Exodus 1:15-19 “The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives … ‘When you are helping the Hebrew women in childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him …’ The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, ‘Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?’ The midwives answered Pharaoh, ‘Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”‘
This was lying for “good” reason. Out of the 1 million plus Jews in Egypt at that time, 65-70 children would be born each day, and half of them boys. The midwives were committed to facilitating life, not killing life. Moses was one of those spared boys.
Principle: Evil practices generate loss of respect, disobedience, dishonesty, and rebellion.
Three thousand years later, medical workers in Nazi Germany were required to report any abnormal or deformed children in their care, supposedly to give the children special treatment. The special treatment was to earmark them for death. The deception was governmental. Wouldn’t it be okay for a physician to miss-report abnormalities to save the life of a child?
What role do circumstances play in determining whether telling the truth is the best policy? If everyone is doing it, doesn’t that make it okay? Does bending the truth to keep the company going, or making the deal, or selling the product justify it if it keeps the company alive? Is it right to fudge on the tax reporting to help keep the doors open? Where does God come into all of this?
Back to the German physician question. Would it be godly to treat an abnormal child and refuse to report it? Would it be godly to refuse to carry out the law and feign obedience to the government enforcers? Would it be godly to leave the country, or quit the practice of medicine and become a street sweeper instead?
A recent polltaker said that three out of four adults between the ages of 18 and 25 disbelieve in absolute truth. Cheating, dishonesty, and misrepresentation have become a way of life not only to this generation but also to their parents who developed the art of fabricating truth in the ’50s and ’60s.
God is truth. Break with the mentality of the day and choose to tell the truth with all candor and to live so that you do not have to protect yourself by dishonesty, It will create a climate of truth in your workplace and life.
The honorable midwives in Egypt could have kept on doing the right thing, told the truth and died. Would that have been bad? Would that have changed the course of history? Or would God have protected them in His supernatural way?
