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Happenings around Antioch

Saving the Deliverer

The new Pharaoh did not know Joseph, except perhaps by reputation. What he did know was the people of Israel living in Egypt were growing and were strong. The ruler of the most powerful nation on earth said of the Hebrews, they are “too many and too mighty for us.” He was afraid of these people he did not know, who came from a different land, and his fear of them rising up against him led him to take drastic and wicked actions. His first act was to command the Israelites be made slaves. Their freedom to live in a foreign land disappeared over night, as taskmasters were appointed to rule over them with whips. God told Abraham this would happen, many years before: “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for 400 years.” 

But the more the Hebrews were oppressed, the more they multiplied. These were God’s people, devoted to him and free in him, even while enslaved. Their suffering did nothing but cause them to lean more into God by faith as they “groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help.” The same holds true today and always has: the greatest growth of Christianity happens in times and places where it costs something to follow God and trust Jesus. “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”  

What happened in Egypt? When the oppression of slavery didn’t work, the king took steps to eliminate a race of people by destroying the male seed. He commanded the midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, to put to death every Hebrew baby boy as soon as he was born. 

The Pharaoh’s new edict threatened to eliminate the birth of the one who would lead God’s people out of bondage. But Shiphrah and Puah stood in the gap, as their reverence for God and life led them to refuse to do what the Pharaoh had commanded. Included in the number saved was Moses, the deliverer of Israel. 

These women are clearly heroes of the faith in the Bible, the first two “pro-life heroines” in history. Shiphrah means “beautiful one” and Puah means “splendid one,” and they were true to their names. These two effectively said to Pharaoh, long before Peter and John said to the rulers and elders in Jerusalem, “We must obey God rather than man.” 

Do you see the contrast between Pharaoh and these two women? Fear of man can cause us to do unspeakable things, as the Egyptian ruler did. But a love and reverence for God leads us on the path of righteousness, no matter the cost, as these two godly women illustrate for us. They must have understood the consequences of disobeying the Pharaoh. But the Bible and the history of Christianity are filled with examples of people who were willing to offer themselves as living sacrifices for the sake of obedience to the call of faith in Jesus.

Finally, the irony cannot be missed. The Pharaoh was worried about boys becoming men, but his plan was blown up by two women.