DECEPTION by Joseph Harvey Waggoner

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 30, 1869

DECEPTION.

By Joseph Harvey Waggoner

Says the Proverb, “He that hateth, dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him. When he speaketh fair, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart.” Prov. xxvi, 24, 25. It is the inevitable lot of a deceitful person not to be believed “when he speaketh fair.” Time and space would both fail, to point out all the testimonies in God’s word against deception. A hypocrite is a most odious character in the sight of God and man. He may think he can gain something by deception; but all he gets at the last is a bad name, and will not be believed when he tells the truth. A person who once tells a lie is distrusted and suspected; but a deceitful person—one who has cultivated a habit of falsehood in both word and life, cannot be believed, and is always shunned by the honest. No sin has been more severely denounced in the Scriptures, and none more certainly brings evil consequences even in this life; because it is not only an evil in itself, but it is the refuge and hiding place of all other sins. It is the accessory of all crimes.

The case of Jacob deceiving his father to secure a blessing is well presented in Spiritual Gifts, and so as clearly to vindicate the justice and purity of God’s character and government. And it is worthy of remark that Jacob suffered most severely in after life from the same cause.

When he had served the appointed years for Rachel, and “they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her,” how must his heart have sunk within him to find that his ardent affections had been trifled with by the deception of Laban, who had brought one unto him whom he had never loved. We can scarcely imagine anything more cruel than this.

And again his own sons caused his heart to bleed when, with deceit and falsehood, they brought to him the coat of his dearly-beloved son, and made him believe that an evil beast had devoured him. Long years he mourned his son as destroyed, because of this deception, though Joseph was both living and prosperous. As by his own deception he was long separated from his father’s house, so by the deception and treachery of his children was his son long separated from him. So his sin followed him.

But it may be asked, Why did Jacob suffer thus for his crime if he was truly penitent, and so forgiven? Because God would show his abhorrence of the sin of deception, and let him suffer in this life, though he was granted mercy and life in the world to come.

A family in England, somewhat noted for piety, was yet very unhappy in their family relations; calamities greatly befell them. John Wesley was asked the reason of this, as it seemed to many to be a denial of the providence of God over his servants. Mr. Wesley replied that he had known them from their childhood, and that, as a family, they had been very disrespectful and unkind to their parents, and therefore the like had been meted out to them. He further said that he had often noticed that, where persons had been guilty of sins peculiarly abhorrent to God, they had been left to suffer the bitter consequences in this life, though God had accepted their repentance and given them assurance of life eternal.

Many such cases are found in the Bible, beside that of Jacob. Though king David was in all else honorable, upright, frank and generous, and repented sincerely for his crime, yet the sin of adultery was so odious to God that it could not be altogether passed over. He caused him to suffer deeply in consequence of it. Had David been of an opposite character; had he been deceitful and vain instead of being frank and humble, who can tell what might not have been the result of such a sin? But noble as he was in all his life beside, even a man to govern Israel after God’s “own heart,” he had to feel the rod for his departure from the commandment of God.

No sin can be so secret that God cannot see it. Deception will not avail before him who knows the heart. And though a person may flatter himself that his schemes have succeeded, and his plans been too deeply laid to be detected, he will be sure to find at last that “The way of the transgressor is hard.”

J. H. WAGGONER.

Skowhegan, Maine.