[antiRepublicrat]

Simply because many Christians are of the opinion the you cannot serve G-d with a lie upon your lips...

Moses lied to Pharaoh, "... Let my people go, that they may sacrifice to me in the desert ... to go three days' journey..." After the plagues, Pharaoh said "go, sacrifice to the Lord as you say." After which the tribe took off forever, not just for three days' sacrifice in the desert.

IOW, precedent is that you can lie for a good cause.

[colorado tanker]

"Let my people go" is so famous, but I'd forgotten the rest of what Moses said. Excellent point.

We obviously have some folks on this thread who know their Bible.

[pgyanke]

This isn't an excellent point, it's ludicrous! What God said is true. If Pharoah had given in, that is what would have occurred. The Israelites didn't skip out on Pharoah, they escaped cruel captivity. This challenge was issued to show the extent of the injustice to the Israelites that they couldn't even worship God as He commanded them.