Furious, Pharoah declares an all-out genocide on Hebrew male infants. Yet he accepts the midwives’ story with little investigation, and we are privy to the reason why. These women fear the Lord and obey him; and, though they likely expect to die, God favors them with both life and prosperity.” [1] (emphasis added)
Biblical scholar Jopie Siebert-Hommes writes:
“Because the midwives fear Elohim, they allow the children to live. To them there is no room for killing a son.
Identifying the story as a ‘deception story‘, Culley maintains that the midwives ‘stand between the king and the people’.” [2] (emphasis added)
Siebert-Hommes also notes that it is due to their deed that they are praised writing that “The midwives alone earn themselves a name by their conduct”. [3]
Rabbi Drorah O’Donnel Setel commenting on Exodus 1 and the actions of the midwives identifies what they did as deception:
“Their work entails an understanding of the connection between transformation and risk, although the means by which they rebel against Pharaoh reiterates a biblical pattern of female deception…” [4]
A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament states:
“The Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, deceive the pharaoh and thwart his genocidal command to destroy Israel’s male children (Exod. 1:15-22).” [5] (emphasis added)
It is clear then that most scholars do agree that Exodus 1:15-20 portray two women who saved children through deception. But does that mean that lying is permitted simply because those two women did it? We have already seen that Lockwood for one recognises that the women are blessed because of their deed which was without a doubt deception to reach a righteous goal. Why would God favour those who commit a heinous sin if indeed lying is in every case without exception a heinous sin? In Exodus 1:15-20 it is clear that not every kind of deception is dishonourable and condemned by God. There can be exceptions especially when life is at stake. Lockwood is not alone in his understanding. Conservative Jewish scholar and rabbi Reuven Hammer writes:
“Shiphrah and Puah, the Hebrew midwives who resist Pharaoh’s command to kill male babies, are the very symbol of righteous conduct (Exod. 1:17). They are given the highest compliment when the Torah says that “they revered God.”" [6]
Even the conservative apologist Norman Geisler acknowledges the deed of the midwives as a lie:
“Some would prefer calling this not a “lie” but an “intentional falsification.” Call it what we will, it does not change the fact that it would be morally wrong —unless, of course, one is obeying a higher moral law in so doing. I prefer calling it a “lie” so that it is clearly understood that lying as such (without a higher conflicting law) is wrong.” [7]
What Geisler is saying is that in a case where there is a higher moral law at stake the law on lying is superseded hence making it permissible. In the case at hand the sanctity of life and mercy supersede the general unlawfulness of lying. It is through the deception or manipulation of the midwives that God’s plan came to fulfillment as noted by The IVP Women’s Bible Commentary:
“Masters and mistresses of the art of manipulation abound in the biblical story. In some instances manipulation is condemned within the narrative —David’s attempt to manipulate Uriah after impregnating his wife or Jezebel’s orchestration of Naboth’s murder—but some manipulative measures enable the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham. This is true particularly of manipulative actions by women.
…
In almost all of these stories the character and role of the women as women enables their manipulation to succeed and God’s purposes to be fulfilled…Shiphrah and Puah are by virtue of their midwifery able to save Israelite baby boys…” [8]
Did God approve of their manipulation, dissimulation, lying, deception? According to the Christian and Jewish biblical scholars He certainly did. Elizabeth Cady Stanton in her The Woman’s Bible writes:
“The children of Israel multiplied so rapidly that Pharaoh became alarmed, lest the nation should become mightier than the Egyptians, so he ordered all the males at birth to be slain. To this end he had a private interview with the midwives, two women, Shiphrah and Puah, and laid his commands upon them. But they did not obey his orders, and excused themselves on the ground that the Jewish women seldom needed their services. Here we have another example of women who “feared God,” and yet used deception to accomplish what they deemed right.
The Hebrew God seemed well pleased with the deception, and gave them each a house for their fidelity in saving the lives of his chosen children.” [9] (emphasis added)
Glen H. Stasses from Fuller Theological Seminary and David P. Gushee who is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University write:
“Bonhoeffer’s stance can be supported by numerous biblical texts that explicitly or implicitly offer divine approval to acts of deception or even dishonesty in conditions of oppression, injustice or war. The most important of these is the story of the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah lying to Pharoah in order to save the lives of the male Hebrew babies ((Ex. 1:19); God responded by blessing them with children of their own.” [10] (emphasis added)
Stasses and Gushee in the above clearly recognise the biblical permissibility for lying and deceiving in certain cases of adverse difficulty in times of oppression, injustice and war. Why should God hold you accountable for saving a life even if it involves manipulation? If you were tied up by a Nazi officer who intends to kill your parents who are hiding in the basement and the Nazi believes that you know their whereabouts are you obliged to reveal their location and forbidden from giving the evil Nazi false directions through dissimulation? Any sane and reasonable minded individual will acquiesce that in such an instance it would be permissible, nay the right thing to do to mislead in order to preserve the sanctity of life which is one of the greatest gifts from God. And by saving your parents’ lives you would be upholding the age old command to “honour thy parents.”
Christian theologian and apologist Paul Copan writes:
“The Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah in Egypt (Exod. 1:15-21) engaged in deception. Because they “feared God,” they resisted Pharaoh, who wanted to put innocent Hebrew male babies to death. These women “did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live” (v. 17). When confronted by Pharaoh, they used deception: “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the widwife can get to them.” The divine response? “God was good to the midwives”; and “because the midwives feared God, He established households for them” (vv. 20,21). Note the close connection between fearing God, resisting Pharaoh (including using deception), and receiving God’s approval” [11] (emphasis added)
Paul Copan agrees with the other Christian commentators and scholars that the reason why God blessed the two women is because they saved the Hebrew children through deception.
Commenting on the verses The Applied Old Testament Commentary states:
“Lying is almost always wrong in God’s sight, but there are rare exceptions. The Egyptian midwives deceived Pharaoh, but God honored them for it (Exodus 1:19-21)…” [12] (emphasis added)
Let us now turn to our second case namely, Rahab of Jericho. In the story of Rahab and the two spies we see yet another clear example of deception that is not condemned, but is in fact regarded as an act deserving of praise. The story is found in Joshua 2:
“Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.
The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.”So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”
But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.
Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Seafor you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
“Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure signthat you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.”
“Our lives for your lives!” the men assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.”
So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. She said to them, “Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way.”” (Joshua 2:1-16)
In summary, the two spies found sanctuary in Rahab’s house. The king of Jericho suspected that they had gone into her house and called on Rahab to give them over to him. Rahab hid them and lied to the king and misled him about their whereabouts. She then helped the spies to escape. Before they did escape however, we learn from the story the real motive behind Rahab’s deception to save their lives. Besides recognising the reality of the God of the Hebrews the reason why she decided to risk her life to save them by deceiving the king was because she wanted the lives of her family and herself to be spared when they the Hebrew people would conquer the land in the future. In short, God did not punish her for her deception that she constructed to save herself and her family, rather her name is preserved in Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25. God saved her due to her deception which saved the spies.
Identifying Rahab as a true heroine Phyllis Silverman Kramer writes:
“Surely Rahab is to be classified as a heroine who acted independently, endangering her life three times for the spies: she first hid them among the flax of her roof (2.4), then deceived the king of Jericho by having him think he was pursuing the spies when actually they were still in her home (2.5-7), and finally helped them escape over the city wall (2.15). Rahab’s deception followed a motif seen in the books of Genesis and Exodus, where women lied in order to save someone. An example from each book was Sarah pretending to be Abraham’s sister, and Shiphrah and Puah telling Pharoah the Hebrew women delivered their babies before arrival.” [13]
Copan after commenting on the midwives writes about Rahab as well:
“The same is true of Rahab of Jericho (Joshua 2). She is commended elsewhere (Heb. 11:31; James 2:25) as one who displayed “faith” in God by hiding two Hebrew spies, deceiving the authorities, and sending the spies off in a different direction. According to James 2, she is praised in part for her deception: “she received the messengers and sent them out by another way.” [14] (emphasis added)
Stasses and Gushee utilises Rahab’s story also as an example of divinely approved act of dishonesty and deception:
“Bonhoeffer’s stance can be supported by numerous biblical texts that explicitly or implicitly offer divine approval to acts of deception or even dishonesty in conditions of oppression, injustice or war… Rahab the prostitute lied to protect the Israelite spies (Josh 2:4-6; cf. Heb 11:31).” [15] (emphasis added)
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at McMaster University Philippa Carter writes:
“Rahab is also a liar and a traitor— or more benignly, a part of the complex of biblical stories that relate how God’s plan is forwarded by means of deception. The biblical view of deception is complex. It seems that God can use even deception to forward divine purposes.” [16] (emphasis added)
The above shows that Carter agrees with the others that God Himself according to the Bible uses deception to fulfill His plan and reward Rahab with life and security for her deed despite the fact that she was not a righteous saint. Conservative scholar and Professor of Bible at the conservative Moody Bible Institute, W. H. Marty under the entry of ‘deception’ writes:
“Deception is the intentional misleading of another person through word or deed. Though deception can be used for good purposes (such as when the Hebrew midwives deceived Pharaoh to save the lives of the newborn makes [Exodus 1:19]), it is most often used to describe the unethical exploitation of another person or the teaching of erroneous doctrine.” [17]
It is clear from the above definition that some acts of deception are exempted from being labelled as evil or sinful. And the example Marty gives of one such deceptive deed that is regarded as good is the midwives of Exodus 1. He concludes his article with the following:
“Deceit, the deliberate misleading of another person, can serve good or evil purposes. When it is used for evil it is a deadly sin.” [18]
Lying according to Marty insofar that it serves evil purposes is sinful. If it aims at good and harms no one then it is permitted and is even classified as good.
Let us turn to our third case, 1 Kings 2:22 which is somewhat different from the previous two as here we have the biblical God actively participating and decreeing the deception Himself.
“”‘By what means?’ the LORD asked. “‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said. “‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’” (1 Kings 22:22)
In this narrative we find the biblical God commissioning a lying spirit to lie and deceive Ahab. The Christian apologist will shout, yell and stomp their feet saying that we are misrepresenting the verse and misinterpreting it. Anyone who reads the text for himself can see that the plain meaning that it imparts is that the biblical God directly commanded an entity to deceive someone. This is in fact a very Christian understanding and interpretation. Minister, theologian and Dean of Graduate Studies at the Christian college New Saint Andrews College, Peter Leithart writes: