Blessings Are Often Followed By Challenges - Exodus 1:21-22:

And it came about because the midwives feared God, that He established households for them.  Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.”

Clearly in the verses prior to these, the text says, “God was good to the midwives”.  But in verse 21, we are faced with the possibility that the actual blessing of “establishing households” may not refer to the midwives alone, but to the Hebrews as a whole.  It is possible that the Hebrews, up to this point lived in temporary dwellings even on land that had been given to them.  And now they were being allowed, by God’s providence, to build more permanent homes – all because the Egyptians wanted to make sure they hung around to be slaves.  God has an amazing ability to use the perceived needs of others to bless His children.

If, on the other hand, the “them” here does refer to the midwives, then here we find the real reason why God blessed these women.  As we indicated in our comments on the preceding verses, it was not their possible lying to the Pharaoh that God honored.  It was their awesome fear of God that caused them to disobey the Pharaoh and the reason why God “established households” for them.  If so, we can suggest that God does bless those that facilitate good in life, not just those that are beneficiaries of the act done.  Thus, we have in the New Testament Jesus saying, “blessed are the peacemakers”.

The more the Hebrews were blessed by God, the more anxious Pharaoh and the Egyptians became about their growth and success in the land.  With his original plans of using the midwives to reduce their number by killing infants at birth thwarted the way it was, Pharaoh now turns to his own people with a new decree.  He wants them to drown every male child born to the Hebrews in the Nile River.

As I sit here and write these words, I am reminded that even with all that is going on in the world today between both Muslims and the social liberal elites of the West against Christianity, global data indicates that the number of Christians is still growing, although Islam may be growing at a faster rate.  The data sources certainly disagree at this time on which is the larger and/or the fastest growing religion.  In any case, as the number of Christians either grows or as the faith does not die off as quickly as some would like, I wonder what modern-day ‘Pharaohs’ may dream up for us next.  And more importantly, how we will react to it individually and as a Body.

Yesterday, I met someone who has decided to opt out of all concern with respect to world events and find his peace within himself.  In fact, he even went as far as to say something to the effect that “there is no turmoil in the world as long as I am at peace with and within myself.”  I am sorry new friend, but your closing your eyes, ears, and mind to world enmity does not make it go away.  The reality is that many do hate Christians today more than ever before and the time will come when, like the Hebrews in Egypt, we can only rely on the salvation that comes by the hand of the Almighty.  In the meantime, let’s pray we all remain true to Him.

Indeed, blessings are most often followed by challenges, especially in the lives of God’s people.  The secret is to harness the growth and development that can occur during their presence.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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The Rewards of Obedience, Not Sin -- Exodus 1:18-20

So the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?”  And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous, and they give birth before the midwife can get to them.”  So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty.

A king gives a direct order and those charged to carry it out disobey.  The king has them brought before him (we assume but can’t verify it is the same two he originally gave the order to) and asks them to explain why they did not do as commanded.  So the midwives start to tell the Pharaoh that they could not kill the male infants as the Hebrew women, due to their ‘vigor’, would give birth before the midwives arrived and thus there was no way to accommodate the king once the child had been passed over to the waiting hands of family and others.

Three issues arise in my mind with this response or interchange between the midwives and the Pharaoh.  The first is that their actual words may well be what gives rise to the thinking of some commentators that the two midwives were indeed Egyptian and not Hebrew, otherwise they would much less likely to have so boldly told the Pharaoh that Hebrew women were superior to the Egyptian ones, unless they themselves were Egyptian.  (However, their names, Shiphrath and Puah, being Hebrew ones, are more likely to place the midwives among the Hebrews.)

The second issue that arises is that while the midwives ‘feared God’ and thus took the action they believed He would have preferred and let the male babies live, they seem to have had no problem in lying to the Pharaoh.  (This assumes that they did lie; one commentator I refer to below indicates this may not have been the case.) Let us for the moment assume that they did lie.  This type of action continues to present difficulty for some readers.  It is especially troublesome when it is immediately followed with the phrase “So God was good to the midwives.”  The question before us is this: Does God condone lying in certain situations?  Such a question is even more relevant today for Christians as we are faced with the knowledge that many Muslims believe and admit that lying “for the sake of Allah’s will” is perfectly acceptable for Muslims.  Christians on the other hand are taught that we should not lie (one of the ten commandments we will encounter later in our study) and that our “yes should be yes, and our no, no”.  So, how then do we deal with such reports of God “blessing” those that lied?  Clearly, this is not the first place in Scripture where we came across this.  You may remember that Abraham lied, Jacob cheated, and so on in Genesis, yet God blessed them.

When I wondered about how I would handle this issue again at this point of our study, some suggested that I simply state that God’s ways are not our ways and this is one of the mysteries of Scripture that we do not understand at this point in time.  Unconvinced, I was not willing to give up that easily.  These midwives appear to have lied and the text says, “So, God was good to” them.  You can’t avoid that, no matter how you try to rationalize it.  It’s a possibility.

In an article entitled, “Did God Reward Midwives for Lying?” Jason Jackson writing in ChristianCourier.com has much to offer us in understanding this dilemma (and also the one about the prostitute Rahab’s lying later in the Old Testament, as well as the lying of Ananias and Sapphira in the New Testament).  He writes:

“First of all, the midwives may have told the truth. It may have been the case that the Hebrew women, fearing the commandment of the king, did not call for the midwives in a timely way.  Second, one is not obligated to tell all he or she knows. Withholding information is not necessarily falsehood (cf. Luke 23:9).  Third, if one believes that the midwives were deceptive, he must understand that they were rewarded for their works, not their words.  They were blessed for refusing to murder the babies.  All who are rewarded by God, in any age, are blessed in spite of their sins, based upon the gracious forgiveness of God.”

Lest we as New Testament Christians get carried away thinking we can lie our way to blessings, Jackson adds, “The Lord, however, is not arbitrary in dealing with sin. As Paul observed, God is just, and the justifier of them that have faith in Jesus, whom he sent to be a propitiation for our sins (Romans 3:23-26).  Bible narratives often relate events without passing a moral judgment on the circumstances.  Similarly, Rahab was justified by her works — not by her words of deception.

“Fourth, one must remember that these individuals, the midwives and Rahab, were not New Testament Christians. God tolerated certain things, like polygamy, in Old Testament times — the times of ignorance. But now, in the light of the gospel, he commands all men everywhere to repent and live according to the high moral standard of Christianity (Acts 17:30; Titus 2:11-12). Additionally, not all is settled in this life. Justice will be equally dispensed on the Judgment Day (2 Corinthians 5:10).

“Fifth, the case of Ananias and Sapphira is not parallel. These individuals were New Testament Christians who lived in the light of the Gospel Age. They lied for the sake of financial gain, pride, and a desire for prominence within the church.  But the midwives, who lived in Old Testament times, may have used deception to save their lives. They refused to murder. The cases simply are not parallel.  It is incorrect to say that God rewarded the midwives for lying. The Bible does not affirm that conclusion.  The Lord blessed them for their refusal to kill baby boys — for their interest in obeying God rather than man.”

I agree with Jackson, but add my own perspective as follows.  I believe God loves us so much that while He hates any sin, he is more concerned with our obedience.  He wants the sin to be recognized, repented for, and stopped.  Then like a great Father, He does not neglect to bless us as we give Him our Heart and obey Him going forward.

Note to readers: Some of you who know have followed some of my writings on social media and elsewhere may well ask me the following question: “Why not apply the thinking you laid out above to homosexuality and homosexuals?”  Here is my response: I do, totally.  God hates the sin of homosexuality and He loves the homosexuals.  He wants them to recognize their sin (as we all have to do), repent for it, and stop repeating it.  And I believe they can do that if they give God their heart and want to obey Him.  Then His blessings are all theirs as they are ours.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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Instructions to the Hebrew Midwives Exodus 1:15-17

Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one whom was named Shiphrah, and the other was named Puah; and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”  But the midwives feared God, and did not do so as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live.

What is difficult to discern from the text is whether or not there were just two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, or whether these are the two the “king of Egypt” spoke to.  Perhaps these two worked right in the royal palaces taking care of the Hebrew slaves or servants who served the king and his staff.  Commentator David Guzik suggests they may have been the two head-midwives who oversaw the other Hebrew midwives in the land, although I find it strange that they would have been so organized at that time.

Mayer L. Gruber, writing in “Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia” explains the “birth stool” referred to in this text as follows: “The Hebrew term for “birth stool” in Exod 1:16, obnayim, means literally “two stones.” It refers to the primitive form of the birth stool, which was simply two bricks (or stones) placed under each of the buttocks of the woman in labor. Such birth stools are depicted in the later forms of the hieroglyphic symbol for “birth” and are referred to in ancient Egyptian folk sayings, such as “He left me like a woman on the bricks.” Ancient Egyptian pictorial art shows that the two bricks were replaced by a chair with an opening in the middle (like a toilet seat) through which, with the help of gravity, the mother could push out her baby into the deft hands of the midwives.”

Of course, the Egyptian ruler only wanted male babies to be put to death, not female ones.  One is reminded of something similar that goes on in the world today, but perhaps opposite in its target.  I am referring of course to the practice in China and other parts of Asia of preferring male offspring to female ones, and even the infanticide of females some decades ago.  (Later on, for economic reasons, this resulted in China’s still enforced one-child per couple policy.)  In Western societies we currently also experience very high abortion rates.  In addition, there is a pre-occupation with knowing in advance of birth the sex of a child, as well as having a preferred sex of offspring.  That then can relate to what decision one makes about a possible abortion.  At the very root of all of this is man’s (and perhaps more particularly woman’s in this case) desire to play God and interfere with the responsibility of creation that is His and His alone.  And whenever that occurs, the society that is the proponent of such interference ends up collapsing or destroying itself.  We may well be living in the midst of that scenario in North America as we ignore the rights of the unborn.

And then along comes that favorite three-letter word of mine in the Bible – the word “but”.  Usually, as we saw in our study of Genesis, it is accompanied by the word “God” so that the phrase reads “but God” and then goes on to indicate that while man may have had certain plans and ideas, God had His own and He acted accordingly.  It is a great relief to know that all is in God’s hands and He takes the necessary action to work out His plans for both mankind and us individually.  However here in this 17^th verse of Exodus chapter one, the word “but” is used in relation to individuals who feared God.  The king of Egypt may have had his plans, but God had in place people who were more in tune with His plans because they “feared” Him.  While that is one definition of the Hebrew word used, other definitions include to stand in awe of, be awed, to reverence, to honor, to respect, to cause astonishment and awe, to be held in awe, and to inspire reverence or awe.  It was this kind of fear that caused the Hebrew midwives to go against the king’s orders and let the male infants live.

So, here’s the question for each of us today.  Would you and I go against the commands of the authorities (president, prime minister, police, etc.) when obeying their orders would be contrary to what you and I believe are God’s laws regarding life or anything else?  Would you and I be willing to take a stand and make a difference in the lives of others, for God?  I do not want to be a herald of bad news, but I strongly believe that in the years to come, maybe as few as twenty or thirty years from now, should some of us live that long, many of us will have to be making just those kinds of decisions.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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