Abraham, the great man of faith, is an imperfect human being like the rest of us. On two occasions, we see him compromise the truth, and then we see the disease propagate to his descendants.
The first time is when Abraham and his household travel south into Egypt because of a famine. Because his wife, Sarah, is such a beautiful woman, he fears that the Egyptians may kill him in order to have her. So, Abraham and Sarah agree to tell the Egyptians that she is his sister. The result is that she is taken into the Pharaoh’s harem. From the plague that God brings upon him, Pharaoh confronts Abraham who owns up to the ruse, and is sent on his way. Abraham repeats
this same deception a second time when they return to Canaan. This time they deceive Abimelech, a local king. In this episode, we learn that his statement is not technically a lie because his wife Sarah is actually his half-sister. So it’s not an out and out lie, but it’s certainly a half-truth used for deception. And what is Abraham’s motive? Fear.Now we zoom ahead to his son Isaac. Isaac faces the same fear of being killed by the local king, so that his wife, Rebekah, can be taken. And he uses the same “she’s my sister” ruse that he no doubt learned from Abraham’s story. Again, the motive is fear, but this time there is no half-truth; it’s an out and out lie. Rebekah is distant relative; not his sister.
Isaac and Rebekah have twin sons, Jacob an Esau who carry the family disease further. Their father Isaac favors the firstborn, Esau, and wants to give him his prophetically binding blessing, but Rebekah favors Jacob the younger of the twins, so she helps Jacob deceive his father. Jacob physically disguises himself, and three times he boldly lies to his father. In one of his statements he actually incorporates God into the lie! The deception is more bold than either Abraham’s or Isaac’s and, the motive has grown worse. Jacob lies, not because he’s afraid, but in order to get something for himself. Selfish-greed.
Time passes and Jacob has twelve sons born to him. The ten oldest sons hate their younger brother, Joseph, because their father conspicuously favors him, and because Joseph delivers prophecies from God that appear to favor him as well. The older brothers first plan to kill him outright, but ultimately settle on selling him to slave traders for a profit. In order to cover their guilt, they rip-up Joseph’s special coat, splash it with goat’s blood, and show it to their father, Jacob, so that he will think Joseph has been killed by a wild animal. They stick to their deception even in the face of their father’s heart-wrenching grief. Their motive is to cover up the guilt and their crime.
In these stories of these successive generations, we see the lies become more and more severe. The motives change and the consequences are greater. Abraham starts the infection with a half-truth because of his fear. His son Isaac uses exactly the same ruse out of fear, but this time there is no half-truth; it’s a direct lie. In the next generation, Jacob’s lies are direct, elaborate, and even involve God Himself. His motive is not fear, but selfishness. He lies to his father to gain the family blessing. And finally, the sons of Jacob deceive their father to cover up their crime and their guilt at the price of his severe grief and depression.
Follow the chain of events. Lying and deception is part of the family heritage that begins with Abraham’s compromise and grows worse and worse with each succeeding generation. There’s a sobering lesson here. We may think that our “little sin” is not all that significant, and even if we get caught the consequences will be bearable. But that in itself is a half-truth! The compromises that we make with sin flow forward and corrupt succeeding generations. That is the high price of compromise. Think it over.