Re: Divine Deception from the Good Guys
Does it strike you as deception that God refuses to explain everything to your satisfaction?
What would happen to the art of diplomacy if keeping some things to yourself was forbidden? What would happen to civility if we were all required to reveal every thought that passed through our heads? (BTW: The socialist/communist theory of justice demands the authority to inspect your private thoughts.)
Fundamental to a genuine biblical outlook is the fallen mortality of human nature in this world. Human nature is fallen; by its very nature, it cannot be trusted. The only redemption possible for the flesh is for us to migrate our consciousness out of our heads and into our hearts, closer to the spirit. Even then, it requires a constant watch over the flesh to keep it nailed to the Cross.
Scripture flatly warns that not every thought in your head is fit for public consumption. How many proverbs advise you to “watch your tongue” under certain conditions? I’ll give you one: Proverbs 21:23. In the western sense of legal and semantic absolutism, that is tantamount to lying.
What everyone ignores is that, in the Hebrew culture, it was not the act of lying itself, but the intent and results that make it sin. The biblical concept of “wisdom” is keeping the Covenant, living according to its priorities and purposes. Sometimes you must tell the whole truth as you know it; sometimes you must keep your mouth shut. The focus is not on the action itself.
Thus, when God commissioned one of the elohim spirits to deceive King Ahab, the whole point was that Ahab had rejected the Covenant (1 Kings 22) and had earned God’s wrath. Ahab was defying God’s revealed will. Western theologians choke on this passage because they are obsessed with propositional truth, which is not at all the same as divine revelation. The concept of propositional truth is from Hellenism; it had no place in ancient Hebrew tradition. Platonic or Aristotelian epistemology are alien to God’s revelation.
Our mortal human existence is inherently false, a deception in itself. Our reality is not real. That was a major element in our recent study in Hebrews 8. A proper grasp on the biblical viewpoint starts with understanding that our world is an artificial construct, a temporary bubble inserted into God’s Creation to prove a point to an audience that is not human. We are a demonstration of something that is truly critical to God’s plans; it’s not about us and our pitiful existence in mortal flesh. The very presence of mortality and flesh is contrary to what God wants for us, but He tolerates this situation because of something far beyond our comprehension.
Thus, taking this existence too seriously is wicked in itself. To attempt an assessment of God and His Word from the basis of what fallen flesh can understand is poking God in the eye; it’s a rejection of Christ. Redemption for us means dismissing the whole construct of Western Civilization and reclaiming a proper Hebraic frame of reference.
