Just in Case You Were Confused
He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house; He who speaks falsehood shall not maintain his position before me. Psalm 101:7 NASB
Speaks falsehood – So David won’t let any deceitful practitioner in his house. Would that change your list of dinner guests?
Just in case you were confused about David’s meaning, he clarifies. The ones not invited are those who speak falsehood. That’s an educated way of saying “liars.” But the English doesn’t quite capture the Hebrew. “Falsehood” is the word sheqer. It means “breaking of a promise, being false to a treaty or commitment.” It is the use of “words or activities which are false in the sense that they are groundless, without basis in fact or reality.”[1] That includes prophets who claim to predict the end of the world, lotteries that make it seem like everyone is a winner, preachers who claim that Paul was a Christian, advertisers who offer items that they know are not in stock, Nobel prize winners who receive the award for politically-correct reasons, neighbors who promise to return your tools, financial planners who tell you that you can control your future. Wherever actions or words do not match up with God’s reality, sheqarim prevail.
By the way, it really doesn’t matter if these actions or words match up with society’s reality or the scientist’s reality or the CEO’s reality. At the end of the day, there is only one measure of what is real. God’s world is the only world. All the rest is temporary deception. It might appear to be very real, but the wood and straw will not endure the fire of His coming. “In whatever context or circumstances šeqer is used, God will not condone it, for he is the God of truth, reality, and faithfulness, and his people are also to be so characterized.”[2]
Now that we have settled this issue, are we to suppose that there is never any occasion when God condones sheqarim? If we treat this idea as an ethical absolute, then we arrive at the conclusion that we should never lie even if it means someone else suffers. For example, did the Dutch who hid Jews from the Nazis sin when they lied about their act of concealment? The answer is “Yes,” and “No.” Yes, they lied, but No, the lie was overlooked because Torah is not made up of ethical absolutes. It is made up of a hierarchy of moral commitments ultimately based on the character of God. Life matters more. Lying is still a sin, but in this case, one that must be committed. This is the same argument that Yeshua uses about the donkey in the ditch and the priests on the Sabbath. There are no excuses, but there are reasons for acting and then repenting. Does this mean that Torah is whatever the circumstances dictate? Absolutely no! Isn’t it wonderful that God put choice in your hands? Now go figure it out.
Topical Index: lie, sheqer, absolutes, Torah, Psalm 101:7
I agree with all of this. You are describing love. Love is faithful and true. Love is not indulgent or tolerant of sin, but seeks the others best good at my own expense. Love is our highest calling, the highest precept. To obtain God’s righteousness, His character, is to be perfected in love. It is the living way, the living torah.
Now read what I wrote about Paul’s love definition. You can find it on the web site. The Grammar of Love
“Torah is not made up of ethical absolutes. It is made up of a hierarchy of moral commitments ultimately based on the character of God”
I wish I had known this prior to raising my children!!! 🙁
“At the end of the day, there is only one measure of what is real. God’s world is the only world. All the rest is temporary deception. ”
AMEN!
I love that saying that goes something like this: “All else is just rearranging the chairs on the Titanic.” It fits perfectly with lots of stuff. Again and again, Skip, thank you for taking the time to share what God is teaching you.
Skip it took courage to go all the way with this one. If it were not for Rahab’s lie that protected the plan of God, there might not have been a walk around Jericho. And then David imaged a lie to protect his life, as he traveled through the enemy’s camp, as an insane man. This is a hard word to relate to a world that lives either within the harsh absolute law or without boundaries. The way of Grace is higher, which does not live outside the rules of the game but above the game. AGAIN, thank you, thank you, thank you. Keep growing up. We need not only your skills to accurately dissect His Word but also show us His face of Grace in His Word.
This brings to mind the Hebrew midwives, whose understanding that LIFE is an absolute priority in God’s plan, were honored by having their names listed in Scripture. They lied in order to preserve life, and they ultimately helped to save a whole nation.
This brought to mind situational ethics and then that made me think how the heart can be deceitfully wicked and then that made me think of Solomon with the two woman and the one baby and then that made me think of how MUCH we need His spirit to guide us and His wisdom to make proper decisions. Which came back to your conclusion “Isn’t it wonderful that God put choice in your hands? Now go figure it out.” to which I have to say, no, not really because I really struggle with Knowing and DOING what is right and really look to the day when He will fill one with His spirit and write His word into ones heart.
Many years ago I was interviewed by a television station about the teaching of a man who provided a checklist of behavioral answers to questions. I pointed out that almost everyone wants a checklist so that they will not have to struggle with the flexibility of biblical answers. They just want to say, “Yes, I followed the list so I am good to go.” They don’t want to wrestle with how Torah applies when there are no case law examples in Scripture. But the essence of being created as a crossroads of yetzer ha’ra and yetzer ha’tov is CHOICE and choice never comes with absolute pre-determined answers. As the rabbis teach, until a man is burned by Torah he does not know what it means. It would be wonderful if every circumstances in life came with the acceptable biblical answer already attached, but life doesn’t seem to work that way. We are given direction and hierarchy and we are expected to make choices that are in concert with the divine will. If this were not the case, there would be no need for the Spirit at all. All you would need is the list.
I agree that the Hebrew midwives were right to protect life. I am against abortion and euthanasia. Are these EVER right practices to follow? The pro-choice culture would have us endorse these are in cases of rape or incest or the mother’s endangered physical and/or emotional health, or incapacity or terminal disease (eg. physician assisted suicide), ad infinitum. Ad nauseam!
For instance, is a child of rape any less your child than a child conceived with your hand-picked mate? Further, if my adult child were faced with having to pay for my nursing home out of pocket and I am penniless, is it OK to kill me because the cost of my expensive care will make my “child” poor? YHWH is the author and creator and sustainer of life. When man usurps that role, chaos ensues.
And yet, and yet. I am really struggling right now with guile, and all those thousand shades of lying..
Psalms 32:2 “Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.”
Revelation 14:5 “And in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of G-d.”
Revelation 22:15 “For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolators, and whosoever maketh and loveth a lie.”
When I went, years ago, to see for myself an example of where a lie was beneficial- and, yes, I figured I should check out that classic, Lying To Save The Jews, which I was much in agreement with- I used the story I knew, which was Corrie Ten Boom’s The Hiding Place. So I confidently put myself in her shoes as best I could, picked up the book, and prepared myself to feel vicariously vindicated. I saw something else, though. I saw that, yes, G-d overruled the lie, and honored the heart of that family, but she lost her father and sister, and ended up in the camps herself. Further, I saw something else that has had me thinking ever since. And that was the example of her other sister, who lived out in the country and who also harbored Jews. That family was also raided that day, and the young daughter was interrogated. The soldier questioning her reminded her that she was a Christian, and therefore must not lie. She agreed. He then asked her where the Jews were. She told him they were under the kitchen table. When he went to pull up the table cloth to look, she broke down in hysterical laughter. The soldier thought she was making fun of him, and the soldiers left in a huff. Their family, along with their Jews; who were, yes, under the table (actually, they were beneath a trap door and a rug under the table) never were caught.
I got to thinking about the properties of faith and, respectively, fear. I believe faith must create future verities that just simply were not there, except in the mind of G-d, until someone chooses to add their faith to His and thus make those possibilities reality. Fear also projects into the future the substance of things NOT hoped for, and I believe it creates possibilities, likewise, that are realized. There is always grace and mercy that reads the heart, yes, but I believe WE must be the ones who determine the limits. If that were not true, then faith could not be true.
Please forgive me for seeming to be a contrarian here, but I have been wrestling this one a good while. I have had to ask: where does a lie come from? When I go to look, I see it is based on two things: one: you only lie when you are afraid; and two: you are only afraid when you are believing a lie. I see that to defeat guile and lying, is to root out all susceptibility to being deceived. Truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is a position that gives courage. Deception weakens by its very nature.
I know I have to be covered at all times, because I am so not sinless at all times, and I am grateful. My good Father, I know, is kept busy shifting everything around me to just keep me alive, much less productive! But I know that fear will sit in the seat of faith, and it will cause me to sin. I need to defeat it once and for all so that I can move only in faith, if I ever have any hope of being sinless (Romans 14:23 “…for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”). Faith re-widens my horizon of possibilities back up from as narrow as a ‘choice’ between The Lesser Of The Two Evils (which vast swaths of my life have looked like in my past, and which will always be a lie from hell, I have found, because it is driven by fear) to 360 degrees again, which, to me, looks like true freedom. Oh, yeah. There is that verse: John 8:32 “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Not there yet, but I sure wanna be!
Thank you, all you precious people, for your hearts of love. We’ll get it figured out yet!
Might one of the differences be whether there is treachery or evil as the source (or at the root) of the lie? If one lies to protect innocent life, is that not different than the lie that is grounded in guile or cunning?
You make an excellent point. How do we explain the lie of Rahab which receives God’s blessing? What about the midwives? Yes, there must be more to it than just the absolute.
For we have not been given a spirit of fear/cowardice, but of power and of love, of a sound mind/self-control. 2Tim 1:7
In many circumstances I have come to know, fear has become a ‘motivating’ factor, and not courage to stand up for, and to
do what is right/pleasing IN His sight, outside of the norm as set by man, his traditions, his laws; and his understanding
of YAH’s Word not put into writing.
“Life matters more.” !!! YAH takes pleasure in life, not death!!
“At the end of the day, there is only one measure of what is real. God’s world is the only world. All the rest is temporary deception.” !!!!!!!
“Wherever actions or words do not match up with God’s reality, sheqarim prevail.”
How absolute!How wonderful! How restorative!!!!