Living a Lie
Experts agree we lie—and are lied to—much more than we think.
One recent survey showed 91% of Americans lie routinely; 36% of those confess to dark, important lies.
Eighty-six percent lie regularly to parents, says co-author James Patterson in The Day America Told the Truth (Prentice Hall, $19.95.) Seventy-five percent lie to friends; 73%, to siblings, 69%, to spouses. Eighty-one percent lie about feelings; 43%, income; 40%, sex.
We actually encourage others to lie to us to preserve our self- images, says psychiatrist Charles Ford. “We want to preserve our individual myths about ourselves, so we give others cues about what we want to hear from them, true or not. We want to believe what we want to believe.”
David was still a deceiver, and “faith is living without scheming.” He deceived Achish concerning three matters: the request for a city, the raids his men conducted, and the desire to fight the king’s battles.
In response to David’s request for “one of the country towns,” Achish gives him Ziklag (27:5–6), but his motivation is hardly generosity. As Postgate remarks, “it has always proved political for a state to secure the continued attachment of its fighting men by finding plots of land for them.”
the Geshurites and the Girzites and the Amalekites Israel should have exterminated these ancient enemies during their conquest of the promised land (see Deut 20:16–17). David is thus fulfilling the Law and does not incur bloodguilt for their deaths (compare 1 Sam 25:26 and note). With regard to the Amalekites, David’s actions against them accomplish what Saul did not (see ch. 15).
This reply shows that the Geshurites, Gerzites, and Amalekites dwelt close to the southern boundary of Judah, so that David was able to represent the march against these tribes to Achish as a march against the south of Judah, to make him believe that he had been making an attack upon the southern territory of Judah and its dependencies
Although David’s sojourn among the Philistines has rightly been characterized as “one of the most disreputable in David’s career,” from a pragmatic standpoint it accomplishes several things: It places him out of Saul’s reach; it allows him to learn Philistine ways, including their technologies and military practices; it puts him in a position surreptitiously to destroy some of Israel’s longtime foes, while benefiting from their wealth and using some of it to curry favor with leaders in Judah, who will one day be his subjects.501
Avoid Living a Lie.
A little girl came very early one morning to her mother saying, “Which is worse, Mama, to tell a lie or to steal?”
The mother replied that both were so sinful she could not tell which was worse.
“Well, mama,” replied the little one, “I have been thinking a good deal about it, and I think it is ever so much worse to lie than steal.”
“Why, my child?” asked the mother.
“Well, you see, Mama, it is like this,” said the little girl, “if you steal a thing, you can take it back, unless you have eaten it, and if you have eaten it, you can pay for it; but a lie is forever.”
Christians Avoid Living a Lie.
• A lie has no legs. It requires other lies to support it. Tell one lie and you are forced to tell others to back it up.
• Stretching the truth won’t make it last any longer.
• Those that think it permissible to tell white lies soon grow colorblind. - Austin O’Malley
• I would not tell one lie to save the souls of all the world. - John Wesley