Thursday, March 17, 2016

No lie

DEVOTION
GENESIS
NO LIE

Gen 26:7-11
7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, "She is my sister," because he was afraid to say, "She is my wife." He thought, "The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful." 8 When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. 9 So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, "She is really your wife! Why did you say, 'She is my sister'?" Isaac answered him, "Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her." 10 Then Abimelech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us." 11 So Abimelech gave orders to all the people: "Anyone who molests this man or his wife shall surely be put to death."
NIV

There are two striking thoughts about this narrative. We see that Isaac commits the very same lie his father did in the very same place. We have to wonder if Abraham had ever spoken of this offense he committed to his son Isaac. It would seem because Isaac has done the same thing, Abraham had kept silent about this matter to his son. This begs the question whether it is a good thing to expose our failures to our children in hopes they will be aware of those temptations and thus be able to guard against them. This would have to be done in the most delicate of manners as not to lose the respect of our children. But this might have prevented Isaac from repeating the sin of his father. Yet the respect issue has much value and perhaps it is best not to be completely transparent with our children, even as they become adults. Plus there might be another reason to keep our failures to ourselves. If we confess our failure, sin to our children then it might offer them a good reason to follow suit. If dad or mom did it, then would be alright if I did it. Yet this is exactly what Isaac did, with or without the knowledge of his father’s same offense. Yet how often as children we have observed the bad behavior of our parents and perhaps swore within we would never be like that, yet sometime later did in fact begin to behave similarly. It does give thoughts to perhaps Isaac was not oblivious to Abrahams faults. Yet that is no reason to lie to Abimelech that Rebekah was his sister. She was his cousin and thus family, but not his sister, as Sarah was to Abraham, so this was really an outright lie. This lie was again, as stated in the narrative, to protect himself from harm. It does seem strange this version uses the word caressing when describing the actions Abimelech observed Isaac and Rebekah involved in. The original word means more of sporting, laughing out loud, to play or to toy with. Perhaps this was done in a romantic way, which gave Abimelech the insight Rebekah was actually his wife and not his sister. The point of his whole lie, the resulting behavior and the finding out of the truth is that their sin was found out. They could not keep up this lie completely without being found out.

Num 32:23-24
23 "But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the LORD; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.
NIV

Although God was speaking to the children of Israel this truth applies to all of us today. It is without question God knows when we are sinning, when we are living a lie so to speak. We cannot hide our sin from him. We might attempt to hide our sin from others, even those close to us, but that will not last hidden for long either. Isaac and Rebekah could not keep this lie going forever and they were found out, not just by God, but by other people. This is not just an Old Testament truth that we can live by. Jesus said:

Luke 12:1-3
"Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 3 What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.
NIV

Although it may not be the wisest of things to confess all our sin before our children in hopes of giving them insight or perhaps giving them permission to commit the same errors, we can be sure that God sees us for who we truly are. Our only saving grace is that we are in Christ. This is what will be revealed. Yet we need also to see we need to keep our lips from lies. We should not be like the Pharisees, being hypocrites. Appearing to be so super spiritual while still failing to be perfect human beings. Are we not all sinners saved by grace? Pretending not to have any sin is in fact a lie. Thinking more of ourselves then we should is living a lie. It is true that some of us might have a larger grasp of the scripture then others. Some of us might have an education in biblical studies, knowing chapter and verse of many of the books of the bible. Some of us might have extended knowledge of the Hebrew and Greek languages which may give better insights into certain truths. Some of us may have been saved for many years, while others are new to the faith. But the fact remains, there are none righteous, no not one for we all have sinned and are in need of a Savior.  Sooner or later our sin will find us out. Certainly by God, but also by those we live among. No matter how hard we try, we cannot keep up a lie our whole life. It would be good to be who we are, sinners saved by grace. Now that does not mean we should just go on sinning, go on lying about our life to God or others. We should endeavor to be truthful in all we do and say. We need to be the man or woman of God we say we are. Yet not pretend we are sinless either. We might think a little white lie is alright if it keeps us from harm, such as telling that officer we did not see the speed limit sign or some other seemingly small offense. Although some of us may believe we never lie, and not only ascribed that honestly is the best policy, but behave that way, it is good not to become judgmental about those who may have been caught in a lie. No matter the sin, if we are guilty of one we are guilty of them all, at least according to the law.

James 2:11
10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
NIV


James goes on to say that judgement without mercy will be shown to anyone who does not have mercy. We are all guilty under the law, but praise God, Jesus fulfilled the law and thus we are free from that guilt and shame because we are in Christ. Nevertheless we still need to live the truth, not a lie.  

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