Re Abraham's intentions:
Whether what Abraham said can be construed as a lie or not one thing is absolutely clear and that is that his intention was to deceive. Deception is not necessarily a morally bad thing and David's pretense at being crazy is another example of one our ancient heroes getting involved in not completely honest activities.
It is not deception in itself that is such a bad thing it is the ulterior motive that makes deception bad. e.g. In proverbs we are told that Yah hates dodgy scales. Now the ulterior motive of dodgy scales is clear, and that is to defraud hard working people of their hard earned cash and such behaviour is clearly morally incorrect from a biblical standpoint. The ten commandments also tell us that to bear false witness against an innocent man is also morally bad. Again, in this form of deception we see the ulterior motive of wanting to wrongfully incriminate another person is clearly 'bad'.
In the case of Abraham's and David's actions it is clear that their intentions were to deceive. But it is also perfectly clear that they had no morally incorrect ulterior motives behing their deception but merely wanted to save their necks. Seems fine to me!
All things considered, if one day I'm put in a situation whereby a maraunding band of the latest version of Nazis bursts into my house and demands the secret location of my Christian and/or Jewish brethren then you can rest assured that I will quite proudly lyingly say I don't know where they are or provide a false location and you can also rest assured that I won't be losing any night's sleep over my dishonesty.o tell us that to bear false witness against an innocent man is also morally bad. Again, in this form of deception we see the ulterior motive of wanting to wrongfully incri
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