The Hebrew Midwives: Exodus 1
“But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. ”
As is often the way in the Bible, our attention is drawn to insignificant people who find themselves at the centre of God’s purposes for the world. This is the first and the last that we hear of the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah. But they are rightly remembered today as great heroes of the faith.
Where did they find the courage to defy the king of Egypt? After all, there was an extraordinary power differential between the Pharaoh and themselves. They were women, he a man; they were (despised) foreigners, he a native; most importantly, he was the king of a global superpower, they were just midwives. Nor was their defiance calculated in light of Pharaoh’s present policies: he was on a genocidal rampage!
Nor, apparently, was their decision based on having devised a clever ruse to outwit Pharaoh. When he confronts them for their refusal to comply with his order, their witty reply—“Hebrew women are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive”—sounds more like a spur of the moment masterstroke than a carefully worked through strategy.
Finally, where was the evidence that God would intervene if they did the right thing? Their kinsfolk, mistreated daily at the hands of Egyptian taskmasters, could have told them that God didn’t seem to be showing up any time soon.
The reason they refused to kill the newborn babies, in direct defiance of a king who had the power to crush them, was because they feared God. That’s it.
When we fear God, as the midwives did, who people are—their power and status in this world—shrinks in the light of who God is.
In the face of real or imagined danger, we will only ever use our power to protect those less powerful than ourselves—as the midwives did for the newborn boys—if our eyes are fixed on the king who delights to bring down rulers from their thrones and lift up the humble.
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