47 Days of Justice 2024 - Day 7: Don’t get caught in a web of deceit.
- araratchurch
- Jun 5, 2024
- 3 min read
“So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, "I am pregnant."”
2 Samuel 11:4-5 ESV
Someone once said, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!" (Sir Walter Scott, 1808) The meaning of this line is that deception may start “small,” but it brings “friends.”
You see, the truth requires no support to hold it up. The truth supports itself. Alternatively, a lie needs a supporting structure. If left to stand alone, a lie will fall under its own weight at the slightest breeze of scrutiny.
“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”
Galatians 6:7 ESV
Our behavior—good or bad, deceitful or honest, just or unjust—plants its own kind right back into our lives.
However, it seems that those who operate in deceit of any sort, seem to think that they can even deceive God Himself. Indeed, they believe they will never face a reckoning. Jesus described a scenario with just such deceivers.
“On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’”
Matthew 7:22-23 NLT
Yes, the self-deceived wicked, will dare to try to defend themselves before the highest Judge. But, for them, the jig will be up, and they will suffer this painful truth: “He who defends himself, has a fool for a client.”
Now, what does a lie have to do with injustice? Obviously, both are the products of evil. But their connection goes beyond that of category.
Wherever there is injustice, there is a lie supporting it. As we have discussed, much iniquity is shrouded in a smokescreen of rationalizations. What I didn’t say before, but say now, is that rationalization per se is based on a lie.
If nothing else, the rationalization process is based on the assumption that circumstances, desires, etc., skew the definition of what is right. Granted, that process (the skewing of what is right or wrong) may start small, but can end up producing atrocities like the holocaust of the Jews, the genocide of the Armenians, the practice of human slavery, etc. In fact, all injustices begin with a lie. Consider Jesus‘s words in the book of Revelation:
“The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."
Revelation 21:7-8 ESV
For our purposes here, let’s list a few lies that precede and defend injustice:
> This is for the greater good.
> They did this to me so I should be able to do this to them.
> This person/these people is/are of a different “sort” than me, and deserve(s) what they get.
>This isn’t injustice, it’s just the way of it in a dog-eat-dog world.
>This isn’t my fight/business.
>It’s always been this way.
>Etc.
But—make no mistake—the lie used to support the injustice only serves as fuel on the flame of God’s judgment.
Now, what does all of this have to do with Bathsheba having conceived a child by King David? You see, the deceit has led to the conception of something that cannot be hidden. And let’s face it, some define right and wrong by what they can or cannot get by with.
As a tragic aside, the practice of abortion—the murdering of unborn human beings—is an attempt to negate any consequences of one’s behavior. Many times it is an attempt to avoid all consequences of sexual promiscuity. So, one evil gives rise to one of the most heinous of crimes before God: the shedding of innocent blood.
Now, speaking of shedding innocent blood, King David is facing a conundrum. What will he do? Surely no one can find out what he did with Bathsheba!
Watch out King David! Whereas spiders can avoid being caught in their own webs, it won’t be the same for you!
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!
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