Exodus 1:18-22

Hey, welcome back, everybody.
Thanks for being with us on a Tuesday as we continue through
the book of Exodus.
It’s good that you would continue to join us.
We’re grateful for that as we look
at the scripture together.
We are making our way through the last part of Chapter 1.
Just a quick recap.
Yesterday, we saw the Pharaoh try to take matters into his own hands
in regard to the Israelites.
He pulled aside two of the Hebrew midwives,
Shipra and Pua, and he commanded them to take the lives of the children,
the male children, that were born to the Hebrew women.
They did not do that.
They said that they feared God instead,
or that’s what the
text tells us.
They don’t tell the Pharaoh that.
They simply don’t follow the order.
So,
in the next part of the passage here,
we see them called to account for that.
So, let me start reading with verse 18,
then we’ll get into it.
So, “The king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them,
‘Why have you done this,
allowing the boys to live?’ And the midwives said to Pharaoh,
‘Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women,
for they are vigorous,
and they give birth
before the midwife comes to them.’
So, God dealt with the midwives,
and the people multiplied
and became very strong.
And because the midwives feared God,
he gave them families.” So,
stop there.
So, we see the continuation of the story from yesterday.
The Pharaoh is upset.
He becomes a parent.
It becomes obvious to him that these two women are not following orders.
There are male babies being born,
and so he calls them to account.
And notice that their story
and generally, I mean, I think probably in the
narrative, this is a deceptive story.
They’re probably giving an explanation.
But notice that there are elements of truth to it
that have tied with everything we’ve learned about the Hebrews so far.
They’re vigorous.
They give birth before we get to them.
They’re not like the Egyptian women.
They’re strong.
They’re resilient.
They multiply.
We’ve seen all of these things woven throughout this first chapter,
and it all kind of reinforces that idea,
Michael, that these are a strong, hardy people,
and we continue that theme.
Yeah, right.
And ultimately,
we do, I think, Clint, see the celebration a little bit of the
schemer here, which we pointed out in Genesis.
Here, once again, we have these two women
who are, and I think you’re right to point out,
it’s not as if they’re just point blank lying
necessarily.
There is a sense in which I think we are to believe that the Hebrew women are indeed
blessed and vigorous and strong and hardy.
I think that’s a statement that’s intended to be fact,
but they’re also pulling a fast one on Pharaoh here.
I mean, they are certainly making a claim
that doesn’t fully encompass the truth.
They are not doing what they were told to do.
And here,
they have a scheme to pull it over on him,
and it’s working.
In fact, it’s working so well.
Clint, I want to point out the text says that they continue to multiply
that word we’ve seen multiple times already in Exodus.
Of course, we saw that written all throughout Genesis,
this theme that the one whom God blesses will continue to multiply and grow.
And that very promise that started with God’s promise to Abraham and then Abraham
is the very promise that God continues to keep,
even as, I want to just make it clear,
Pharaoh continues to ratchet up the temperature.
I mean, he continues to tighten the nuts,
and he’s making things harder for the people.
And it really is this act of defiance by these
midwives that is making it possible for God to continue to do this work.
And so it’s just worth
pointing out that it’s an interesting combination here, Clint,
between these women’s faith,
which God, by the way, blesses them for,
and also God’s providential care of these strong multiplying people.
It’s the joint work of them both,
which is resulting in the people of Israel continuing
to grow and prosper,
even in the midst of adversity.
Yeah, and notice it says that the people became not only strong,
but very strong.
We’ve seen this throughout this chapter, the continued growth, the continued strength, the continued resilience
of the people.
And I think that’s very interesting.
If there are characters that it would be fun to
know more about in the Scripture,
Michael, these are two that I think I would put on my list.
I wish we had more backstory about Shipra and Puwa.
Are they afraid of the Pharaoh?
Do they simply say,
“No, we’re not doing that.” And when he asks, they say, “Look,
they’re fast.
We can’t get to them.” I would love to know more about the character of these two
women who stand up
really with no power of their own and do the right thing,
do the godly thing.
Then the book of Exodus,
this is language that sometimes makes us uncomfortable, the idea that
God rewards or punishes.
But that is,
if those themes make you uncomfortable,
this is the wrong book.
That is woven deeply into this narrative.
Because they feared God,
God gave them families.
We saw some of that language in Genesis,
the idea that God was
an overseer of procreation.
We saw that theme of barrenness and life over and over and over again.
And in a different way,
we continue to see it here,
life and death in the balance.
And because these women do the right
thing, the courageous thing, because they take this stand and refuse to give in to evil and power,
they are blessed.
And the blessing comes in the form of families,
which is very interesting, I think.
Not in the way of riches,
not in the way of power,
not in the way of a name.
They’re blessed with
family,
which is profound.
I think a very interesting way to talk about
what God,
how God responds to their faithfulness.
You know, sometimes small details can really transform our readings of the scriptures.
And maybe an example of that here is one of my commentaries pointed out that there is some
scholarly debate over whether these two midwives are Hebrew women,
or they’re simply midwives to
the Hebrew women, that they could potentially be Egyptian women doing this task.
And I’m not going
to land on either side of that.
I just want to point out how interesting that detail would be
to shaping how you read the story.
Because imagine with me for just a moment,
say that they are
indeed Egyptian women serving as midwives to the Hebrew women.
In that case, they’re actually resisting their own national leader for the sake of doing good,
and the Lord blessing them
would be the Lord blessing them with families as the opposing side.
In other words, even as God was blessing the Israelites to be strong,
there would be a sense in which God would be blessing
these outsiders as well for their part in his providential work.
Which, once again, I’m not taking sides on that,
but I’m just saying,
sometimes those are small,
but yet really shaping and interesting details in a story like this.
That’s an interesting insight,
Michael, and one that ultimately is probably not
supremely important in the text.
But this book is full of some of those things.
Moses himself, in the next chapter,
we’re going to see,
lives at this juncture of, “Am I Hebrew?
Am I Egyptian?”
And so, that kind of intersection would be interesting.
Ultimately, we don’t know that.
The names are ambiguous enough that it’s not clear in the translation,
but it’s an interesting
potential twist to the story.
Well, that brings us to the last verse of this chapter.
And
I’m going to read it,
and then we’ll make a case for what it does or doesn’t mean.
So, “Then Pharaoh commanded all of his people.
Every boy that is born to the Hebrews,
you shall throw into the Nile,
but you shall let every girl live.” So,
this is a fascinating verse at a lot of levels.
So, at one level, you have now the Pharaoh
who doesn’t give up on this idea of bringing death to the male children of the Hebrews,
and he now co-ops the entire nation of Egypt.
He makes the Hebrews the enemy
of his own people.
He gives them an order.
Again, he stands as supreme authority in this society.
He has the power to punish.
He has the power to jail,
to execute.
You know, there’s not a fair system.
He is the holder of control and power here,
and he commands his
people.
And from a societal standpoint,
very interesting that when evil starts at the top,
it works its way down.
You know, we could have some conversations about
genocides that we see throughout the world or something like the Holocaust and the way in which
a leader’s attitudes can poison an entire people group,
and to make them agents of this destruction.
And we don’t get told a lot of the details,
Michael.
We can talk about that in a minute, but it is,
given what we see in the next chapter,
it is very naive,
I think, to say that they don’t go along with it,
that unlike the midwives,
it would seem as though that
becomes actually a common practice in the nation of Israel,
or of Egypt, I’m sorry.
Now, that’s hard for us maybe to wrap our mind around.
At least, I hope it is.
I hope that it’s
hard for us to grapple with that.
But, Clint, the reality is the people here are cast as being a
threat to the power and structure of Egypt,
and so the Pharaoh does what authoritarian leaders
have done throughout history,
and that is take the steps that they think are the most
necessary to hold on to their power.
The question here is,
to what extent does this implicate the entire culture?
That’s an important question,
actually, as we move further into this text,
because we’ve already alluded to this,
and if you know the story of the plagues and you know how
that’s going to end,
you know that there’s going to be some very dark times for Egypt, both literally
and physically and metaphorically,
that there’s going to be substantial judgment cast their way.
And, Clint, the reality that it may be possible that the common Egyptian was part of this horrific
act, that they were essentially taking
part in the task of trying to subvert not only the people’s
ability to have male sons,
you know, human life, but they were also setting themselves as a nation,
as a people, a common people, against the God of Israel,
against the one who promised to multiply the people.
And if you know anything about Genesis and now coming into Exodus,
the one sign that
you’ve crossed the line is when you’re on the other side of God’s intention.
When you have crossed
over and you’re now seeking to stop the thing that God has committed to do,
you’re now a blockade
that’s going to get run over.
I mean, you’re not going to hold back the energy that’s coming your
way, and that’s certainly going to be the case as this story continues.
But I just want to point out,
I think when it says Pharaoh commanded all his people,
Exodus here is casting a wide,
wide net Clint, and I don’t think that’s on accident.
I think the point is going to come back as the story continues.
Yeah, I
think the book of Exodus tends to side against the Egyptian people in general,
specifically against the Pharaoh for certain,
but to some extent,
the people are held accountable
as well.
If you were writing this into,
you know, some kind of a novel,
you could imagine that there
were Egyptians that didn’t do this act,
but you can also imagine that there were others who
probably bought into it and pursued it aggressively and took it upon themselves to enforce
this edict.
And, you know,
it’s really interesting, Michael, this is just dropped there.
I mean, this horrific idea that one people is going to throw another people’s children in the river
is just left there.
We’re not told anymore about it.
We don’t get details about how it happened, when it happened.
I think, you know,
again, I think the next story makes it clear that it does
happen.
It is connected.
But I think a case can be made.
This is the last time we see the people
of Israel, the Hebrews referred to as strong,
as vibrant,
as multiplying, as resilient.
The next time we see them,
they are a broken people.
Now, there will be have passed a significant
amount of time, but I think a case can be made that it is this act,
it is the loss of their
children, it is the reality of their powerlessness in the face of this kind of evil,
that ultimately is the thing that sort of removes from them their heartiness and leaves them broken,
leaves them afraid,
leaves them, you know, full of fear and struggle to be faithful.
I think it’s very interesting,
though, we’re not told much of the details of the aftermath of this decision.
The next time we meet the Hebrews as a people,
they are the exact opposite of everything
we’ve learned about them so far in the story.
Yeah, that’s really interesting, Clint.
I have not thought of it in that way before.
Generally,
when I’ve thought of the Exodus story,
I’ve thought of that fulcrum point when they go through the Red Sea,
the moment in which God delivers them.
There is,
in a sense, a real fulcrum point here in that it’s striking in the entire first chapter,
the people aren’t described as complaining a single time,
though they have much reason to.
In fact, they stand up and they push back against the injustice.
Later, in the Book of Exodus,
there is no shortage of words describing the people’s complaint and frustration.
Maybe that’s just a narrative thing,
but there may be a sense in which,
like you’re saying, we look at this and see that
in some ways Pharaoh accomplished what he was seeking to do.
I mean, in some ways,
he violently
disrupted the multiplication of the people and the only way that they would get out of the rut
that he puts them in,
the prison that he puts around them,
is for them ultimately to trust God
and for him to bring who would be a pretty unlikely hero into the mix.
Yeah, it’s certainly a matter of degree,
but it is one thing to be oppressed and forced into labor.
It is another to have one’s offspring taken from them and the promise of future and the idea of sons.
I mean,
to some extent, that really is to remove their humanity from them.
Again,
the Bible doesn’t really get into those things philosophically or psychologically,
but in my mind,
I think this is the thing that fundamentally changes who and how these people are.
I think, for me at least,
this is the primary explanation of what we see in the rest of the book,
or at least I wonder if it is.
I don’t know about you.
There’s a sense in which it feels like we’ve covered a lot of ground already
and we’ve only been through one chapter.
And believe it or not,
this context all matters.
It sets the stage,
but now it’s time to really gain some momentum.
So don’t miss tomorrow because
we’re going to be really pushing towards introducing some of the fundamental
people for the rest of the book.
So don’t miss it.
Yeah, thanks for being with us.