Would the hands that have been gifted to bring life also bring death to the lives they have brought forth? This is the delimer of these 2 ladies. Let’s explore this in our study today in Exodus 1:15-21
In this study, the tools we would use for this study are
- Who, What, When, Where, and How tool
- What does it mean?
- How does it apply to me today?
So let’s dig in and turn the bible to Exodus 1:15-21
Who, What, When, Where, and How tool
Shiphrah and Puah were Hebrew midwives
Pharaoh the king told these midwives to kill Hebrew baby boys as soon as they are born.
Shiphrah and Puah fear God and did not obey the king’s command
Pharaoh challenge Shiphrah and Puah disobedience to his instructions,
They gave explanations that the Hebrew women gave birth before the midwives arrived.
God rewarded the midwives for not carrying out Pharaoh’s evil degree with success and their own families.
What does (this passage ) mean?
Shiphrah and Puah were Hebrew slaves too, though they were midwives.
Shiphrah and Puah were professional midwives and had helped many of their kins women at the point of delivery.
Pharaoh’s evil plot to destroy the Hebrew nation first by forcing them into savery, then with great oppression and labour but the nation of Israel continued to wax strong and increase. Pharaoh’s next move to try to depopulate and wipe off the nation of Israel was by killing innocent defenseless newborn boy babies. He commanded the midwives Shiphrah and Puah to kill these babies.
These midwives made an audacious move, they refused to carry out Pharaoh’s order. While understanding that their actions could cost them their means of livelihood, punishment or even death. They feared God more than they feared Pharaoh and disobeyed a king who ordered the execution of baby boys at birth.
God blessed the midwives by making them more successful. They delivered more healthy babies and Israel grew even more numerous. God blessed them too with their own families.
How does it apply to me today?
Atimes we may find ourselves facing an ethical decision. A boss, an organisational policy, a societal expectation are requiring you to carry out something that is not ethically or that is in direct contradiction to God’s law? What would our decision be?
Shiphrah and Puah feared God more than they feared Pharaoh. Pharaoh could destroy the body but God could destroy the body and the soul. Just like our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 10:28
And fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
What would our decision be? God’s law or man’s law?
Shiphrah and Puah honoured God rather than man, and God honoured them too. They honoured God out of the reverential fear and with no expectation that God was going to bless them for their actions. Let us remember that obedience to God is not an automation for blessing. God sees the motive of our actions. Why are we obeying God? Do we feel entitled to blessings because we obeyed God? Or do we obey God from a place of reverential fear and love?
Also Shiphrah and Puah valued the lives of the children they were instructed to kill. Their profession was to help women birth live babies. This was their calling. They were at the start of the lives of those children. Now how could they that were there to help now use those same hands to kill and end the lives that have been brought forth. They became a voice to save the lives of these baby boys who couldn’t speak or stand for themselves. Proverbs 31:8a admonishes us to
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
When we see injustice around us, let’s not be silent but speak up.
When I think of Shiphrah and Puah the words that come to me are courage and uncompromising faith in perilous time.
I hope you have been blessed and encouraged by these two women. God bless.