The modern Western evangelical conceptualization of "you shall not lie" is a false translation of Exodus 20:16 (in the Torah), where it should read "you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" (to wrongly implicate and destroy him in a legal dispute).
In Leviticus 19:11, the translation could be fairly made as "do not lie to one another". The phrase "one another" (in Leviticus) and "your neighbor" (in Exodus) is important. The Mosaic law code was remarkably noteworthy for the special instructions it contained to treat foreigners, strangers and sojourners with a special degree of regard, love and hospitality. However, they were never mistook for being a part of the covenant community. Within the special trust and special community under the covenant, the injunction to not lie, not merely as an immoral offensive and aggressive and destructive action, might as well have been a naive blanket prohibition, even though the understanding of it is likely to have been mainly or exclusively neighbor-focussed : do not deceive your neighbor for the purpose of aggressing against them and destroying what could be their rightful equity.
The mis-leading and naive modern evangelical Sunday school version that sounds like a blanket prohibition against lying in the context of a "buffered-self" atomized individual facing an amorphous world (with no concept of covenants or communities) is simply a concept that could not even be cognitively entertained or imagined as a coherent thought (let alone supported or opposed) in the context of any culture but the recent, modern West.
Yet again, the modern evangelicalism of my childhood upbringing reveals itself to be an atomized, Platonically dual false Gospel (something which I've frequently intuited but never had the terms or categories to make explicit, until recently).
This understanding removes any difficulty in and makes completely coherent the story of the Hebrew midwives disobeying the State and lying to it for the purpose of protecting the innocent, and then being blessed by God for exactly those actions.
"The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families." [Exodus 1:15-21]
Brother @paulvp,
Once again, I regret that I missed the appearance of this fine observation...
If you will be kind enough to reply to this comment, I will upvote your reply...
Thank you, and please carry on! :D ... I very much want to see more great articles here, as well as continued updates to your wonderful "What is Christian anarchism?" article.
Thank you for your encouragement @creatr!
I only wish my vote mattered more!
Blessings, friend!