Day Three Hundred Twenty-Four “Half Truths”
Our culture is riddled with deception in advertising. From an energy drink that gives you wings, to diet plans that melt 10 pounds in 10 minutes, to facial treatments that promise to erase those aging lines overnight, we have all been bombarded by outlandish advertising claims. It’s easy to see through most of the falsehoods thrown at us, but some deception is difficult to detect, especially if a bit of the truth is conveniently mixed into the statement. It has been said that it is twice as hard to crush a half-truth as a whole lie, and there is no cleverer of a pitchman than Satan, who meticulously weaves truth and lie to ensnare us. Let’s examine his tactics more closely.
As Israel camped on the edge of the Promised Land, twelve men were chosen, one man from each tribe, “every one a ruler among them,” to form a scouting party to “spy out the land” for forty days. They had a specific mission, to see whether the people be “strong or weak, few or many…dwelling in tents…or in strongholds,” if the land be “good or bad…fat or lean.” Forty days later they would report that indeed it was a good land, flowing “with milk and honey.” But Satan knew that the people struggled in the area of faith, in having unwavering confidence in their God’s providence, so he wove a perfect lie using as a mouthpiece ten of those spies: “We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we…we saw the giants, the sons of Anak…we were in our own sight as grasshoppers.” We saw the people; they are way too big for us to handle. And humanly speaking, that was true.
Israel’s army consisted of a rag-tag group of former slaves redeemed out of Egypt, whereas the descendants of Anak were a formidable warlike people, of whom the Philistine strongman, Goliath, would eventually be born. They were GIANTS, they were STRONGER. But Satan omits an important truth, God was never planning for His people to conquer the land on their own, for the promise was made that He would fight the battles for them, for “the LORD thy God, he will go before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before thee.” The “congregation wept,” believed the lie, and rebelled against their God, Who was so provoked at their lack of faith that He allowed them to “wander in the wilderness forty years…after the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year,” one year for each day of the reconnaissance mission.
A half truth is a whole lie. Be cautious; Satan is well-aware of our weaknesses and can manipulate the truth in such a way that it becomes a lie. After all, he is the father of lies.
John 8:44b He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because the truth is not in him…for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Lord, make me always conscious that half truths are part of Satan’s arsenal. Keep me on guard for his lies and deception.
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