Reading… and Thinking

Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

— Exodus 1:15-21 (ESV)

Anyone can understand, and support, the midwives’ disobedience of Pharaoh’s command to kill the male children. Although we are to obey the law, when man’s law conflicts with God’s, then “we must obey God rather than men”, as the apostles said centuries later.

But it’s not so easy to feel comfortable about the lying. Why did they lie? Why not simply say, “We won’t obey you?” Well, what would have happened if they had done that? Certainly Pharaoh would have not permitted the situation to continue. He would have replaced the midwives, or made sure someone, a soldier perhaps, was present at every birth, to carry out his awful command.

As it was, Shiphrah and Puah played upon a mystique that had developed about the Israelites. The Egyptians were afraid of them. Earlier in the chapter we read, “But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.” Even Pharaoh was afraid of them, and said to his counselors, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.” (verses 7-10) The Israelites were considered stronger, so the Egyptians bought the midwives’ story—and therefore the midwives could continue to do their work.

This account presents us with a real challenge. Is it OK to lie? The midwives lied, and we’re told plainly that God blessed them as a result.

In general, the Bible is clear that it’s not all right to lie. In Proverbs 6:16-19 the writer lists the seven things that are abominable to God, and two of the seven are lying. Throughout the Proverbs, lying and falsehood are condemned over and over. In the New Testament, Ananias and Sapphira are struck dead by God for lying. Paul wrote, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor.” (Ephesians 4:25) And, “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices.” (Colossians 3:9) And in the kingdom age, the Revelation tells us, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Rev 21:8)

So what made it OK for the midwives to lie? And there are a few other similar instances. Michal and Jonathan both lied to protect David, and it seems clear that this was OK.

The key, I believe, is this. Moral dilemmas do arise. That is, situations where you have a choice to make, and whatever you do will be “wrong” in some way. The midwives could obey Pharaoh, and commit murder, or they could outright refuse, and be replaced with someone else who would murder the children, or they could lie and preserve the children. Similarly, Jonathan could tell his father the truth about David and assist his father in destroying an innocent man, or he could lie and preserve God’s anointed.

Why do people lie? Mostly, out of selfishness. We want to avoid consequences to ourselves for something we’ve done, or we’re avoiding embarrassment, or we simply don’t want to be bothered with explaining. It’s selfish. And it’s wrong.

But in the cases we’ve been looking at, the motivation was entirely different. The choice was whether or not to assist someone to destroy the people of God. In that situation, we should never assist murderers. These people said in their own minds, “Let the consequences fall on me for lying—that’s better than helping the evildoer to kill God’s people.” It was self-sacrifice, putting themselves into the position of defying someone who had life-and-death power, even making themselves a “wrongdoer”, in order to save another.

It’s not very likely that we’ll ever find ourselves in this kind of situation. But it’s not impossible. There are strong indications that there will be persecution of the saints prior to Jesus’ return. If that should happen, if you are called on to betray the brethren, then you need to do whatever you can, including lying, to obstruct the persecutors, and to preserve God’s people.

But in any other circumstance, you need to tell the truth.