are
clearly contrary to the great principle, in the light of which the
Bible itself is written, that a lie is always wrong, and that it
cannot have justification in God's sight. The idea of the Bible record
is that God is true, though every man were a liar.[1] God is uniformly
represented as opposed to lies and to liars, and a lie in his sight is
spoken of as a lie unto him, or as a lie against him. In the few cases
where the Bible narrative has been thought by some to indicate an
approval by the Lord of a lie, that was told, as it were, in his
interest, an examination of the facts will show that they offer no
exception to the rule that, by the Bible standard, a lie is never
justifiable.

[Footnote 1: Rom. 3:4.]

Take, for example, the case of the Hebrew midwives, who lied to the
officials of Pharaoh, when they were commanded to kill every Hebrew
male child;[1] and of whom it is said that "God dealt well with the
midwives;... and ... because the midwives feared God,... he made them
houses."[2] Here it is plain that God commended their fear of him,
not their lying in behalf of his people, and that it was "because
the midwives feared God" not because they lied, "that he made them
houses." It was their choice of the Lord above the gods and rulers of
Egypt that won them the approval of the Lord, even though they were
sinners in being liars; as in an earlier day it was the approval of
Jacob's high estimate of the birthright, and not the deceits practiced
by him on Esau and his father Isaac, that the Lord showed in
confirming a blessing to Jacob.[3]

[Footnote 1: Exod. 1: 15-19.]

[Footnote 2: Exod. I: 20, 21.]

[Footnote 3: Gen. 25: 27-34; 27; 1-40; 28: 1-22]

So, also, in the narrative of Rahab, the Canaanitish young woman, who
concealed the Israelitish spies sent into her land by Joshua, and lied
about them to her countrymen, and who was commended by the Lord for
her faith in this transaction.[1] Rahab was a harlot by profession and
a liar by practice. When the Hebrew spies entered Jericho, they went
to her house as a place of common resort. Rahab, on learning who they
were, expressed her readiness, sinner as she was, to trust the God of
Israel rather than the gods of Canaan; and because of her trust she
put herself, with all her heathen habits of mind and conduct, at
the disposal of the God of Israel, and she lied, as she had been
accustomed to lie, to her own people, as a means of securing safety
to her Hebrew