Notes from NakedBiblePodcast: GOD AND DECEPTION
Episode 210, God and Deception, April 7, 2018 (Michael Heiser)
God doesn’t lie, but He does use deception.
-lying and deceiving aren’t the same
-a partial truth is deceptive but not lying
-Where God does this, He withholds info, and/or suggests/directs His people to do this.
What we are not speaking about in this episode:
-where God rewards or overlooks human deception (ex: the midwives in Exodus, or Obadiah in 1 Kings 18 who hides the prophets from Jezebel).
We are focusing purely on what God is doing or saying.
Examples:
1 Sam 16:1-5:
The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.”2 And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.”
And the LORD said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ 3 And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.” 4 Samuel did what the LORD commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling…
(God directs Samuel to be deceptive. Though this is truth, it’s partial truth)
Exodus 3:18
And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’
(we know from verse 7-8 that this is not what God is planning. God is directing Moses to lie- some believe “3 days’ journey” means they will only be gone for 3 days”. Others see this as a partial truth: where they travel 3 days and hold sacrifices, but the rest is left out)
Joshua 8
And the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land. 2 And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves. Lay an ambush against the city, behind it.”
(an ambush is deceptive. God is telling Joshua to be deceptive)
1 Kings 22:20-22
And the LORD said, “Who will entice Ahab to march up and fall at Ramath-gilead?” Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ 22 And the LORD said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.’
(God sends a lying spirit. Interestingly, He tells Ahab, through Micaiah, that He’s doing this, being truthful at the same time.)
Matt 16:20
Then he [Jesus] strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
(so he’s telling the disciples to withhold truth. What were they supposed to say when confronted? Lie about Jesus’ identity or say nothing at all? Either way, He’s directing them to withhold truth (whether they actually do it or not), which is deceptive, this mandate is temporary).
John 7:8-10
“Go up to the feast on your own, because My time has not yet come.” Having said this, Jesus remained in Galilee. But after His brothers had gone up to the feast, He also went-no publicly, but in secret.
(So does he lie? Or does “My time” mean His time to go to the feast? Either way, the disciples/brothers were under the impression He wasn’t going, and He went only after they had gone, and in secret. Even though this was later revealed) (some texts say “I am not yet going up to the feast.”- but that doesn’t explain the secrecy of his going)
2 Thess 2:11-12
Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false,12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
(this is pretty self explanatory)
Conclusion of these examples: All of these include deception in the form of withholding a certain amount of truth, or the main point (like with Samuel). Often involves the deception of an enemy or unbeliever.
So what is the 9th command referring to, and is God violating his own commandment?
-You shall not bare false witness against your neighbor (Exo 20:16) (Deu 5:20)
-We can’t take commandments out of their context.
According to Chuck Missler: the first 4 commandments honor the sovereignty of God. The last 6 honor the sanctity/dignity of man.
According to M. Heiser: This is regarding legal matters, preventing undue suffering, and promoting justice, specifically when it comes to the wellbeing of others.
It does not mean telling exhaustive truth at all costs:
-explaining full on to a child where babies come from
-answering a Nazi by giving full detailed info where you are hiding Jews (because you’re a Christian and you cannot lie)
-giving full answer to “does this make me look fat?”
-Explaining exhaustively to a mother how much her child suffered and the pathology of his death.
So basically, with examples like these, we are causing pain/death by being blatantly truthful, therefore, breaking other commandments and causing undue suffering.
Other examples many Christians don’t think twice about when using deception:
-in sports: Christian quarterback can’t look one way but throw another?
-storytelling to lead the reader/hearer to think one way but then a twist.
M.Heiser emphasizes the sanctity of human life, and that is the purpose of the commandments, to preserve human life because we are made in the image of God. To cause unjust suffering or even death in the name of “do not tell a lie” defeats the purpose.
M. Heiser: “Again, we could go there, too. But without even throwing that sort of wild card into it, what I’m suggesting is that the truth-telling commands have a context and the pattern of the context is pretty clear: to judge evil and make sure that the innocent are not punished instead of the guilty.”
God gets to define the meaning of His commands. “ we can learn how God defines it by observing the context in which the commands are given. They do have context. And we can also learn how God defines things by observing God’s own behavior. What does God do? How does God live or act in a set of circumstances that are in relationship to the rules that he’s given us? How does God do that? How does God behave? Let’s look at God’s own example.”
But when it comes to the truth regarding the gospel/God’s character, we are to endure suffering on ourselves, sacrificing our comfort for God’s name and the gospel. We aren’t to use these Biblical examples as a reason to lie to make life easier on ourselves, but to protect the innocent, the unprotected.