#2 – Exodus 1:15-22
A Testimony of Faith
The setting (Exodus 1:15-16):
Despite the king’s efforts to subdue the Hebrew people he has enslaved, they continue to multiply. More drastic measures are called for. Of all the remedies a powerful dictator has available, which will he choose?
Shockingly – infanticide.
Pharaoh commands the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, to murder every male child. Only girl Jewish babies are allowed to live.
The midwives’ response (Exodus 1:17-19):
“But the midwives feared G-d, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live.”[1]
When called on the carpet for not fulfilling the king’s command, Shiphrah and Puah simply “blame” it on the “vigorous” Hebrew women who deliver their babies before the midwives arrive.
Fear factor/Misery Index:
Oppressively hard labor is miserable enough. But with all boy babies under threat of extinction, the future of G-d’s chosen people seems to hang in the balance. The fear factor for Jewish families approaches the highest level as infant males are murdered.
Where is G-d? (Exodus 1:20-21):
For the first time (vs. 17) in our narrative G-d’s name has been invoked: “the midwives feared G-d.” And the narrator comments in verse 20, “So G-d was good to the midwives.”
The result? The Hebrews multiply and become very mighty! G-d also establishes households for the midwives who feared Him.
“Praise the L-RD![2] Great story!” we might say. And then, happily ever after?
Our story is only beginning. And the wicked king has not given up on his evil schemes.
“Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, ‘Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.’”[3]
His plan to have the midwives kill the Hebrews’ male offspring did not succeed. But now all in Egypt are authorized by royal edict to murder Israelite baby boys.
Often life’s circumstances go from bad to worse. It is natural in such times to wonder why G-d has not delivered us by now. “Trust in the L-RD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight”[4] is good counsel “for such a time as this.”
[1] Exodus 1:17.
[2] “L-RD” is the “tetragrammaton,” the Creator’s four-consonant personal name denoted by upper case letters. (Alternately, “L-rd” is “Adonai” in Hebrew.) As with “G-d,” we are preserving herein the custom of observant Jews in reverencing His name by not spelling it out in a non-sacred text.
[3] Exodus 1:22.
[4] Proverbs 3:5-6.
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