Was Rahab's Lie a Sin? When Faith and the Rules Collide
The Imbroglio Of Faith
From the Editor: A pharmacist's dilemma, a wartime heroine, and a Canaanite woman in Jericho may seem to have nothing in common. They share one thing: a moment where every choice costs something, and only faith knows the way through. Here's the imbroglio of faith.
“I know that the Lord has given you this land…The Lord your God is God in heaven above and here on earth” ~ Joshua 2:8,11.
“…whoever comes to God must have faith that God exists and rewards those who seek Him.” ~ Hebrews 11:6.
In Canada, pharmacists are guided by six bioethical principles:
Beneficence — being a benefit to the patient (promoting their best interest and wellbeing).
Non-maleficence — do no needless harm, prevent harm, remove harm.
Justice — equity and fairness in the distribution of resources, treatments, and harms.
Autonomy — respecting the patient’s free will and their right to choose or refuse treatment.
Veracity — telling the truth without deception or intent to mislead.
Fidelity — loyalty and keeping our promises to the patient; confidentiality, and staying free of conflicts of interest.
No principle routinely trumps the others.
Now there’s a problem with these principles. There come situations in practice where we have to choose between 2 or more alternative actions — considered a “moral dilemma.”
So, no matter what we choose to do, at least one of the above principles will be violated, and we might end up upholding just one principle.
Look At This Example:
A patient with well-controlled hypertension comes to the pharmacy asking about a decongestant for a bad cold that is affecting their sleep and work. They specifically ask, “Is this safe for me to take?” You know the medication can raise blood pressure and is generally not recommended for people with hypertension. However, this patient has a history of stopping all medications when they hear about any possible side effect, which previously led to uncontrolled blood pressure and an emergency room visit.
To help them feel comfortable taking something that will improve their quality of life while avoiding another health crisis, you reply, “Most people use it without issues when taken for a short time,” and you do not mention the blood pressure risk or suggest seeing their doctor first.
In this situation, the pharmacist upheld beneficence (doing good by helping the patient manage their symptoms and stay on track with their health) but violated veracity (did not give complete, honest information about the risks).
No Clean Exit
Why am I telling you all this? There’s a word for this kind of tangled, no-clean-exit situation.
Imbroglio, which means being embroiled in an intricate, complicated dilemma. Great word. I don’t love it. Glad nobody uses it at dinner.
This is the same kind of tension I believe Rahab faced in the Bible. Read Joshua 2:1–7. She had to choose between telling the truth to the king’s men (veracity) and protecting the Israelite spies who were carrying out God’s plan (beneficence, doing good and fidelity, loyalty to God’s side). She violated veracity and upheld beneficence and fidelity.
Like the pharmacist in the example above, she could not follow every principle at the same time. She chose to protect the spies even though it meant she did not tell the full truth.
Rahab, unlike everyone else in her city, put her fear down and acted in faith in the God of Israel.
And here’s the thing worth sitting with: the Federal law (in Canada, in most places) would side with the pharmacist’s professional duty to disclose. But God, in Rahab’s story, seems to be asking for something else entirely, faith, acted on, even when it costs you the truth.
Even though she lied, it’s her faith that earns commendation in scripture — not the lie itself, but the courage underneath it.
Laura Secord - A Different Kind of Courage
Back in August 2020, deep in COVID, when people were dying at a rate the news couldn’t stop repeating, everyone masked, everyone anxious — my friend Erick and I visited Niagara Falls, the Canadian side. It was my first time. He took me to what he called his favourite spot in the world near the falls, and after seeing it, I understood immediately why people insist the Canadian side has the better view.
We also visited some historical places and monuments nearby later on. We came to a place called “Laura Secord Homestead.” The woman, Laura Secord, used to live at this place. Back in June 1813, during the War of 1812, American soldiers were occupying this area. She overheard them planning a surprise attack on the small British force at Beaver Dams.
To get the warning through, she walked roughly 20 miles (32 km) from her home on foot through woods, fields, and swampy ground for 17 hours. She did it cleverly and carefully to avoid American patrols and deliver the message to British Lieutenant James FitzGibbon.
Her warning worked, the British and their Mohawk allies ambushed the Americans and won the Battle of Beaver Dams. She could have stayed home and ignored it or asked someone else to pass this tactical information, but she decided it was her responsibility to do the needful and hence saved some soldiers’ lives at that now-famous battle.
Laura had to be (or at least look) innocent as a dove and shrewd as a snake. Is that what Jesus meant by that phrase? Is that what Rahab was too? C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, puts it this way:
“He (Jesus) told us to be not only as harmless as doves but also as wise as serpents. He wants a child’s heart, but a grown up’s head. He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but He also wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first-class fighting trim… He has room for people with very little sense, but He wants every one to use what sense they have. The proper motto is not ‘Be good, sweet maid and let who can be clever,’ but “Be good, sweet maid, and don’t forget that this involves being as clever as you can.’ God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than of any other slackers. If you are thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you, you are embarking on something which is going to take the whole of you, brains and all…Anyone who is honestly trying to be a Christian will soon find his intelligence being sharpened: one of the reasons why it needs no special education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education itself.”
Rahab, in her faith, using every bit of intelligence she had in the middle of that imbroglio, was — in Lewis’s sense — already becoming something like a Christian. If she hadn’t used her wits, she’d have handed over the spies and stayed loyal to a city that was about to fall anyway.
She had to be clever, wise, faith-filled, and do the right thing, all at once. That’s hard. Being listed in the Hall of Faith is tough. Being written into the genealogy of Jesus is tougher still. We’re not asked to replicate her exact circumstances — we’re asked to imitate the faith underneath them (Hebrews 13:7).
While Jericho Sat Frozen
Contrast Rahab with the rest of Jericho. Her countrymen sat in fear and did nothing. They trusted their king, their walls, their odds. Nobody even tried to walk out with a white flag. Just Rahab. That’s the real dividing line in this story.
Not “who told the truth” but “who actually did something with what they believed.”
It’s God who gives the discernment for real dilemmas; we’re called to bring both heart and head to them. Staying frozen in place isn’t the safe option it looks like. It just feels safer.
It’s worth saying plainly: Rahab wasn’t a modern healthcare worker bound by a professional code of ethics. She was a Canaanite woman living under Jericho’s rules and her own culture’s norms, not yet under the Mosaic Law. The standard her story is measured against isn’t a checklist of bioethical principles — it’s God’s sovereign plan, and her response of faith to it.
Her lie to the king’s men is recorded, but it’s never held up as the praiseworthy part. Her faith is. That faith is what Scripture says put her right with God, and led her to protect His people at real risk to herself and her family (Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25). May we carry that kind of unwavering faith the way these women did.
How can we please God without faith? (Hebrews 11:6).
Writing is one of the ways I process faith and life, and this post is part of that journey. If you'd like to explore more of my writing, you can visit my Amazon Author Central page to check out my books.
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Thanks for reading!
Recommended Read:
📖 The Subtle Line Between Good and Right by Dr. Anudeep Manne
A companion reflection on the same tension Rahab faced: the difference between doing what looks good and doing what is actually right. From King Saul's costly "spiritual" disobedience to a hospital decision that felt wrong but wasn't, a look at the discernment it takes to choose rightly.
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