20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
When is it OK to lie? Is it every OK to lie? You might think that it is never OK to lie, but out text tells of one time when lying was blessed by God. You read that correctly; God blessed lying. As you remember the account, Pharaoh was afraid the Israelites were getting too powerful. He devised a scheme to keep their numbers under control. He would have the midwives kill all the male children. That would eliminate the fighting force. The midwives would have nothing to do with the order. They let the male infants live. But when they are asked about what happened, they lied. They tell Pharaoh that the Hebrew women are stronger than the Egyptian women, giving birth before they get there to help. What a slap in the Pharaoh’s Egyptian pride! Hebrew women are stronger than Egyptian women! I can imagine the anger of Pharaoh at that moment. But what is he to do about it? He can’t prove these midwives are lying. There is no hidden camera footage of them cuddling the male children, ensuring proper bonding to their mothers. So back to the original question: when is it acceptable to lie? I do know that there are times when God punishes people for lying, even with the death penalty. God rarely blesses lying. We can draw a principle from this passage. Lying should be done very rarely and only when it involves the survival of an entire nation. The midwives were not lying as a way to avoid the consequences of their actions. They were not lying to cover up what they had done. Lying can’t be for your benefit. In fact, lying put these two women in grave danger. It was their lives on the line as a result of the lying. This is in contrast to most of our lies. We lie in order to NOT be in trouble. These women lied and put themselves at risk. Next time you are tempted to lie, ask yourself, who am I protecting? If you are protecting yourself, don’t lie.
The Arnold Journey 