Shiphrah And Puah!

Shiphrah and Puah!

Exodus 1:17”But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive.”

Hey guys, I have set out to write this message which I just preached in the church this morning! I wish the same anointing pours down on this message too! You know what, it’s easy to watch a preacher delivering the message passionately and you are able to walk into that anointing and revelation as well, but here I want you to feel the same anointing through my writing today! You must hear this today!

We are going to explore about two women whom most of you would not have heard: Shiphrah and Puah! They were the midwives in Israel but they are going to be the focal point of our message today; before I begin, I want to give a glimpse of the history around that period, for Bible-lovers this message would not only be delightful enlightenment but also very useful reading but for fast-food-readers they might skip portions of the best part of this message. Well, Joseph had entered the vast nation Egypt as a slave and eventually after 13 years of imprisonment, he walks out to be the Governor of Egypt. Mind-boggling! Joseph the outstanding great-grandson of Abraham saved Egypt from terrible famine because he listened to God's voice speaking through Pharaoh's dream and also because he was a rare blend of business acumen, wisdom, sharp intellect and excellent administrative qualities – everything received from God. Joseph was lifted to high and honored office in Egypt! If today you are wondering, ‘hey, I am in a hopeless situation’, I want you to change your opinion after reading this message, nothing is impossible with this BIG God!’ Say, Amen.

RAPID GROWTH AND MULTIPLICATION:

Joseph brought his family into Egypt and they were totally 70 people during that time, but there was a rapid increase in the growth of the people of God and there reached a stage when the Bible says: “the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.” (Exodus 1:7) Imagine Egypt being filled with the children of God! When a new king came who did not know Joseph or about the wonderful things done through Jehovah, he got irritated. Now, let us look at this passage from a practical point of view, I imagined this way, when the new king saw a vast majority of people worship differently, talk differently, react differently, look differently and finally live differently from his own clan of Eqyptians, he said, ‘we need to eliminate these guys.’ Are you there? When you think and behave differently from this world, then mark it, you would be persecuted and the devil would want to eliminate you – wipe you off. Don’t be surprised if you are persecuted for being a good person, it would happen if you are a committed follower of Christ. The Bible says: “Indeed all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). The king ordered the midwives ’ all the boys should be killed during the delivery.’ Now, here comes our Shiphrah and Puah! King Pharaoh was not kidding when he gave out those orders, he meant business and if anyone dared to disobey, he would not hesitate to kill them. Friends, in the face of such deadly opposition and sword hanging over their heads, these two women decided to obey God rather than the king. I’m sure a thousand voices would have tried to drown their resolution to stand for God by saying, ‘hey don’t be stupid, don’t risk your life, God would understand.’ They both brushed aside these sinister whisperings and dared to obey the Lord.

Dare to obey God!

Friends, let me take a digression here and speak to you, its not over with calling ourselves as ‘Christians’ we got to live it out. It’s an uphill battle that we have to face everyday to wade off temptations that are not easy: the temptations are juicy, spicy and lovely! Now what?

• As a sales executive working for a reputed organization, when a very important customer of your company requests for an ‘expensive gift’ which has been a norm of the company for long, how would you react? You can either buy the gift and give it to him or stand against it and say that you would not partake in this dirty business – you may run the risk of losing your job, though. What would you do? This is no fairy tale, I am talking of things that you are going to face in your life one hundred percent. Answer me friend, are you ready to risk your job and trust God with your life? There is a whole gamut of Christians who would rather handover the gift and say, ‘God would understand me.’ God would rubbish your coward behavior.