January 12
Gen 26:17-27 | PS 10:16-18 | Prov 3:9-10 | Matt 9:1-17
Have you ranked the ten commandments into those you deem more important to follow than others? Have you placed the 6th commandment, "You shall not murder", over the 9th commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor", or in other words, "You shall not lie"? Most would really think twice before taking someone's life, but most don't struggle all that much with lying. Also, as we train our children, they are always watching. Many times, our actions will last longer and have a greater impact on them than our words. Did you tell your children to lie about their age to pay a reduced fee at some event? Did you teach your children to embellish on an application to college or something else? Did you come up with a clever excuse as to why you were not able to go to a particular party or event, and then teach your children this same excuse so that everyone told the same story. We have softened the word lie, with things like embellishment, flattery, "little white lie", etc. But make no mistake, lying is lying. Now there are certain circumstances, such as when the midwives lied to Pharaoh in Exodus 1 to spare the lives of the newborn Israelite boys, or when people lied to the Nazis if they were hiding Jewish people in their homes. But if we are honest, those were examples of life and death, while most circumstances that we are familiar with are matters of convenience.
A famine strikes the land, and Isaac moved his family to Gerar, he lies to the people there, as we read in Genesis 26:7, "When the men who lived there asked Isaac about his wife, Rebekah, he said, “She is my sister.” He was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “They will kill me to get her, because she is so beautiful.” A lie to save himself, which could have resulted in someone committing adultery with his wife. He may have learned this from his father, Abraham, who did the same thing. We read of Rebekah, who overhears that Isaac is about to bless Esau, put together quite the deception which includes Jacob pretending to be his brother, wearing his clothes, even putting on some goat hair to deceive his father Isaac, who is going blind. Does this lie bother Jacob? Only to the extent that he might get caught, as we read in 27:11-12, " “But look,” Jacob replied to Rebekah, “my brother, Esau, is a hairy man, and my skin is smooth. What if my father touches me? He’ll see that I’m trying to trick him, and then he’ll curse me instead of blessing me.” Consider how easy Jacob lies to his father, even making it sound spiritual invoking the name of the Lord in 27:20, "But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because the Lord your God brought it to me.”
Jesus said in Matthew 5:37, "But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one." Our words should mean something. We must be very careful with what passes our lips. If God rendered something a commandment, we would do well not to consider it a suggestion, or simply good advice. Just because an individual is spiritual, does not indemnify them of such things. We must be very careful when attaching the Lord's name to anything. The recent ruling of the Pope to bless same-sex unions does not come from God's Word, no matter how bad some would like to twist this. This can be dressed up with a lot of niceties, but this represents something which is not true attached to a whole bunch of spiritual jargon. May we be students of His Word, and may we be bold to speak the truth whether it is comfortable or not, and in the process teach others to do the same.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: