Last week, we began our series on the book of Exodus. Let's start today, by rereading verses 1-14:
(1) And these are the names of the sons of Israel-- the ones going to Egypt:
With Jacob, each with his house went:
(2) Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
(3) Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
(4) Dan and Naphtali,
Gad and Asher,
(5) and all the people coming from the loins of Jacob were seventy people.
Now, Joseph was in Egypt,
(6) and Joseph died, with all his brothers and all that generation.
(7) Now, the sons of Israel were fruitful,
and they increased,
and they swarmed,
and they became very, exceedingly powerful,
and the earth/land was filled with them,
(8) and a new king rise over Egypt
who hadn't known Joseph,
(9) and he said to his people,
"LOOK! The sons of Israel are greater/more numerous, and more powerful than us.
(10) May you come. May we act wisely toward him,
lest he multiply,
and then, when/if war breaks out, they will be added-- also they-- to our enemies,
and they will fight against us,
and they will go up ("escape") from the land,"
(11) and they set over them taskmaskers in order to afflict/humble them with their heavy burdens,
and they (=Israel) built storehouse cities for Pharaoh-- Pitom and Raamses,
(12) and in the measure to which he afflicted them, to the same degree they became numerous,
and to the same degree they spread out,
and they were dreaded before the sons of Israel,
(13) and Egypt made to labor (=enslaved) the sons of Israel with ruthlessness,
(14) and they made bitter their days with hard labor--
with mortar and with stones/brick, and in all the labor in the fields;
with all their labor that they worked them with ruthlessness.
We see two main things in these verses. First, the Israelites are multiplying, and swarming, and filling the land. We understand this shows their obedience to God's creation mandate. And it also shows God's faithfulness to keeping his promise to Abraham.
The second thing we see, is that Egypt turns itself into the enemy of God, and God's people. Throughout history, God's people have been misunderstood, and feared. We have been oppressed, persecuted, slandered. If the nations had blessed us, they would've been blessed. But they chose to curse, and they chose to take on our avenging God.
The Egyptian king says to his people, in verse 10, "Let's act wisely toward the Hebrews." But what he does is stupid. And he's encouraging his people to be stupid. Oppress God's people, and what happens? They multiply-- OT and NT. You're only making the problem bigger.
So that's where our story last week left off. The problem is getting bigger. The king's solution is only backfiring. What, then, will the king of Egypt do?
Verse 15-16:
(15) and the king of Egypt said to the midwives of the Hebrews
who, the name of the first was Shephrah and the name of the second Puah,
(16) and he said,
"When you are helping the Hebrews give birth,
and you look upon the stones, if a son he [is], you shall kill him,
and if a daughter, she [is], she shall live,
If you're reading an English translation, you will see here that the midwives are sitting upon a birthing stool of some type. But in the Hebrew, "looking upon the stones" is what it literally says.
Probably what we are seeing here, is a last minute, prenatal exam. The king tells the midwives, before the child is born, to determine if it's a "son" or "daughter." If they see two little "stones," it's a son, and they need to kill him in the womb. They are supposed to do a late-term abortion, basically. If they don't, it's a daughter, and she gets to live.
Now, this is a monstrous command. Right? The only thing the king gets right here, is an understanding of human life. What grows in a mother's womb, is not a collection of cells. It's not a fetus. It's not even, simply, an unborn human. Every unborn child is that woman's son or daughter. Every abortion, kills a member of a family.
We read this command, and we wonder, what will the midwives do? The Hebrews, as a whole, may be more numerous and powerful than the Egyptians. But on an individual level, face to face with the king, who has the most power? The midwives are put in an impossible situation.
And making it worse, here's the thing about midwives. No one takes that job because the money is good. You take that job because you have a heart for moms, and for babies. You take that job because you value human life, and because you get a sense of purpose, and joy, from helping women in the toughest hour of their life.
So what will they do? Verse 17:
(17) and the midwives feared/revered the God/Elohim,
and they didn't do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them,
and they nurtured /preserved the life of the children,
The midwives fear God. They understand, probably?, that humans are made in God's image. And you can't simply murder them. Let's read Genesis 9:4-7 (NIV no reason):
4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.
6 “Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made mankind.
7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”
If you murder people, God will demand an accounting from you. And you will be killed.
At some point in your life, you'll hear a Christian say that all sins are the same, that they are equal. No. Murder is a horrible, wicked act, and God judges murderers harshly. And this is a good thing-- we praise God, that murderers get killed.
So the midwives do the right thing here. They know, probably, that people are made in God's image. They know that God sees what they will do next. They are put in an impossible situation, stuck between two kings, but they revere the right king.
The problem comes in verse 18:
(18) and the king of Egypt called to the midwives,
and he said to them,
"Why have you done this thing,
and you have nurtured/preserved the life of the children?",
The king knows exactly what they've done. And he asks them "why"?
Now, we, as readers, know the answer. The midwives revere God. But look what they say, verse 19:
(19) and the midwives said to Pharaoh,
"Because not like the wives/women of the Egyptians [are] the Hebrews.
Because vigorous, they [are].
Before the midwife comes to them, they give birth,
The reason they couldn't abort the sons, while they were still in the womb, is that Hebrew women are strong. They don't even need help giving birth, really. By the time the midwives show up, the Hebrew women have already given birth. And at that point, what do you do?
Most people would say abortion is a terrible, wicked act. The kind of act that God will judge you harshly for (unless you confess, and repent). But there are very few people who think that after a child is born, you still have the "right" to kill the son or daughter. [the case in NY?) At that point, what can you do? It's too late.
And so the midwives say, "There's nothing we can do. Our women are stronger than your women. They give birth quickly."
They lie. They lie skillfully, in the only way that is open them, and they lie in a way that subtly mocks and belittles the Egyptians. We're supposed to smile, and cheer, when we hear the lie.
Or are we? This is a lie, after all.
Verse 20-21:
(20) and God did good to the midwives,
and the people multiplied,
and they became very strong,
(21) and then, because the midwives feared/revered the God/Elohim, He gave them families,
You can tell that the midwives acted rightly in lying, because God blessed them. He did good to them, and He gave them families.
Human life is sacred. And when someone wants to harm, or take, innocent human life, the correct response is deceit, and dishonesty. If a battered woman comes to your door for refuge, to hide from an abusive husband or boyfriend, you give them shelter. And if that guy comes to your house, demanding that his wife come out, the correct response is, "She's not here."
You hide Jews from Nazis in WW 2. You hide women from abusive husbands. You hide pastors and evangelists who are being persecuted in Muslim countries. And you lie, and you deceive, and you do whatever you have to, to protect those lives. Human life has a higher value than truthfulness.
And your prayer, and hope, should be that God will aid you in your lie, and make it believable (cf. Rahab in Joshua 2).
Lie-- in this situation, to protect innocent life-- and God will bless you.
Verse 22:
(22) and Pharaoh commanded to all his people, saying,
"Every son that is born, into the Nile you shall throw it,
while every daughter you shall nurture/preserve the life,"
What we see in verse 22, is that wickedness is a slippery slope. If you are okay with abortions, it's a very small step to be okay with killing newborn babies. And Pharaoh takes this small step, and he commands all his people to join him. [It's interesting. At first, he invited his people to join him in acting wisely. Now, he simply commands.]
His goal, is to have an entire nation of murderers, working together to take the lives of God's people.
It's into this situation, that we hear about a new marriage, and a pregnancy. Verses 2:1-2:
(2:1) and a man from the house of Levi went,
and he took/married a Levite woman,
and the woman/wife conceived,
and she gave birth to a son,
and saw him,
that good, he [was],
and she hid him three months,
This Levite woman sees what every new mom sees-- that her baby, is a good baby. And she has the classic mom qualities-- she does what she can to preserve the life of her son. But babies grow up quick. They get busy, and loud. Verse 3:
(3) and she wasn't able still to hide him,
and she took for him an ark of papyrus,
and she coated it with tar and with pitch,
and she placed in it the child,
and she put it/him at the reeds at the edge of the Nile,
When we read verse 3, we are supposed to hear echoes of Noah, and the flood. His mom makes him an ark, coats it with tar and pitch. Puts it in the water. And then you just hope. Maybe, somehow, God will make Moses like a second Noah. Maybe, somehow, God will save him. We serve a God who values human life. You do what you can, and maybe God will make a way, where there is no way.
Verse 4-6:
(4) and his sister stood at a distance to know what would happen to him,
(5) and a daughter of Pharaoh went down to wash at the Nile,
while her maidservants [were] walking along the riverbank of the Nile,
and she saw the ark in the midst of the reeds,
and she sent her maidservant,
and she took it,
(6) and she opened [it],
and she saw him-- the child--
and LOOK!, a youth crying,
and she had compassion on him,
and she said,
"From the children of the Hebrews, this one [is],"
Right now, all across the country, Afghani refugees are being resettled. And many of us are really bothered, and scared by this. We know that these people worship a different god. They have a different ethical framework. A different worldview. These people look like a threat to us. But if you found yourself face to face with a little Afghani baby crying, and you knew that the life of that boy was entirely in your hands, what would you do?
In verse 7, Moses' sister helps her make the right decision:
Verse 7:
(7) and his sister said to the daughter of Pharaoh,
"Shall I go,
and shall I call for you a wife/woman-- a wet nurse-- from the Hebrews,
and she shall nurse for you the child?",
(8) and the daughter of Pharaoh said to her,
"Go,"
and the girl went,
and she called the mother of the child,
(9) and the daughter of Pharaoh said to her,
"Take this child,
and nurse him for me,
while I shall give your wages,"
and the woman/wife took the child,
and she nursed him,
(10) and the child grew up,
and she brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh,
and he became to her a son,
and she called his name "Moses,"
and she said that "from the waters I drew him."
So that's the birth story of Moses.
When we step back and look at the story as a whole, it's hard to know where to focus. I find myself being pulled in four directions. Four is almost certainly too many for you to remember. But four is what I have.
The first, is that population growth in the world is a good thing. It's good that people multiply, and fill the earth, and swarm across the face of it. It's good that China is moving away from the one child policy. People who oppose this, and want forced sterilization, and abortion, and war, and famine, all in the name of controlling the human population, are anti-God. Have your babies, and don't feel guilty about it. Obey God, and not the alarmists.
The second thing I find myself thinking about, is dictators. Dictators often start small. They are motivated by fear, and invite others to join them in acting "wisely." People on the wrong end of the dictator are oppressed, first in small ways. But over time, the pressure ramps up. The dominant group becomes "tired" of dealing with you. They start openly threatening you, and plotting how to make your life more and more difficult. More and more restrictions are put in place. And suddenly, you find you aren't allowed to do hardly anything-- shop, work, be in public. Eventually, you're put in camps for your "safety," and for theirs. In the end, you find that you're slaves. Dictators are predictably wicked, and predictably stupid. But that doesn't make them any less dangerous.
The third thing I found myself thinking about, was all the women in Exodus 1-2. What we see in this story is plucky women [is that offensive?], living in a man's world, who somehow get their way. The midwives defeat Pharaoh, and save the Hebrew sons. Moses' mom defies the king for three months, and ends up saving her own son [with some help]. Moses' sister takes the tiniest opening, and steers the king's daughter to choose life for her brother. The king's daughter defies her own dad, and Moses becomes part of the king's household.
What tools, what weapons, did these women have? They didn't have power, or swords. They used the weapons available to them-- cunning, courage, deceit, and opportunism. And they also had something else-- they had God on their side.
As Western Christians, we don't have a lot of experience living as an oppressed minority. We are used to having power, and authority. We have the freedom to live how we want. The closest we've come to oppression, arguably, is with the covid restrictions. If you're a Christian in France, or England, or Australia, or the U.S., the Exodus story suddenly makes a lot more sense. And it's suddenly far more relevant. Should you have to choose between a job, and a "vaccine" developed using the cells of a murdered unborn child, or containing those cells?
When we see what's going on in the world today, we realize that we are a lot closer to Exodus than we've ever been. We see dictators everywhere, trying to turn the people against us, trying to make life as difficult as possible. They are walking on a dark, evil road. And the only question is, how far will they go?
My prayer is that this will stop. That God will put an end to this. But I'm trying to prepare myself for this. Someday, maybe, the U.S. will finish turning on Christians. We will become hated. We will be viewed as intolerant. We will no longer be allowed to freely worship, or tell others about Jesus. We will lose our jobs, or our houses.
If this happens, Exodus gives you a roadmap for how to live. Your highest priority is to do what you can to protect innocent human life. You use the weapons you have-- deceit, cunning, and courage-- to take the tiniest opening, and run for it. You live in reverence of God, who sees you, and judges you in accordance with your works.
The fourth thing I find myself thinking about, is how much power each one of us has, when we walk rightly with God. What we see here, is that a single act of obedience, and reverence toward God, changes the path of an entire nation. Multiple women in this story do what's right, at risk to their own lives. And at the end of the story, what's the result? A single baby boy named Moses.
Now, maybe you read this, and you wonder, how much difference can one baby make? I'm sure the Pharaoh thought about that. I can picture him telling himself, "As long as I kill every other baby boy, I can let one live. One baby can't threaten me, right?"
If God is with you, all it takes is one.
Translation:
(15) and the king of Egypt said to the midwives of the Hebrews
who, the name of the first was Shephrah and the name of the second Puah,
(16) and he said,
"When you are helping the Hebrews give birth,
and you look upon the stones, if a son he [is], you shall kill him,
and if a daughter, she [is], she shall live,
(17) and the midwives feared/revered the God/Elohim,
and they didn't do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them,
and they nurtured /preserved the life of the children,
(18) and the king of Egypt called to the midwives,
and he said to them,
"Why have you done this thing,
and you have nurtured/preserved the life of the children?",
(19) and the midwives said to Pharaoh,
"Because not like the wives/women of the Egyptians [are] the Hebrews.
Because vigorous, they [are].
Before the midwife comes to them, they give birth,
(20) and God did good to the midwives,
and the people multiplied,
and they became very strong,
(21) and then, because the midwives feared/revered the God/Elohim, He gave them families,
(22) and Pharaoh commanded to all his people, saying,
"Every son that is born, into the Nile you shall throw it,
while every daughter you shall nurture/preserve the life,"
(2:1) and a man from the house of Levi went,
and he took/married a Levite woman,
and the woman/wife conceived,
and she gave birth to a son,
and saw him,
that good, he [was],
and she hid him three months,
(3) and she wasn't able still to hide him,
and she took for him an ark of papyrus,
and she coated it with tar and with pitch,
and she placed in it the child,
and she put [it/him] at the reeds at the edge of the Nile,
(4) and his sister stood at a distance to know what would happen to him,
(5) and a daughter of Pharaoh went down to wash at the Nile,
while her maidservants [were] walking along the riverbank of the Nile,
and she saw the ark in the midst of the reeds,
and she sent her maidservant,
and she took it,
(6) and she opened [it],
and she saw him-- the child--
and LOOK!, a youth crying,
and she had compassion on him,
and she said,
"From the children of the Hebrews, this one [is],"
(7) and his sister said to the daughter of Pharaoh,
"Shall I go,
and shall I call for you a wife/woman-- a wet nurse-- from the Hebrews,
and she shall nurse for you the child?",
(8) and the daughter of Pharaoh said to her,
"Go,"
and the girl went,
and she called the mother of the child,
(9) and the daughter of Pharaoh said to her,
"Take this child,
and nurse him for me,
while I shall give your wages,"
and the woman/wife took the child,
and she nursed him,
(10) and the child grew up,
and she brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh,
and he became to her a son,
and she called his name "Moses,"
and she said that "from the waters I drew him."
