Check out those names! Don’t you want to add them to your list of baby names? Raise your hand if you think Mel should name her in-utero child Puah! Anyone?? 

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives — the first, whose name was Shiphrah, and the second, whose name was Puah —  “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them as they deliver. If the child is a son, kill him, but if it’s a daughter, she may live.” The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this and let the boys live?”

The midwives said to Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.”

So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very numerous.  Since the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Exodus 1:15-21 CSB

Background

This text takes place right at the beginning of the book of Exodus, so right around the time that Moses would be born, about 1526 BC. That is roughly 3,550 years ago. 

The Hebrew people are in Egypt because back towards the end of Genesis, we saw that Jacob (also known as Israel), his 11 sons, and their families joined Joseph and his family in Egypt due to the ongoing famine. 

Exodus 1:1-7 reiterates this for us so we can be sure this is the same time as the end of the book of Genesis.

Another thing to note is that this king was a different one than the one that Joseph had worked under. The one during Joseph’s time was generous and respectful of the Hebrews. The one in this text is fearful of the Hebrews and, in turn, causes them to be overworked. He went so far as to tell two of the Hebrew midwives to kill any baby boy they helped birth, as we see in today’s text.

What do we know about these ladies?

They followed God! They weren’t fearful of the consequences of following God, instead of man. They knew that the king could have his guards kill them or their families for disobeying the king’s command. Yet, Shiphrah and Puah were willing to risk their lives to follow the God they served.

They lied, knowingly, but for a good cause. God blessed them. Does this give us permission to lie to authorities? Not at all. Elsewhere in Scripture we see Jesus command believers to respect authorities. 

Their job as midwives was to be present at births to help the mom give birth and help care for the baby until mom was healed or had regained her strength. They had to have great respect for life and health. 

Likely, there would have had to have been more than 2 midwives to help all of the Hebrew women, yet only these two are named. We don’t have proof to explain why this is. Maybe these were the only two who followed God, not the king. Maybe these two were the ones in charge of the other midwives.

Strengths

Like other people mentioned in the Bible, Shiphrah and Puah followed the Word of God, even when their authority stated otherwise. You can see another great example of this in Daniel chapter 3 with Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego. Again, this does not give us an excuse to lie or be hateful to our leaders, even if we believe that our leaders aren’t following God. God does allow us to discern when a situation isn't glorifying to Him, and allow us to act in it. Whether it's by praying steadfastly for them, or taking action like these people. The Holy Spirit will never guide us to something that isn't glorifying to Him.

Weaknesses

They lied. Yes it was for a good cause. Yes they ended up being blessed. But could there have been another way they could have gone about things without lying to authorities?

Just as with most sins, it comes back to our hearts- our motivations and intentions. 1 Samuel 16:7 reminds us that God looks at the hearts of a person. When our motivation to stand up for truth is pride, then we are sinning, even if we are standing up for God’s ways. 

How can I be more like these ladies?

Shiphrah and Puah stood up for what was right. The text doesn’t say that God told them to not allow the babies to be killed. Maybe He did. All we know is that these ladies were faithful to recognize righteousness and choose to act accordingly, unconcerned with any negative consequences that the king may give. 

These ladies were brave. But their courage was godly courage that had to have followed godly wisdom.

Do we stand up for truth? Do we stand up for righteousness? Do we do so despite negative consequences? I do not mean getting on your high horse on facebook and telling the world how demonic a certain presidential candidate is. That falls under another category (aka pride). The courageous stand-up-for-truth I’m talking about includes not following culture or what loved ones are doing just for the sake of being included. This stand-for-truth seeks to love others the way God loves us yet not being prideful and believing we are always right. This isn’t easy; it requires wisdom and courage from God. 1 and 2 John talks more about this, as we will see in a future post.