THE DANGERS OF DECEPTION (part one)
A man was standing on the street corner looking pitiful in his dark glasses and shabby clothes, holding a tin cup. A kindly man passed by and dropped a quarter in the cup. As he walked away and turned the corner he instinctively turned to look at the blind beggar and noticed his dark glasses were resting on his forehead as he peered into the cup to see what his spoils were.
"Hey, you're not blind," shouted the disgruntled giver. "I know," the imposter responded, "I'm just filling in." "Filling in? Well, where is the real blind man?" "Oh, he's at the movies."
The word 'deceive' in its various forms occurs 87 times in the NIV. Deception is a dangerous thing; both in being deceived as well as being the one doing the deceiving. So let's find out how can we avoid the trappings of falling into either side of it.
1) Deception originated with Satan.
[set up] Gen. 3:13, "Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Satan wasted no time in going after God's creation. The dictionary definition of deceive is: "To cause someone to believe an untruth". Satan lied to Eve in discrediting what God said, "for when you eat of it you will surely die" to which Satan told Eve that wasn't going to happen and that the reason God lied to them was because he didn't want them to become like him. Lying and deceiving go hand in hand. Eve fell for it and Adam soon followed suit. And it has been Satan's MO from hence forth.
Paul cited what happened to Eve in expressing his concern for the Corinthian church. 2nd Cor. 11:3, "But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ."
That's what Satan's goal is. He wanted Adam and Eve to be led astray from their pure and sincere devotion to God and he wants to do the same thing to us. Satan is crafty and cunning. He is the master manipulator and the father of lies. Regardless who is saying them, all deceptions come from Satan. We need to pray that God would equip us to see when he's trying to deceive us. Satan will twist the word to try to deceive us into believing something that God didn't intend.
He tried to do it with Jesus in Matthew 4:5-7, "Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
The problem was, Satan quoted Psalm 91:11-12 correctly. But he wasn't giving it its proper meaning. That's why Jesus fired back with scripture of his own. That's what we need to do. Satan knows how to misuse scripture in an attempt to get us to believe it and act upon it. But scripture always supports scripture so when someone is presenting a verse that is being taken out of context or used incorrectly we can expose that by highlighting a different scripture that counters it. That means we need to know our bible. We need to have our ammunition.
2) Being deceived hurts.
It hurts when it's a friend. Jer. 9:4-5, “Beware of your friends; do not trust your brothers. For every brother is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer. Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning."
This passage isn't meant to be taken as a standard for all time. This was specific to Jeremiah's people at this particular time. It does, however, present an unfortunate truth: that a friend can be brought to the point to be deceptive and a brother-literal and spiritual-can be brought to betray you.
So we do need to beware; not in the sense of automatically being suspicious of everyone we're close to but to understand that as much as we would like to think the ones closest to us would never do such a thing; it can happen. And if you've ever been betrayed or deceived or lied to by a close friend you know the pain. It hurts more that it would if it were merely an acquaintance or stranger.
David experienced this. Psalm 55:12-14, "If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God."
David goes on to say in verses 20-21, My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant. His speech is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart; his words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords."
It's understood that David is talking about a man named Ahithophel who was David's counselor. David's son Absalom had conspired against David to overthrow him so he could become king and he won over Ahithophel to join forces with him. So David was dealing with betrayal and deception from his own son and his close friend.
How is he going to handle this? What will David do in response to this hurtful deception? We see in verses 22-23, "Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall. But you, O God, will bring down the wicked into the pit of corruption; bloodthirsty and deceitful men will not live out half their days. But as for me, I trust in you."
David put the matter in God's hands. He knew God would deal with it and he trusted God with both the betrayal and the protection and provision of himself. We need to do the same. It's not that we don't confront deception when it happens but instead of giving in to the temptation to seek our own brand of justice we put it in God's lap and trust him to take care of it in his own way and trust him to take care of us. He will help mend our broken hearts when we experience a friend's deception.
It hurts when someone minimizes it. Prov. 26:18-19, "Like a madman shooting firebrands or deadly arrows is a man who deceives his neighbor and says, “I was only joking!”
This isn't about not being able to take a joke. This is about feeling the effects of someone deceiving us and then downplaying it as if it were no big deal; often trying to turn it back on us-telling us to lighten up. But we can see that the one who does this is likened to one who shoots deadly arrows.
So obviously deception isn't a trivial matter; it's a big deal. Being deceived, especially by someone we care about is a hurtful experience so when we make light of it or act like it's nothing we worsen the wounds.
3) Deception is problematic.
Sir Walter Scott said, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."
In the story of Jacob and Esau, Esau sold his birthright blessing as the oldest son to Jacob for a bowl of stew. Then Jacob deceived his Father, Isaac, who was pretty much blind at this point, by dressing up and presenting himself as his brother Esau so that his father would give him the blessing that was reserved for Esau.
So, when Esau came to present himself to his father to receive the blessing of the firstborn, Jacob's actions were exposed. But by then it was too late. The blessing could not be reversed. Esau was not a happy camper; even though he willingly sold the birthright to Jacob earlier.
Gen. 27:36, "Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? He has deceived me these two times: He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”
Jacob means, "he grasps the heel" because when he and his twin brother Esau were being born Esau was coming out first but Jacob reached out and grasped his heel. It would signify the younger overtaking the older in birthright and blessing.
As Adam Clarke's commentary puts it, "Yaccob, means to defraud, deceive, to supplant, i.e., to overthrow a person by tripping up his heels. Hence this name was given to Jacob, because it was found he had laid hold on his brother's heel, which was emblematical of his supplanting Esau, and defrauding him of his birthright."
So, Jacob means to deceive. But, the deceiver got deceived.
When Jacob was grown he was working for a man named Laban who had two daughters; Leah the older and Rachel the younger. Jacob wanted to marry Rachel but typically the first daughter married off was the oldest. But Jacob made a deal with Laban. He said he would work for him for seven years if he gave Rachel to him to be his wife. Laban agreed. So, when the seven years were over, it was time to collect. Laban threw a party and when it was time to consummate the marriage, Laban played a game of switcheroo.
Gen. 29:25, "When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”
How Jacob could be fooled I'm not sure. Perhaps Rachel and Leah were very close in stature and voice so in the dark it was hard to tell the difference. Also, since they had a big feast perhaps Jacob got into the sauce a little bit and wasn't completely aware of his surroundings. I mean, he didn't figure it out until the morning so it's definitely plausible.
Nonetheless, the deceiver got deceived. But it didn't end there.
Jacob had agreed to work another seven years to get Rachel. And Jacob had success taking care of Laban's flocks and he asked for some to call his own. Over time it was clear that Jacob's flocks were better than Laban's and Laban's attitude soured toward Jacob. Then God told Jacob to take all he had and go back to his father, Isaac. But he didn't tell Laban he was leaving.
Gen. 31:19-20, "When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods. Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away." Laban came looking for Jacob.
And when he found him we see something interesting happen. Vs. 26-29.
We see that David's assumptions of Laban's reaction was incorrect. We can be like that too. We think because of how someone will react if we're honest with them will not be good so we lie or we do things in secret. But then when things get exposed we find out that the person is more upset over the deception than whatever it was that we did.
But now we will see even more deception taking place. Part of the reason Laban wanted to find Jacob was to find out who stole his idols. Rachel didn't tell anyone that she had them. So, when Laban was searching for them, Rachel played a little game of deception. Vs. 30-35.
What can we take away from this series of events? One thing is that deception breeds deception. Rachel had seen her father deceive, she had seen her husband deceive so I guarantee that helped her to be comfortable in doing it.
Another take away is that deception just makes more problems. Rachel could've been killed because of her deception in not telling Jacob what she had done. Jacob could've been killed if Laban had a negative reaction to being deceived. Laban brought trouble on himself by deceiving Jacob with Leah.
And if you read on in Chapter 32 you see that Jacob's act of deception that secured the blessing from Esau caused him to be very afraid when Esau was coming to meet him. The irony is that in the act of deceiving I'm trying to escape trouble but in reality I am actually bringing more trouble upon myself. Deception is very problematic.
