Is It Ever OK to Lie? 1 Samuel, Part 35

In the previous Blog, I noted that David confirmed Saul’s intention to kill him.  Saul’s son, Jonathan warns David and he himself remains faithful to a covenant he made with David. After their vow of friendship Jonathan sends David on his way.  In flight from Saul, David stops at Nob to gather supplies.  Within this story there is an ominous clue by the narrator of sad events that will transpire because of this stopover. Since he has nowhere else to turn, David flees to Philistia. He could have returned home to his enemy, Saul, but instead he decides to take his chances among his other enemies.

 Text:  1 Samuel 21 (ESV)

 “Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest.”^[1]  Nob located between Gibeah and Jerusalem seems to have become a center for priestly activity and the tabernacle, at this time. “Ahimelech. A great grandson of Eli (1:9) . . . Not only is there a rejected king on the throne (15:26–29) but also a disqualified priest (2:30–36).”^[2]

 Ahimelech was surprised and seemed distressed at David’s visit.  It probably wasn’t a secret that David was being hunted by the King.  David lies about his mission and asks for food for himself and his men. The priest answered, ““I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.”^[3] “Common bread, which might be eaten by anyone, is distinguished from holy bread, which, like sacrifices, could be eaten only by the clean (e.g., Lev. 10:10). Sexual contact was one source of uncleanness (Ex. 19:15; Lev. 15:18) . . . The “holy bread” was the bread of the Presence of Ex. 25:30; Lev. 24:5–9.”^[4]   It is clear that Ahimelech was “bending” the rules.

 Then we read this: “Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen” (1 Samuel 21:7, ESV) which will prove to be an ominous statement later revealed in the story.

 Having eaten the bread, David also asked for a sword. In a moment of déjà vu David was granted Goliath’s sword whom he had killed.

From there David flees to Gath in Philistia.  No one could invent a story like this!  This is bizarre.  Fleeing from his enemy, the Israelite king, David flees to the enemy of Israel – wearing the sword of Goliath, the Philistine dead champion.  Another point of intrigue is that although Israel didn’t recognize David as king, the servants of Achish, king of the Philistines did! This gave David much fear.  So, what did he do?  We read in 1 Samuel 21:13 (ESV),

 ¹³ So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.

Achish is convinced by David’s imitation of insanity and refuses to allow him to remain with them.  We read in the next chapter, “David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam.”^[5]

 This is a story of deception. Sir Walter Scott is quoted as saying, “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”  David’s deception of the Philistine king, Achish but particularly his lie to the priest Ahimelech is troublesome.  David may have thought that ensuring the safety of himself and his men warranted telling a lie.   He may have even been trying to protect Ahimelech in case Saul found out (If so this backfired horribly (see Chapter 22:9-18)). People lie for lesser important reasons, don’t they?  What is essentially sinful, albeit for “good” reasons, can never justify our actions.

The Bible nowhere presents an instance where lying is the right thing to do. The ninth commandment prohibits bearing false witness (““You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16, ESV)).  Likewise, the New Testament is clear: “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” (Ephesians 4:25, ESV).

The Bible also describes at least two instances where lying produced good results (e.g., For example, the lie the Hebrew midwives tell Pharaoh seems to result in the Lord’s blessing on them (Exodus 1:15-21), and it probably saved the lives of many Hebrew babies. Another example is Rahab’s lie to protect the Israelite spies in Joshua 2:5.). Pragmatism or situational ethics have never been affirmed in the Bible as excuses for sin. 

The most common illustration of this dilemma comes from the life of Corrie ten Boom in Nazi-occupied Holland. Essentially, the story is this: Corrie ten Boom is hiding Jews in her home to protect them from the Nazis. Nazi soldiers come to her home and ask her if she knows where any Jews are hiding. What is she to do? Should she tell the truth and allow the Nazis to capture the Jews she was trying to protect? Or should she lie and deny that she knows anything about them?

Ethics classes love to debate this quandary. One ethics class I took taught that it is OK if done in love.  In other words we can sin, if love is the motive!  Some authors consider David’s lie, including the midwives and Rahab, to “appear to be acceptable”.  But it is extremely hard to read the Scriptures and even suggest that lying (although admittedly in these cases an exceedingly difficult choice) is ever acceptable in the eyes of God.  Lying flies against His nature.  He is the God of truth. Whether lying leads to further consequences as David’s does or even if it seems to have accomplished what its intention was, it is still wrong.  The biggest question is why God doesn’t strike us down (e.g., Acts 5:1-11) every time we lie, not whether it might provoke the silence of God, or even bring to pass some good.

God never lies (Titus 1:2). He is the source of truth. “It is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18). Liars will be among those judged in the end (Revelation 21:8).  Our prayer should be:

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin . . . Behold, you delight in truth . . ..” (Psalm 51:1–6, ESV)

 

 

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^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (1 Sa 21:1). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

^[2] MacArthur, J., Jr. (Ed.). (1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed., p. 410). Nashville, TN: Word Pub.

^[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (1 Sa 21:4). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

^[4] Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 527). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

^[5] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (1 Sa 22:1). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.