethics
Let’s return to the case of the midwives and ask a further question. Wasn't their lie justified - even right - because it was the most loving thing to do in that situation? This is what situation ethics would teach. While situation ethics sounds Christian with its talk about love, it is not biblical ethics. Why not? Because ultimately situation ethics gives man authority over God. Who, for example, decides what is the "loving thing" to do when disobedience to God's commands is involved? Dare we play God? Even such sins as adultery have been committed as the “loving thing to do in a given situation. The Bible does not teach situation ethics!
With our limited perspective of any situation, we must trust and obey God. Pharaoh resorted to drowning babies in order to accomplish his evil purposes, and the midwives’ "loving lie" didn’t save the day. . We are to obey God in every situation, and trust Him to take care of the fallout, knowing that He has unlimited knowledge and control of the total picture.
Samuel
Now what about the prophet Samuel? This is certainly the most difficult of all the cases we've looked at. In fact, it may be the most difficult case in the Bible. The cases of Abraham, Isaac, and the midwives took place before the giving of the Ten Commandments. And the case of Rahab involved a Gentile who did not have God’s Law. However, this doesn't excuse their lies or lower God's standards! (Remember - all people have God-given moral consciences.) These facts may have something to say about their degree of guilt, and how God dealt with them. But Samuel had the written Ten Commandments!
Furthermore, the Lord Himself told Samuel to deceive Saul. Or did He?! Is this really a case of deceiving? By definition, deceit involves dishonesty. The Lord didn’tt tell Samuel to do anything dishonest. He didn’t tell Samuel to say he was going to Bethlehem to sacrifice, and then not actually sacrifice. Samuel did conduct a sacrifice (his normal custom), but he also took the opportunity to anoint David as the new King of Israel. He was concealing truth from those who do not have a need or right to know the whole truth.
Lying is never justified, but the Bible does not require us to reveal the whole truth to everybody! Concealing truth is only a sin when an obligation exists to reveal the hidden facts, or when there is an intent to lead someone into moral error. The Lord Jesus never lied to his enemies, but many times He did not give them straight answers, in order to conceal the whole truth. He purposely spoke in parables to conceal truth from the skeptics who had forfeited their right to know the truth. (See Matthew 13:10-13.) It would have been wrong for Samuel to lie to King Saul, but it was not wrong to conceal his full intentions!
By way of application, parents should never lie to their children, but they are not compelled to divulge all the facts if their children don’t need to know them. Parents should be careful, however, in the way they conceal the whole truth from their children. However, it’s wrong for a child to conceal activities that his parents have a right or a need to know about.
A contemporary application, similar to that of Samuel, would be that of Christians in communist countries who meet in secret. It would be wrong for them to lie to the authorities, but it’s not wrong if they appear to go shopping, but then meet with Christians along the way to the market. That would be similar to the situation of Samuel taking the heifer to Bethlehem. The fact that the authorities might be mistaken as to the Christians' full intentions does not make the believers morally culpable.
Look at Luke 24, and the example of our Lord. He hid His true identity from the two disciples and then asked, "What things?" (v19) - and then even "acted as though He would go further" (v28). Our Lord was not guilty practicing deceit, even though He let the two disciples think that He was only an ignorant stranger. His intention was to draw out the hearts of the two disciples.
Not lying, but at the same time not revealing all the facts, explains the biblical cases of Ehud in Judges 3:1230, Elisha in 2 Kings 6:8-23, and Jeremiah in Jeremiah 38:14-28. Ehud did not lie, because he actually did have a secret message from God for the pagan king Eglon - his death warrant! Elisha did not fabricate a lie because the context clearly shows that the Syrian target indeed was the king of Israel. Jeremiah did not lie to the officials who questioned him about his actions before King Zedekiah, because he actually had talked to the king about his imprisonment while delivering his prophetic message.
The same principle of concealing the whole truth from those who do not have a need or right to know was practiced in the divinely-directed ambush of Ai in Joshua 8. God cannot be accused of telling Israel to lie or practice deception because the army of Ai thought Joshua's tactics were the same as in Joshua 7.
It’s important to note that God did not tell Joshua to stage an ambush by sending a fake peace delegation ahead of his hidden forces. That would have been dishonest, because it was outside the generally accepted rules of warfare. An contemporary example: a fake run in football misleads the opposition, but it’s not deceitful because it’s within the rules of the game. However, carrying a second football to make the fake run is deception! Similarly, the use of camouflage and feints in a just war (another exercise in ethics) is not lying and deceiving. But the use of Red Cross symbols or white truce flags as decoys is dishonest and deceitful.
An exercise in ethics is not easy. Often we end up with more questions than when we started! However, these exercises are good for our spiritual health, even though all the loose ends may not be thoroughly tied up. While not all growing Christians will agree, our conclusion to this brief exercise in ethics is as follows: The Bible teaches that lying and deceiving are always wrong, but not revealing the whole truth is sometimes right.
- Dave Reid