Back To Bethel

[Guest Yediyd]

I came accross a neet verse today...Abram goes up while heading south...

Genesis 13:1...

And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.

Abram went up...into the south.

...This is because going "down" is a picture of sin in the Bible. When Abram was in Egypt, he sinned in lieing about his wife,

...even though she tecknickly WAS his sister...Genisis 20:12, telling the truth is still lieing if you don't tell the whole truth.

Soooo...when Abram left Egypt...he went up (out of his sin)out of Egypt...into the south.

I just thought that was neet...Any thoughts?

[MaidservantX]

Abraham lived before the ten commandments were fingered. What was the law that he needed to obey that told him he couldn't lie?

The ten commandments say that one should 'not bear false witness against thy neighbor'. This involves at the same time a lot more and a lot less than lying.

The scriptures occasionally denominate the adversary as the father of lies, but really -- this is about falsehoods having to do with the nature of the universe and of our selves (beings).

I can think of a million instances where I would lie in a heartbeat and most (but not all) of them have to do with safety. I think it would be wrong NOT to lie in many instances.

Obviously, no great intimate relationship or other relationship of trust can be built on things hidden in the dark, deception and dishonesty. But I can think of many instances where trust and honesty with an evil person, for example, would be a lack of the 'wise as serpents' concept. In the Book of Mormon wars, strategies (fancy called -- tricks, eh?) were employed to give safety and provide a barrier between what good people were thinking so that their thoughts were not evident to those who sought to destroy.

This is an endless subject, so I don't imagine I've spoken to every possible circumstance where lying would be wrong or when lying would be necessary, but you get the idea.

In other words, IMO, people (not you, Yedi, I don't mean you :) ) need to stop hyperventilating about Abraham and Sarah's strategy that including a lie that resulted in the safety of their family.

By the way, yedi, I loved your 'going up' idea you found. Also, isn't Bethel where Jacob dreamed his dream -- Isaac's son?

[Guest Yediyd]

Yes, Bethel is a picture of getting right with G-d.

When Jacob had his dream and got right with G-d...he built an alter at Bethel...Abram went back to Bethel when he left Egypt.

I'm not hung up about his lie...because it wasn't a lie...she WAS his sister....but if you read the whole chapter...when Abram left Egypt...he was getting right with G-d...He went back to Bethel.

his deception was a sin in the eyes of G-d...I get that idea from the context of the whole story...and his "going UP into the SOUTH"

[Guest Yediyd]

Just realized that I need to ammend my statement...Jacob was the grandson of Abram...Abram built the first alter at Bethel when he left His "sin" and got right with G-d...then, when Jacob came to Bethel...he had his famouse dream...and he sacrificed on the alter that his grandfather built.

Back to Bethel...has come to mean...getting back to G-d, or getting right with G-d.

[Guest Yediyd]

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