Tag Archives: Lying

Day 172: The People Fail to Obey, Again

Jeremiah 42:19-43-7

“Yahweh has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah, ‘Don’t go into Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have testified to you today. For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to Yahweh your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to Yahweh our God; and according to all that Yahweh our God says, so declare to us, and we will do it.’ I have declared it to you today; but you have not obeyed Yahweh your God’s voice in anything for which he has sent me to you. Now therefore know certainly that you will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.”

When Jeremiah had finished speaking to all the people all the words of Yahweh their God, with which Yahweh their God had sent him to them, even all these words, then Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, “You speak falsely. Yahweh our God has not sent you to say, ‘You shall not go into Egypt to live there;’ but Baruch the son of Neriah has turned you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death or carry us away captive to Babylon.”

So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, didn’t obey Yahweh’s voice, to dwell in the land of Judah. But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces took all the remnant of Judah, who had returned from all the nations where they had been driven, to live in the land of Judah— the men, the women, the children, the king’s daughters, and every person who Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan; and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah. They came into the land of Egypt, for they didn’t obey Yahweh’s voice; and they came to Tahpanhes.

It has been hard for me to read about the life of Jeremiah. He spent his life in obedience to God but in return he had a life of great persecution by his own people and here we read that it continued as he was taken captive by more disobedient Jews and forced to go to Egypt. It’s alarming that these Jews lied to Jeremiah about what they intended to do. Notice that they accused Jeremiah of lying as they themselves were lying. When we fail to trust in God, our fears are able to take over and produce evil in us. If only they had been willing to simply rest in God’s word. Instead, they forced Jeremiah to go with them to Egypt.

Jeremiah’s words here appear to show us that he was used to the idea that God was using him to give messages to those who would disobey them. Even before the people decided to disobey, Jeremiah predicted that they would. Perhaps Jeremiah was learning to rest in God’s will for him. As we move on to the next book of the Bible, I think we will get a better look at what Jeremiah was thinking as he went through these things. The next book of the Bible is called: Lamentations. It’s pretty obvious from that name that it wasn’t a fun thing for Jeremiah to endure, but perhaps we will learn how he was able to endure it and it will help us as we endure things that we must endure in our lives as well.

Day 161: Lying for the Lord

Jeremiah 38:24-28

Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no man know of these words, and you won’t die. But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you, and tell you, ‘Declare to us now what you have said to the king; don’t hide it from us, and we will not put you to death; also tell us what the king said to you;’ then you shall tell them, ‘I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan’s house, to die there.’ ”

Then all the princes came to Jeremiah, and asked him; and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they stopped speaking with him, for the matter was not perceived.

So Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken.

Is it always wrong to lie? I discussed this a bit before when we considered the fact that Moses sent spies into the promised land. Spying is not only concealing information, it’s outright deceptive. I bring this up in order to make it clear that when the Bible talks about lies, it appears to be more specific than merely providing misinformation. There are times when God authorizes men to give misinformation and I believe that this passage shows us one of those times.

Normally, no mere king would convince Jeremiah to conceal the truth, but in this case, he must have perceived that it was God’s will for him. You can bet that if those princes had actually heard the message that Jeremiah gave to the king, they would have lied and put Jeremiah to death, even thought they promised not to! So how do you know when it’s ok to provide misinformation?

I think that it’s pretty clear in this passage that when it is God’s will for you to misinform, only then is it OK. In this case, it was God’s will for Jeremiah to not die. He told Jeremiah this when he started serving God as a prophet, so it actually made sense for God to allow it in this circumstance. There’s another interesting thing to consider. This is not necessarily correct, but I would like to bring it up for your consideration. I noticed another pattern that I believe is true when God allows misinformation. It would appear that when God allows it, it’s when a truth teller is lying to a rebel. There’s a story that I feel the need to bring up here.

Back during World War II, a woman and her family were thrown into a prison camp for protecting Jews. Her name was Corrie ten Boom. She was eventually set free after being tormented with her sister for a very long time in the camp. As a condition of her being set free, she was asked to sign a document that stated that she would tell everyone that she was treated well in the camp. She signed it and was set free. She later went on to write and speak about the horrible things that happened there. Was Corrie wrong to do that? I think that the answer to that question is expressed in Jeremiah’s example here and in other places. It’s sometimes necessary to lie to rebels in order to have the opportunity to spread the truth. Another way to put it is that in order to remain true to God, we must sometimes lie to wicked men. I understand that I may not be seeing this perfectly clearly, but I encourage you to study this issue for yourself.

Day 125: A Crime Against Humanity

Jeremiah 29:24-32

Concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite you shall speak, saying, “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says, ‘Because you have sent letters in your own name to all the people who are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying, “Yahweh has made you priest in the place of Jehoiada the priest, that there may be officers in Yahweh’s house, for every man who is crazy, and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in the stocks and in shackles. Now therefore, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you, because he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, The captivity is long. Build houses, and dwell in them. Plant gardens, and eat their fruit?” ’ ”

Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the hearing of Jeremiah the prophet. Then Yahweh’s word came to Jeremiah, saying, “Send to all of the captives, saying, ‘Yahweh says concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: “Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and I didn’t send him, and he has caused you to trust in a lie;” therefore Yahweh says, “Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his offspring. He will not have a man to dwell among this people. He won’t see the good that I will do to my people,” says Yahweh, “because he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh.” ’ ”

There are many sins that people commit, but there is one sin that Jesus characterized Satan as being the father of. Murder is horrible, but the sin of lying is capable of causing us to commit every other sin quite naturally, including murder. Today, people tend to believe that God is a myth and that molecules-to-man evolution is real. Evolution is a lie and out of it comes almost every imaginable sin. When a person who clams to talk for God, speaks lies to people, it is a very, very serious crime against humanity and this passage shows us the kind of thing it causes.

In this case, Shemaiah took it upon himself to speak for God and started telling priests what they should be doing. He even told them to lock up Jeremiah. By doing that, Shemaiah told the people who would follow him, that Jeremiah was wrong. Worse than that, it made the people think that God was lying and Shemaiah was telling the truth. They were slandering a prophet of God and even suggesting that he should be killed. So you can see that lying leads to slander and murder and because this lie made the people disobey God’s voice, it could have ended up condemning all of mankind to hell. If the people were not to listen to Jeremiah and were to try to oppose Babylon instead, God would have been obligated to destroy them and since the Jews were the only ones able to bring about the Messiah, the whole world would have been lost. So, we can see what is probably Satan’s most powerful tool: the lie.

If you think that Christians are obsessed with the truth, you are right. It is the truth about Jesus that sets people free. Without the truth, real faith would not be possible. In order to save mankind, God must stop those who speak lies in His name. In this case, God made sure that Shemaiah would be removed and have no offspring in Israel. May God continue to impress upon us the importance of the truth and may we continue to share that truth so that many will be saved.