We have concluded that we engage in some tricky rationalization that allows some deception without feeling bad about ourselves. We want to explore the degree of those limits and what impacts the extent and amount of lies that people tell others. For example, if the likelihood of being caught is low, we tend to stretch…
I have often thought that if we knew why a person acted a certain way, it would help us in finding solutions and aid to help us repent or improving interpersonal relationships. Lying is an example of this, and because it so prevalent, we could learn how to deal with it better if we understood…
In contrast to those who reject any kind of deception under any circumstances, the Bible recognizes that certain situations justify and even require deceptive measures. This is true in wartime or when the dishonest, evil hearts who are set on accomplishing the intent of their evil hearts are deceived. We see cases like this…
True prophets use God’s same tactic which is similar to Jesus’ technique to employ parables to weed out the dishonest evil heart. Some authors have explained Genesis 2:17 as a lie. No clear ambiguity or deception is involved in God’s warning that “as soon as you eat of it, you shall die.” The two had…
Unlike Abraham and Elisha, who take the initiative to mislead, or Moses and Samuel who mislead a king, God instructs Jeremiah to deceive the officials on the orders of Zedekiah, king of Judah. Jeremiah tells Zedekiah that he must surrender to the Babylonians if he wants to save himself and Judah. However, Zedekiah advises the…
When Hazael is sent to Elisha to inquire, in the name of Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, whether the king will recover from his illness, Elisha tells him to mislead his master, telling him, “You will recover.” However, he reveals the whole truth to Hazael himself. He says: “However, the Lord has revealed to me that…
The next cases of prophetic lies are associated with the prophet Elisha. The first is connected with the siege of Dothan (2 Kgs. 6:8–23). Elisha tells the detachment of the Aramean army who was sent to capture Elisha, “This is not the road, and this is not the town; follow me, and I will lead…
A similar case is a lie told by the prophet Samuel, again on God’s orders. When God sent Samuel to Bethlehem to anoint one of Jesse’s sons instead of Saul, who God has rejected, Samuel expresses his fear that Saul (an enemy within their ranks) might slay him. Because of his fear and reservations about…
Another example of a prophet deliberately misleading someone is Moses. In this case, God had instructed him, “Say to Pharoah: ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, manifested Himself to us. Now, therefore, let us go a distance of three days into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord our God’” (Exodus 3:18). The impression…
We might expect the prophets to show the highest level of honesty, truth, and reliability. Does the Bible have no hesitation about describing prophets’ lies, and can one indeed find true prophets uttering glaring untruths? We will endeavor to show that prophets’ lies in the Bible were not speaking anything false but that they did…