Focal Passage: Joshua 2:1-4a, 8-14; 6:22-25
It is wrong to lie (Exodus 20:16; Colossians 3:9), or is it (Exodus 1:15-21; Joshua 2)? The life and faith of Rahab tests this question. Some would say that lying is permissible in a variety of very specific and unusual cases. It might better be called discretion. For example:
We lie to protect feelings: “I loved your solo,” when it was terrible.
We lie to protect others (called an altruistic deception): “No,” you tell the Nazi soldiers, “we’re not hiding any Jews in our house.” Corrie ten Boom used this ‘protecting lie’ to hide and smuggle to freedom many Jews in WWII.
We lie to maintain privacy: “I’m fine,” when asked how you’re doing because you’re not yet ready to share your feelings OR “I don’t know,” when responding to a ‘Nosey Nellie’ asking you about a friend for gossipy purposes, which is also a sin.
Discretion in what we communicate may be warranted (1) to keep harm to a minimum, (2) to cause a greater good like the saving of a life from evil and (3) when consent and context is needed, such as a deception for something as harmless as a surprise party.
The Bible never condones or commands lying. Yet, in two very specific cases — the deception of the Egyptian midwives in protecting Hebrew babies (Exodus 1:15-21) and in the case of Rahab in protecting the Hebrew spies (Joshua 2) — God blesses what appears to be sinful. Why? Because something else was at stake in the case of Rahab: HER FAITH and GOD’S PLAN OF REDEMPTION. Rahab’s faith in God caused her to use discretion in deceiving the search party who were looking for the Israelite spies.
Rahab demonstrated faith in doing what was right in the face of cultural pressure (Joshua 2:1-4a). Rahab’s life was a mess. She was a prostitute (2:1). The only life she knew was of deception. Yet, something was building in her that would overcome her failures. Her faith in God was growing as she hid two men sent by out by Joshua in order to spy on the land Israel would conquer, the Promised Land (2:4). While the pressure was great, she would rather trust God and defy the King of Jericho than to cower in fear. Rahab’s faith enabled her to resist the pressure to expose the spies, even if it meant an un-commanded deceptive discretion. Her deception was not born out of selfish gain, but of a holy fear of God (2:9, 11).
Rahab’s faith acted in the face of fear (Joshua 2:8-14). Rahab aligned herself with God’s cause and not the evil and destructive purposes of the King of Jericho. She had come to understand God’s power (2:8-11). Further, she asked for her and her family to be rescued from God’s coming judgment on Jericho. As verse 13 notes, “deliver our lives from death.”
Her passionate plea for life in the face of death is a foreshadowing of all those who ask for God’s mercy and deliverance in Jesus Christ. We, who deserve death, are given life in Jesus Christ.
Rahab’s faith benefited others and became part of the redemptive plan of God (Joshua 6:22-25; Matthew 1:5). Rahab and her family were delivered from God’s judgment on Jericho. Further, she married Salmon and was the mother of Boaz, placing her in the direct line of the Davidic Kingdom and, ultimately, Jesus the Messiah. As a result, Rahab is listed in the “hall of fame of faith” in Hebrews 11:31.
While God never commands lying, He will bless the simple and growing faith of a person who trusts God even when the only thing they know to do is lie. And the only thing greater than Rahab’s deception was her growing faith in the God of Israel, a faith God blessed while cloaked in a deception. B&R