Hebrew Midwives and the Exodus: 3 Faith Lessons For Christians
The Bible gives us various accounts of people of faith who stood up against what is wrong and were rewarded by God for it. Two people we can learn from are Shiphrah and Puah.
We find Shiphrah and Puah early in the Bible, in Exodus 1:15. They were midwives by profession, and although various commentaries can't agree on whether they were Hebrews or assisted Hebrew women during childbirth, what we can see is that both of them feared God. And because of this fear of God, they did something we should learn from.
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We find these two women in a difficult situation. Exodus 1:15-16 tells us,
"The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah, and he said, "When you perform the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the stools, if it is a son, then you must kill him, but if it is a daughter, then she may live.""
At this time, the nation of Israel was growing fast while under slavery in Egypt (see Exodus 1:7-14). The Egyptian king wanted to stop the growth of the Israelites by giving them hard labor (see Exodus 1:11-14), and killing newborn Israelite boys.
The king wanted that these midwives would be the ones to lead the infanticide, but because of their fear of God the two midwives did not obey (see Exodus 1:17-19). The result? Newborn Israelite boys survived – at least while the king did not issue a new command (see Exodus 1:22).
What's so special about these two midwives and what can we learn from them? Here are three things.
1) You can choose to prioritize God over any leadership – especially evil or ungodly ones
The midwives feared God, and disobeyed the king. Although the king got mad at them (we don't know what the king did to them after that), God was pleased with them (see Exodus 1:20-21).
Rabbi Jonathan Magonet, in his book "Bible Lives," noted that their decision to do so was "the earliest, and in some ways the most powerful, examples, of resistance to an evil regime."
2) God will honor you for honoring Him
If you choose to honor God, He will honor you as well (see Matthew 10:32; Luke 12:8). God sees all that you do for Him, and even in the face of terrible pressure He will notice the act of obedience that you do for Him, even when it goes unnoticed by others.
Consider how God honored the midwives:
"Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. So it happened that because the midwives feared God, He gave them families." (Exodus 1:20-21)
3) Your obedience to God just might save lives
The midwives literally saved lives. If we obey God today, we might just save lives. If we preach the Gospel and people respond rightly, God will save lives eternally through us, too.
