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Deceitfulness - We all deceive ourselves
buildontherock.net
2017-08-24
Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive: Sir Walter Scott  (Scottish Novelist, Poet, Historian and Biographer, 1771-1832). In dealing with self deception I will seek out quotes to show that It has been around for a very long time and is a well known problem. To refuse to believe it is to renounce the observations of eminent people over centuries.

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Believe it or not we deceive ourselves

Few people always want to know the truth or seek it out. In fact, many people actively deny the truth until they are forced to deal with it.
We rarely see the world as it really is. Our perception of the world is biased, our memories betray us, and our true motives can remain hidden.
For better or worse, we constantly convince ourselves of things that are not true. We kid ourselves about the most basic things in life: Who we are and what is going on around us.
Most of the time we lie to ourselves in order to maintain a sense of control. After all, no one likes feeling vulnerable or helpless.
All of us experience the world through various filters - most of which are designed to make life more bearable...Truth About DeceptionSelf-Deception, Love and Romancewww.truthaboutdeception.comWEB06 February 2011

[Emphasis mine]

This was said with regard to Love and Romance but I suggest that it applies to all segments of our lives. Despite what we know the reality to be we perceive ourselves as always pure and minty fresh.

I encourage readers to visit the site and complete the tests. They are inormative and entertaining. In the section Self-Deception, Love and Romance the writer points out that once we are emotionally involved (and I add positively or negatively) we find it hard to accept the truth.

Those are pretty strong statements. They remind me of a joke:

An Irishman, a Mexican and a Blonde Guy were doing construction work on scaffolding on the 20th floor of a building.

They were eating lunch and the Irishman said, Corned beef and cabbage! If I get corned beef and cabbage one more time for lunch, I'm going to jump off this building.

The Mexican opened his lunch box and exclaimed, Burritos again! If I get burritos one more time I'm going to jump off, too.

The blonde opened his lunch and said, Bologna again! If I get a bologna sandwich one more time, I'm jumping too.

The next day, the Irishman opened his lunch box, saw corned beef and cabbage, and jumped to his death.

The Mexican opened his lunch, saw a burrito, and jumped, too.

The blonde guy opened his lunch, saw the bologna and jumped to his death as well.

At the funeral, the Irishman's wife was weeping. She said, If I'd known how really tired he was of corned beef and cabbage, I never would have given it to him again!

The Mexican's wife also wept and said, I could have given him tacos or enchiladas! I didn't realize he hated burritos so much.

After a deafening silence everyone turned and stared at the blonde's wife. The blonde's wife said, Don't look at me. The idiot makes his own lunch.

Sometimes we deceive ourselves by the logical assumptions we make in life. Everybody assumed that the blonde's wife was at fault.

The book of Jeremiah supports what is being said here about self deception. When we read through the book it is hard to believe that even the levites and priests of his hometown wanted to kill him for telling the truth. Jeremiah was from Anatoth, a city of refuge in the land of Benjamin that was given to the levites (Joshua 21:13-18; 1 Chronicles 6:54-60).

Jeremiah 11:17-2317For the LORD of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal.18And the LORD hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou shewedst me their doings.19But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.20But, O LORD of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I revealed my cause.21Therefore thus saith the LORD of the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that thou die not by our hand:22Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine:23And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.

These priests had convinced themselves that they should tolerate paganism and Jeremiah had exposed it. Now, in addition to that, they convinced themselves that it made sense to murder Jeremiah. Could this happen to your priest?

Jeremiah records that God conducted the following experiment in Judah. In reading the extract some may find these points helpful.

  • broad places mean thoroughfares e.g. city-centre, malls and markets.
  • stricken them means flogged them.
  • they have not grieved {Hebrew 'chuwl': to twist}. They did not writhe in pain.
  • consumed them {Hebrew 'kalah':to end}. Wasted them to nothing.

Under the reign of Manasseh they had become vassals of Assyria and Manasseh himself was taken to Babylon under an accusation of treason. In the early years of Josiah (basically the next king, because his father Amon was soon assasinated) the nation made some outward recovery.

Jeremiah was given an opportunity to defend the the people by going into the byways to find one person that was obedient to God.

Jeremiah 5:1-31Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.2And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.3O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

Jeremiah could not find anybody and he wanted to help his people, so he complained that it was unfair because the everyday people did not know any better. Jeremiah proposed that he should be allowed to go to the upper class of his day.

As I understand it:
  • broken the yoke refers to the act that the yoke controlled the animal by the neck.
  • burst the bonds { Hebrew 'mowcer': halter}. The halter was held by the owner to pull on the yoke.

God had no control over these people. They did as they pleased.

Jeremiah 5:4-64Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.5I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.6Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.

All classes of people are accounted for in fooling themselves to disobey God and believe that they will get away with it.

Even if we cannot see the problem of self deception it certainly has been a point worthy of comment for many people.

William R.Alger, Every man is his own greatest dupe.

Gamaliel Bailey, The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat one's self. All sin is easy after that.

Demosthenes, Nothing is so easy as to deceive one's self, for what we wish we readily believe; but such expectations are often inconsistent with the reality of things.

Benjamin Franklin, Who has deceived thee so often as thyself?

Lord Greville, No man was ever so much deceived by another, as by himself.

So if we are self deceived, we certainly are in illustrious company. At least these recgnised that it could happen to them which is the first step in repentance, but some people do as they please and then want to know what God's problem is.

Jeremiah 16:10 And it shall come topass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and theyshall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all thisgreat evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sinthat we have committed against the LORD our God?

Some people are so self deluded that they cannot recognise the evil in themselves. Nowadays we have movements, like LGBT, that cannot see the problem. I plan to present something on that when I finish this series. It is really sad if our people have reached the stage where they just cannot see it.