Lying Commanded, Approved, and Sanctioned.
And the Lord said unto Samuel, ... I will send thee to Jesse, the
Bethlemite; for I have provided me a king among his sons. And Samuel
said, How can I go? If Saul hear it he will kill me. And the Lord
said, Take a heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to
the Lord. (1 Sam. 16 : 1, 2.)
And the woman [Rahab] took the two men and hid them and said thus:
There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were; and it came
to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that
the men went out; whither the men went I wot not; pursue after them
quickly, for ye shall overtake them. But she had brought them up to
the roof of the house and hid them with the stalks of flax. (Josh. 2 :
4, 5, 6.)
Was not Rahab, the harlot, justified by works, when she had received
the messengers, and had them sent out another way? (James 2 : 25.)
And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why
have ye done this thing, and have saved the men-children alive? And
the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not
as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere
the midwives come in unto them. Therefore God dealt well with the
midwives. (Ex. 1 : 18-20.)
And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said,
I will persuade him ... I will go forth and will be a lying spirit
in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade
him and prevail also; go forth and do so. (1 Kings 22 : 21, 22.)