Did Jesus deceive His brothers?

[Mcgyver]

Interesting question...and I think that the answer may not be as simple as "yes" or "no" in regard to deception in general.

 

The old testament law concerns "bearing false witness"...i.e. wrongfully accusing someone or "lying on the witness stand" and IMO does not necessarily preclude deception when such deception is warranted (i.e. in warfare), or when such deception is necessary to be in compliance with God's "higher moral law" (for lack of a better term) such as in the case of Anne Frank and others who protected/smuggled out Jews in the midst of the NAZI regime.

 

Now this doesn't mean that we can make a blanket statement that lying is OK...The account of Ananias and Sapphira lying to the Holy Spirit in Acts 5 gives testimony to that. Ephesians 4:25 likewise tells us to "put away lying", and Jesus told us that Satan is the "father of lies".

 

However the OT is replete with examples of God's people using deception as a means to win various battles...many times at God's own command (e.g. Ai where God told the people to lay an ambush to the rear of the city and then draw the inhabitants out)...so we must I think be cognizant of the fact that there are indeed times when deception is not a sin.

 

Now as far as the original question as to whether Jesus deceived His brothers...I would answer "no He did not" for the following reason:

 

The feast of booths (feast of tabernacles) was one of the three mandatory feasts that were to be kept by all Jewish males according to Deuteronomy 16:16: “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed...."

 

It would be understood by Jesus' brothers that as a Torah observant Jew, Jesus would not entertain in the slightest, the idea of not going at all...for to fail to go would be to disobey the law of God. Even though the word "yet" is omitted from some manuscripts and translations, that would be the implication when Jesus said that He wasn't going to the feast...yet...because Jesus did in fact observe the Torah.

 

So then, given the culture and given that Jesus observed the law...then IMO it would have been understood implicitly by His brothers that He was indeed going to attend the feast...just not travel with them.

[Guest shiloh357]

I am with JDavis on this one.  I don't think we can claim that all acts of deception is wrong.   It is a forgone conclusion that any form of deception used to cloak a sinful act such as marital infedelity, stealing, or any other sinful act is prohibited in Scripture.

 

However, there are cases in Scripture where deception was used.  Samuel, for instance, took a animal with him on the way to Bethlehem claiming that he was on his way to sacrifice to the Lord.   His REAL intention was to anoint a new king over Israel from among the sons of Jesse.  Samuel did the sacrifice, but he hid his true intentions, which was essentially a lie of ommission.

 

God struck the Assyrian king and his army blind while they were looking for Elisha.  He thought the man guiding them would lead them to Elisha but it was in fact Elisha himself guiding them and instead of leading them to himself, he led the blind Assyrian army into the midst of the army of Israel.  Elisha deceived the entire Assyrian army into thinking he was someone he was not and led them into a trap.

 

Both Samuel and Elisha are held blameless even though they participated in acts of deception.  In Elisha's case, God kept the Assyrian army blind allowing Elisha's act of deception to come to a favorable conclusion for Israel.