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NASB | 1 Samuel 16:2 But Samuel said, "How can I go? When Saul hears of it, he will kill me." And the LORD said, "Take a heifer with you and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.' |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Samuel 16:2 But Samuel said, "How can I go? When Saul hears about it, he will kill me." And the LORD said, "Take a heifer from the herd with you and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.' |
Bible Question:
I know it is not God's character to lie or deceive. But as Samuel was fearing for his own life, God had to tell Samuel to go to the House of Jesse on the pretext of making an offering, which Samuel complied. But that was not the main reason for Samuel to go there. He had a mission to anoint the next King of Israel. That remains the sole and main purpose of his visit. Not the offering. If you leave the lights, TV and even the radio on during the night when no one is in the house, would that constitute deception, if your main purpose was to tell potential burglars that someone is in the house? If you are invited to a dinner party and the host ask you whether you like the food she painstakingly prepared for the whole afternoon, would you tell the truth when you actually did not like the food one bit? In the many wars that Israel fought, some strategies involved deception. The Ten Commandments instruct us not to bear false witness against thy neighbors. It does not say that we should not bear false witness against thy enemies. Remember the account of Rehab, when she had to lie in order to save the lives of the Jewish spies? Rehab's life was spared because of this act and God blessed and used her in the genealogy of Christ's birth. So I still believe that God told Samuel to deceive King Saul in order to preserve the life of Samuel in order that the next King of Israel can be chosen and anointed. Saul was no longer a servant of God and he was rejected as some kind of an "enemy" of God. Can someone shed more light on this issue? In Christ's love, Gregory |
Bible Answer: Triplicate Post |