SHIPHRAH & PUAH
Ex. 1:8-22 (omit 14 & 20)
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: The convert
1. A stereo-type of Jews is that they only think about money.
2. Two Jews -- Abe and Shlomo -- were strolling down the street one day when they happened to walk by a Catholic Church. It had a big sign posted that says: - ‘CONVERT TO CATHOLICISM AND GET $100.’
3. Abe stopped walking and stared at the sign. Shlomo turned to him and said, “Abe, what’s going on?”
4. “Shlomo,” replied Abe, “I’m thinking of doing it.” Shlomo said, “What, are you crazy?” Abe thought for a minute and said, “Shlomo, I’m GOING to do it!”
5. With that, Abe strode purposely into the church and came out 20 minutes later with his head bowed.
6. “So,” asked Shlomo, “Did you get your $100?” Abe looks up at him and said, “Is money all YOU PEOPLE think about?” [from a Jewish website].
B. TEXT
8 Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10…if war breaks out [they] will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” 11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” 19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. 22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”
C. THESIS
1. Today, we’re looking at two valiant women of faith who stood up to the pressure of their culture.
2. In this passage we see The World’s Program for the Church, Valiant Faith Conquering, and God’s Boomerang.
3. The title of today’s message is, “Shiphrah & Puah.”
I. WORLD’S PROGRAM FOR THE CHURCH
A. POSITIVE EFFECTS OF GOD FORGOTTEN
1. "Then a new King, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt" (8). Joseph had saved all Egypt from famine and built the power/ authority of the Egyptian government, but was now forgotten.
2. One can’t help but think how this nation was founded upon the Bible by godly men. How they perceived the hand of God -- "manifest destiny" -- that God was setting up a New Promised Land where there could be freedom to worship & serving God; where justice and Christianity would prevail.
3. But now our gov’t/ people have forgotten what made them great. They've forgotten the God who gave them the freedom and the prosperity they enjoy.
B. BELIEVERS DANGEROUS TO GOV’T
1. "The Israelites have become too numerous... if war breaks out [they] will join our enemies and fight against us and leave the country."
2. When the new Pharaoh saw that a lot of people worshiped differently, talked differently, look differently and finally lived differently from secular Egyptians, he said, ‘we need to eliminate these guys.’
3. The king implied that the Israelites were dangerous to the government. It’s been the policy of persecutors to represent God's people as dangerous people, not fit to be
trusted or tolerated.
4. The media’s pushes this idea today! When the ACLU should be going after Muslim enclaves that are enacting sharia law -- because the Muslim faith always combines government and religion and attempts to snuff out all other faiths & crush liberty -- instead, they’re still going after Christianity!
5. Get Christianity out of the government, out of the schools, out of the military, out of social discourse -- and what do you end up with? Lawlessness, to be followed by dictatorship.
6. Let's pray that our civilization wises up and allows Christianity -- the one faith that promotes decency and freedom -- to once again be enshrined in its proper place.
C. STOP FULFILLMENT OF PROMISE
1. Pharaoh mentioned that Israel must be stopped from leaving Egypt. The Egyptians must’ve heard the Israelites speak of the promise of their fathers that they would settle in Canaan.
2. Notice that it’s the policy of the Church's enemies to try to defeat the promises of the Church's God.
3. Verse 12 says that "the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites." They felt the unspoken doom associated with the Israelites.
4. Godly people are a sign, a contrast, and ultimately point toward the condemnation of the ungodly!
D. STOP GROWTH OF GOD’S PEOPLE
The growth of God's people disturbed the secular government. So they set out to suppress their growth by:
1. Weaken them: keep them poor; make them slaves [The Coptic church in Egypt today can’t get an education or a Gov’t job. They’re kept poor & disadvantaged.]
2. Made them serve in cruel bondage;
a. To break their spirits;
b. To rob them of hopes & dreams;
c. To ruin their health and shorten their days;
d. To discourage from marrying;
e. To force them to abandon their God and join the Egyptians in idolatrous worship, which many of them did (Joshua 24:14; Ezekiel 20:8).
3. But "The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew." This wasn't a contest between Egypt and Israel, but between Egypt and Israel's God! God will not be worsted!
4. Christianity always spreads more rapidly when it is persecuted; the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church!
II. VALIANT FAITH CONQUERING
A. PHARAOH RECRUITS MID-WIVES
1. The midwives were commanded to murder the boy babies (selective abortion). They, like doctors today, were commanded to betray a trust and to destroy those they had been commissioned to save and help.
2. I asked myself, "Why only the boys? Weren't they needed to do all the work?"
3. Undoubtedly it was because the devil sensed a Deliverer was about to be born. Moses was a type of Christ (Deut. 18:18-19). The devil really never knows when He’s coming, so he tries to take out every God-sent deliverer.
4. Shiphrah & Puah (S&P) were the dream-birthers. Children are the future. Pharaoh wanted to S&P to kill the dreams, the hopes, the future, and the strength of the Israelites.
5. That's what the devil wants to do: he wants to destroy your dreams, hopes and visions of what God wants to do through you.
B. TWO AWESOME WOMEN OF FAITH
1. Pharaoh wasn’t kidding when he gave out those orders, he meant business. If anyone dared to disobey, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill them.
2. Friends, in the face of such deadly opposition, these two women decided to obey God rather than man (Acts 4:19; 5:29). For that reason their names were recorded in the annals of faith.
3. I’m sure there were a thousand voices that tried to drown their resolution, “Hey don’t be stupid, don’t risk your life, God will understand; you’re just doing your job.” But they brushed aside these sinister whisperings and dared to obey the Lord.
C. OBEDIENCE IS WHAT COUNTS
1. Friends, calling ourselves ‘Christians’ means nothing; we’ve got to live it out. It’s an uphill battle everyday to ward off temptations that are enjoyable and enticing!
2. Will you run the risk of losing your job to not compromise? If someone wants a bribe: will you pay it? How would you react if your boss wants you to lie?
3. Will you give up a relationship you want but is making you fall? Put God before your boy friend/ girl friend, or you may end up walking away from God.
4. When a new movie comes out that all your friends are excited about, but it’s not something a Christian should see, what will you do? Will you have the strength to say ‘no?’
5. “He that is faithful in little will also be faithful in much.” If you can be trusted in the small things now, then you will be able to be trusted in bigger things later.
6. HUMOR.
a. A father was explaining ethics to his son, who is about to go into business.
b. "Suppose a woman comes in and orders a hundred dollars worth of material. You wrap it up, and you give it to her. She pays you with a $100 bill. But as she goes out the door you realize she’s given you two $100 bills.”
c. Now, here’s where the ethics come in: should you or should you not tell your partner?" (Henny Youngman)
7. Swim against the current; stand out from the crowd; don’t have a herd mentality. People justify their sins and say that they live by His grace, don’t take His grace for granted!
III. GOD’S BOOMERANG
A. PHARAOH’S LAST-DITCH EFFORT
1. When Pharaoh’s effort through the midwives didn’t work, he gave public orders that all the male children of the Hebrews should be thrown in the river (Vs. 22).
2. Throw the boys in the River? Why not just kill them with the sword? Why throw them “alive” into the Nile? That’s not very efficient; some might live; unsightly. They drank from the river!
3. One possible explanation: they would be ritual sacrifices to the Nile Goddess to bring better fertility!
4. The Hindus did this in India for centuries; giving babies as sacrifices to the Ganges River. Natives in Hawaii threw virgins into volcanoes to appease the deity.
B. WHY NOTHING WORKED
1. In a contest between Egypt and Israel, it should’ve been a slam dunk!
2. Think of the Mighty Armies of Egypt:
a. An armada of ships at sea;
b. Cavalry of tens of thousands of Chariots;
c. 100,000’s of foot soldiers, all in armor.
3. What chance did a pack of slaves have? But God says, "Don't be afraid of the upraised spear or the rattling chariots, for "no weapon formed against you shall prosper!”
4. No weapon of -- temptation, habit, bondage, circumstances, trials -- shall prosper. All your enemies will ultimately fall, powerless to harm you! [Can I get a witness?]
5. When you're up against it, "in over your head," and it doesn't look like you're going to make it, remember "THE BATTLE IS NOT YOURS, BUT THE LORD’S!"
6. The enemy may get you down, but -- bless God -- he can't keep you there! "When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against him!"
7. Romans 5:20, "Where sin abounds, God's grace does much more abound!"
8. We are "more than conquerors!" In the Greek it's a superlative – we’re "super-conquerors!"
C. GOD’S BOOMERANG
1. Pharaoh, when he commanded all Egypt to throw the Hebrew boys in the River, sowed the seeds of his own destruction! Oh the wisdom and knowledge of God; how His ways are past finding out!
2. The very technique promoted by Pharaoh to destroy is what brought Moses to the Royal family and ultimately resulted in the destruction of Egypt and the liberation of Israel!
3. You can never outsmart God! Because the mid-wives preserved other’s baby boys (future hope/ dreams), God blessed them with hopes, dreams, and families of their own. Do to others & it will be done to you!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: NOT DOING MUCH
1. A boy who applied for work was told by the manager he did not think they had enough work to keep another boy employed.
2. The boy said, "But I am sure, sir, that you must have enough work to hire me. You don't know what a little amount of work it takes to keep me busy."
3. Many Christian disciples are like this boy. They want to follow Jesus, not to see how much they can do for Him, but how little. To such the Lord never says, "Follow me."
4. Let’s don’t be idle, but busy for the Master, because He’s always working too!
B. THE CALL
1. Prayer for those
a. where their Christianity is being tested.
b. where they feel tempted,
c. for dreams and hopes restored.
2. Prayer.
[This sermon was developed by thoughts of Bala Samson and Matthew Henry]
