[Footnote 1:  1 Sam. 16:  1-3.]

[Footnote 2:  1 Sam. 7:  15-17; 9:  22-24; 11:  14,15; 20:29.]

In other words, the Lord said to Samuel, I want you to go to Bethlehem as my representative, and offer a sacrifice there.  Say this fearlessly.  In due time I will give you other directions; but do not borrow trouble on account of them.  Do your duty step by step.  Speak out the plain truth as to all that the authorities of Bethlehem have any right to know; and do not fear any harm through my subsequent private revelations to you.  In these directions of the Lord there is no countenance of the slightest swerving from the truth by Samuel; nor is there an authorized concealment of any fact that those to whom Samuel was sent had any claim to know.

Still another Bible incident that has been a cause of confusion to those who did not see how God could approve lying, and a cause of rejoicing to those who wanted to find evidence of his justification of that practice, is the story of the prophet Micaiah, saying before Jehoshaphat and Ahab that the Lord had put a lying spirit into the mouths of all the false prophets who were at that time before those kings.[1] Herbert Spencer actually cites this incident as an illustration of the example set before the people of Israel, by their God, of lying as a means of accomplishing a desired end.[2] But just look at the story as it stands!

[Footnote 1:  1 Kings 22:  1-23; 2 Chron. 18:  1-34.]

[Footnote 2:  The Inductions of Ethics, p. 158.]

Four hundred of Ahab’s prophets were ready to tell him that a campaign which he wanted to enter upon would be successful.  Micaiah, an honest prophet of the Lord, was sent for at Jehoshaphat’s request, and was urged by the messenger to prophesy to the same effect as Ahab’s prophets.  Micaiah replied that he should give the Lord’s message, whether it was agreeable or not to Ahab.  He came, and at first he spoke satirically as if he agreed with the other prophets in deeming the campaign a hopeful one.  It was as though he said to the king, You want me to aid you in your plans, not to give you counsel from the Lord; therefore I will say, as your prophets have said, Go ahead, and have success.  It was evident, however, to Ahab, that the prophet’s words were not to be taken literally, but were a rebuke to him in Oriental style, and therefore he told the prophet to give him the Lord’s message plainly.  Then the prophet gave a parable, or a message in Oriental guise, showing that these four hundred prophets of Ahab were speaking falsely, as if inspired by a lying spirit, and that, if Ahab followed their counsel, he would go to his ruin.