“Exodus & the God of Life” (Exodus 1) | 1/22/23
Exodus 1 | 1/22/23 | Will DuVal
If this is your first Sunday here, you picked a PERFECT week to join us, because we’re getting ready to dive in head first to one of the most powerful, important books in all the Bible: the book of EXODUS. It is truly difficult to overstate the significance of this book. As Philip Graham Ryken - whose wonderful commentary on Exodus I consulted extensively in preparing this morning’s message - as Ryken explains (pp17-19): “For Jews, [Exodus] is the story that defines their very existence, the rescue that MADE them God’s people. For Christians, it is the gospel of the Old Testament, God’s first great act of redemption… The exodus was THE great miracle of the old covenant… The NT writers… often used the exodus to explain salvation in Christ. Indeed, a complete understanding of the gospel requires a knowledge of the exodus… In some ways, the whole Bible is an extended interpretation of the exodus.”
And at the same TIME, Ryken also points out that “The exodus finds its ultimate meaning and final interpretation in the person and work of [Christ]. In one way or another, the whole Bible is about Jesus.”
So on the one hand, we can’t fully understand the rest of the Bible without the book of Exodus. And yet, because Jesus clearly tells us in the NT that ALL of Scripture ultimately points to HIM (Lk 24:27; Jn 5:39), we also can’t fully understand the book of Exodus apart from its fulfillment in CHRIST.
So in order to read Exodus rightly in our study together in the months to come, we have to LOOK AHEAD, and consider how Exodus serves as a paradigm of God’s redemptive work throughout the rest of history, but we also have to LOOK BACK, and read Jesus BACK INTO the exodus story as well.
That’s what the NT authors did: Jude told his readers that JESUS [was the one who] ‘delivered his people out of Egypt’ (Jude 5). The apostle Paul identified Jesus as the bread God sent His people from Heaven while they wandered in the desert; when God brought WATER forth from a ROCK, according to Paul: “the Rock was Christ”.
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If I said, “I’m going to describe for you a story from the Bible, and you tell me which one it is:
*God’s people were in trouble; they were in terrible BONDAGE, enslaved…
*With NO hope of deliverance, except through a supernatural miraculous work of God himself.
*But God raised up for His people a SAVIOR, a child whose life was threatened from Day 1 by a jealous, wicked king, who was REJECTED by his own people, but who God nevertheless used to set His people FREE.
*By means of: SACRIFICE. There was a cost associated with the RANSOM of God’s people: the blood of the LAMB, a Passover Lamb (1 Cor 5:7).
*And in the WAKE of that sacrifice, God Himself intervenes and breaks the laws of nature in order to bring LIFE out of DEATH.
*And not only that, God then promises to STAY with His people; they enjoy His very own presence, to lead and guide them through the wilderness of life in this fallen world…
*And God also guides them by giving them his WORD…
*And God then calls his newly rescued people to be a royal priesthood and holy nation, to display God’s goodness and proclaim His salvation to ALL nations (19:4-6; 20:7)...
*Albeit, while still traveling this world as pilgrims and exiles, who have not yet arrived at our true homeland.
Now, what story did I just describe for you? Is that Exodus, or is that the Gospel?! Was I talking about MOSES… or JESUS? The ancient ISRAELITES’ story… or is it OUR story, church? It’s BOTH! Isn’t it?
One of the most telling passages in the NT that makes this Christ-Exodus connection undeniable is Jesus’ Transfiguration in Luke ch9, where we read: “Behold, two men were talking with [Jesus], Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (30-31). You know the original Greek word for “departure” there is… [any guesses?] EXODUS! Moses showed up on the mountain to talk with Jesus about his EXODUS, that he was about to accomplish, on Calvary, through his death and resurrection! The exodus story IS the gospel story.
Which means - brothers and sisters - for all of us who are IN Christ, who have been saved by grace through faith, it is also OUR story. So we READ it not just historically (for factual information), not even merely theologically (for mental stimulation), but we READ it, most of all, personally, spiritually, practically (for heart transformation). As Ryken (24) explains: “God has given us the book of Exodus, as he has given us every book of the Bible, for our practical benefit. When the Apostle Paul wanted to exhort the Corinthians to persevere in the faith, he reminded them of the exodus: “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers… all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses…” (that’s 1 Corinthians 10:1-2)... [Paul] went on to explain how, despite the fact that God saved them in the wilderness, the Israelites turned away from God and perished. [Paul] concluded by saying, “these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction” (v11)... Paul was saying that what happened to them was written down FOR US. Exodus is intended for OUR spiritual benefit. Since the exodus is a story of deliverance from bondage through the work of a savior, it is the story of the Christian life.”
So we’re not only going to be reading JESUS into the story for the next several months; we’re going to be reading OURSELVES in as well.
Now, before we dive into chapter ONE for this morning, I want to give you 4 points of CONTEXT, still at a macro level: Who, What, Where, and When. I’ve already given you the “Why”: why STUDY Exodus? Cuz it’s really important! Cuz EVERY book of the Bible is God’s inspired word, and is profitable to us. Because Exodus points us to JESUS; it’s HIS story… and it’s OUR story. That’s WHY we’re studying it.
Now let’s consider “Who”, “What”, “Where” and “When”.
First: WHO? Who WROTE Exodus: Authorial context. For millennia now, both Jewish and church tradition have ascribed authorship of Exodus to MOSES. There are various points in the book itself at which God instructs Moses to “write this down as a memorial in a book” - ch17 (v14); then in ch24 when God finishes giving Moses the 10 Commandments and the Law, we read “And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord” (v4); then again in ch34, when God has to REPEAT the commandments, he again directs Moses to “write down these words” (27).
The OT corroborates Mosaic authorship, over a DOZEN times. Deut. 31:24 states that “Moses finished writing the words of the law [that is, the Torah; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy; Moses wrote them ALL] in a book to the very end”. Likewise, JESUS himself confirms Mosaic authorship; in Mark 12, he reminds a group of Sadducees about the burning bush story from Exodus 3, in the “book of Moses” (v26). In Mark 7, Jesus quotes the fifth commandment from Exodus 20 to a group of Pharisees, and he introduces it with the words: “For Moses said…” (v10). So to question Mosaic authorship is to question biblical inerrancy and Jesus’ authority.
Second: WHEN? WHEN was Exodus written: historical context. IF Moses wrote Exodus, then it must have been completed by the time of his death at the end of the 15th c. BC, around the year 1405. We know the actual exodus from Egypt took place in the year 1445 BC, 480 years before Solomon began building the temple, according to 1 Kings 6:1. Acts 13 in the NT corroborates that date (vv19-20). We know Moses was 40 years old when he fled Egypt in Exodus ch2; he was 80 years old when he led Israel out of slavery in ch14; and he was 120 years old when he died. So we can place all of exodus in its even BROADER historical context. We know the patriarch Jacob moved to Egypt in 1875 BC; his son Joseph became VICE-pharaoh during Egypt’s 12th Dynasty. The exodus takes place over 4 centuries later during Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, and while the Bible doesn’t NAME the Pharaoh, he was probably Thutmose III, Egypt’s greatest conquering, “warrior-Pharaoh,” the so-called “Napoleon of Ancient Egypt”, “who transformed Egypt into an international superpower by creating an empire that stretched from the Asian regions of Syria in the North, to Upper Nubia in the south… Thutmose III was also a great builder and constructed over 50 temples [wanna guess how he managed to pull THAT off? He had some HELP…]. History tells us that Thurmose’s firstborn son did NOT succeed him as Pharaoh as was customary, because he DIED halfway into his father’s reign - right around 1445 BC! ” And fun fact: “Thutmose III's mummy was discovered in 1881 AD.” So you can travel to Egypt today and still see the remains of the villain of this story! (Wikipedia).
And on that note, let me just quickly say: in recent years, liberal scholars have tried to undermine not only Mosaic authorship, but the historicity of ALL of Exodus, but there is overwhelming archaeological and textual evidence in support of it: the Leiden Papyrus 348 confirms the presence of Semitic slaves in Egypt at the time of the exodus (Ryken, 21), the Stele of Merneptah confirms the presence of Israelites living back in CANAAN by the 13th century (21). Other ancient findings like “inscriptions in the tomb of Rekhmire at Thebes depict prisoners from Canaan” making bricks (34)... “The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage” “describes a series of disasters that sound very much like the Biblical plagues” (22). All of it to say: the exodus IS historical FACT.
Fourthly: You’ve got “Why”, “Who”, and “When”; how about “WHERE?” Where is Exodus situated in its biblical context? Exodus is the SECOND book of the Bible, right after GENESIS, which most of you will remember we finished studying together in the fall of 2021. So I was anxious to return to Exodus while the story was still somewhat fresh in our minds, because as we’ll see in just a moment, we’re gonna pick up right where Genesis left off!
Finally: WHAT? What is Exodus all ABOUT? Its thematic context.
If God created people for His glory in Genesis, then in Exodus God will create A people - a NATION - for His glory.
If Genesis was all about God’s call and covenant with ABRAHAM, Isaac, and Jacob - to make them into a great nation - Exodus is all about God making GOOD on that promise.
Genesis: God created, called, and covenanted to a people;
Exodus: He’s gonna conserve, claim and consecrate that people.
Conserve (save), claim (adopt), and consecrate (set apart).
Warren Wiersbe uses Exodus ch6, vv6 & 7 as an OUTLINE for the entire book, where God declares to Moses: “Say to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and… I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God…”
1) “I will bring you out…” (6:6) = that’s Exodus chs1-18: REDEMPTION (“The Lord CONSERVES / SAVES His people”)
2) “I will take you to be my people…” (6:7) = that’s Exodus chs19-24: COVENANT (“The Lord CLAIMS His People”)
3) “I will be your God…” (6:7) = Exodus chs25-40: WORSHIP (“The Lord CONSECRATES His People” - calls them to be holy, in their worship of HIM)
Or as I’ve subtitled our series: “Freed to Follow”.
Exodus chs1-14 recounts God’s FREEING Israel from slavery in Egypt; but that’s only half the story. Because God FREES us that we might FOLLOW Him. And chs15-40 will detail God’s calling and consecrating Israel to FOLLOW him. As a matter of fact, as commentator Tim Chester points out: “The Hebrew word used to describe Israel’s ‘slavery’ [in the first half of the book] is the same word used to describe her ‘worship’ [in the second half!]. [So] the movement in the book of Exodus is not so much from slavery to freedom as from slavery to slavery. But serving God is completely different from serving Pharaoh. Indeed, God’s service is TRUE freedom” (Tim Chester, Exodus for You, 8).
And what’s true of the Israelites is equally true of you and me this morning: God FREES us to FOLLOW Him. He has SAVED us to SERVE him. “It is by grace we’ve been saved through faith”... FOR good works, Ephesians 2:8-10 reminds us.
And if we wanted to make our subtitle just a little more clumsy but accurate, we could say the theme of Exodus is really that we’re “Freed to Follow for God’s FAME”! Because ultimately this book, like EVERY book of the Bible, is ALL about GOD’S GLORY. Everything God DOES over these next 40 chapters - freeing his people, giving his Law, even hardening Pharaoh’s heart! - why does He DO it?
“For this purpose I have raised you up [God will declare to Pharaoh in ch9]: to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. ” (9:16)
Ch14: “I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” (v4; see also 14:17-18; Rom 9:17)
God does it ALL… FOR HIS OWN GLORY! That his mighty name would be made famous among ALL the nations.
As Psalm 106 - nicknamed the “Exodus Psalm” - puts it: “when [our fathers] were in Egypt… [God] saved them for his name's sake, that he might make known his mighty power.” (vv7-8)
So that’s where we’re headed. But we’ll never get there if we don’t dive in!
SCRIPTURE: I invite you to stand… Exodus 1:1-22:
“These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt. 6 Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. 7 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.
8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. 13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves 14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.
15 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. 18 So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” 20 So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”.”
This is the word of God… Let’s pray…
Now, in order for my outline - and more importantly: the book of Exodus! - to make any sense to you, we need to think back once again to the book of GENESIS. Remember, I said Exodus is all about God making good on his covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob from GENESIS. So let’s quickly remind ourselves of that covenant: Genesis 12: “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country… to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”” God covenanted 3 things to Abram there: a LAND, a NATION, and a BLESSING.
A Place, a People, and a Promise.
Now I don’t have time to unpack the massive significance of those 3 assurances, as I did when we went through Genesis, but here’s the upshot: our God, Moses’ God, Abraham’s God, YAHWEH, is a God of LIFE. Everything that our God DOES is pro-LIFE. Even when he KILLS, it’s because He values LIFE. Ezekiel 33:11 - God declares “ I take no pleasure in the death [even] of the wicked, but that the wicked [would] turn from his way and live”. So, for instance, when God flooded the whole world in Genesis 6, and killed every man, woman and child save for Noah’s tiny family of EIGHT, why’d he DO it? God DID it for the same reason a good doctor cuts ALL of the cancer out of you. And if your body’s 99.9% cancer, then you’re in trouble. Unless you’ve got the BEST physician, who alone can bring LIFE out of even just those 8 tiny healthy cells that are left. That’s our God; he is the God of LIFE. Jesus said, in John 10:10, “I have come to give you LIFE, and life to the FULLEST.”
THAT’S what God covenanted to Abraham: LIFE.
A People, a Place, and a Promise. Of LIFE!
A People: “Descendants as numerous as the stars”: lots and LOTS of life!
A Place: “A land flowing with milk and honey”: QUALITY of life; a place to settle down and ENJOY life.
And a Promise of BLESSING: “Not only am I blessing YOU and YOUR offspring, Abraham, but THROUGH you,” God says, “I am going to bless ALL the families of the earth!” God is THAT pro-LIFE!
And that sets the stage for Exodus 1, where we find three scenes or movements in this first chapter:
#1 - Life CONTINUED (1:1-7)
Genesis ENDED with God preserving the lives of Abraham’s descendants - Jacob and his 12 sons and their families - by relocating them down to EGYPT to save them from a famine. And Exodus picks up the story right where we left off.
As a matter of fact, the very first word of the book is the Hebrew conjunction “vav” which means “AND”. You may have been taught growing up never to open a sentence with the word “And”; coming from someone who does it all the time, I can assure you: that’s a stupid, outdated grammatical rule. And the Bible PROVES it, by starting a whole BOOK with the word “And”. And this tips us off that Exodus is just continuing the story of Genesis, some 350 years later: “And these are the names of the (12) sons of Israel…”. And while they may now be gone - v6: they died - their descendants are becoming more and more “numerous” with every passing generation. V7: “the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the [whole] land was filled with them.” Notice: Israel is described here in exactly the same words that God had used in his very first COMMAND in all of creation, when He told Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen 1:22). So Ryken exposits (26): “In his people Israel, God was fulfilling his plan for [all] humanity.”
So we might say that life not only CONTINUED for Jacob’s family down in Egypt, it COMPOUNDED. God blessed and CULTIVATED His people, and they grew exponentially.
But everything CHANGED in v8, with these words - “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” Joseph’s legacy, how he had saved not only his OWN family’s life, but all of EGYPT from the threat of famine. Now, 350 years later: this new Pharaoh has forgotten. Kids: let that be a lesson to you about the importance of staying awake in HISTORY class! This whole exodus ordeal could have been AVOIDED!
But then again, so could Joseph’s trip to Egypt in the first place; remember how he got there? His own brothers sold HIM into slavery! Yet remember what he told them, when they were sure that Joseph was gonna get his revenge; instead, he assured them: “what you meant for EVIL against me, GOD meant it for GOOD, in order to SAVE many people” (50:20). And we should hear Joseph’s words still ringing in our ears here in Exodus ch1, foreshadowing: REDEMPTION! God has already PROVEN that He is a God of redemption, a God who loves taking EVIL and turning it for GOOD, for those who love him and are called according to His purpose. And God will do it AGAIN, for His people Israel. But first…
Point #2 - He will allow them to suffer as life [is] COMBATED. (1:8-16, 22)
This ignorant, paranoid, perhaps RACIST Pharaoh, pronounces: “the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them…”
And watch how he calls into question all THREE of God’s covenant promises: God vowed a people, a place, and a promise of blessing.
Notice how the Pharaoh inverts and attempts to SUB-vert all three:
God says, “I’ll give you descendants as numerous as the stars”; the more the merrier! Pharaoh says: “the people of Israel are too many”; we’ve gotta KILL ‘em.
God says, “I’m gonna bring you to the Promised Land”; Pharaoh says: “No - we’ve gotta ENSLAVE ‘em, FORCE them to stay here in Egypt; “lest they ESCAPE from our land”.
God says, “I’m gonna use Israel to BLESS every nation”; Pharaoh says: “No way; if war breaks out, the Israelites will surely join our enemies and fight AGAINST us!” We’ve got to put them in their place.
And because he doubts and denies God’s three pro-life covenant promises, Pharaoh then OPPOSES life for the Israelites in three different waves of persecution against them:
The first is SLAVERY. Vv11-14: “they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens… they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service”. But v12 tells us: “the more [the Israelites] were oppressed, the more they multiplied and… spread abroad.” What was true of the early church, as we saw throughout the book of ACTS last year, where every wave of persecution against the church led to a massive BOOM in conversions and church planting - what is still true TODAY: the fastest growing church in the world today is in IRAN, the 9th most dangerous country to BE a Christian, according to the Open Doors Watch List released just last week - that was true of the Israelites down in Egypt as well: persecution leads to proliferation.
So Pharaoh ramps it up with a SECOND wave of attacks: on top of the slavery, he now orders the SLAYING of every Israelite baby boy born; v16, he commands the Hebrew midwives: ““When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women… if it is a son, you shall kill him”.
And thirdly, when THAT doesn’t work, v22, the slaying becomes all-out SLAUGHTER. Genocide. “Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile”.
WHY? Ignorance? Sure. Paranoia? Without question. Racism? Perhaps. But more than anything else, as Ryken points out, “Pharaoh was really fighting against GOD… Ultimately this was a spiritual conflict. … By enslaving the Israelites, Pharaoh was making a theological point: The Hebrews would not serve their own God - they would work for him… In effect, Pharaoh was claiming to be the lord of Israel, and by doing so - perhaps without even realizing it - he became the tool of Satan… The exodus, therefore, was not simply an epic struggle between Moses and Pharaoh, or between Israel and Egypt. Ultimately it was another skirmish in the great, ongoing war between God and Satan.” (33-34)
Friends: our God is pro-life. Satan is ANTI-life. If Jesus came to bring us life and life to the FULLEST - eternal life - then Satan’s whole M.O. is to DESTROY life.
This morning we’re celebrating “Sanctity of Life Sunday” - the FIRST Sanctity of Life Sunday, in 50 years, on which it is no longer legal in all 50 states to get an abortion, thanks to the Supreme Court’s courageous and righteous decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade last June. And celebrate we SHOULD - Praise God! And we are blessed to have ThriVe with us this morning to celebrate, and we’re so blessed by their partnership and all their hard work for the cause of LIFE in our city and all around the country.
And yet, pro-life advocacy groups LIKE ThriVe would caution us against celebrating TOO much, because they question whether or not abortions have truly declined since June, due to the rapid rise in PHARMACEUTICAL abortions. Just last week, the FDA approved abortion pills for sale by retail pharmacies; medication abortions are about to SKY-rocket. (https://www.bakerlaw.com/alerts/fda-approves-abortion-pill-sale-retail-pharmacies)
Democrats in the House and Senate have made it clear they’re doing everything in their power to try and rally the votes to codify Roe into law. The House NARROWLY passed two pro-life bills last week - here are the bills, by the way, that BARELY passed: “The first bill, titled the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act… would require that all infants born after attempted abortions receive medical care. It passed in a 220-210 vote… The second measure… was a resolution condemning attacks on anti-abortion facilities, groups and churches. The chamber adopted that resolution in a 222-219 vote.” (The Hill, “These House Democrats…”, https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3809724-these-house-democrats-supported-gop-sponsored-abortion-measures/?fbclid=IwAR19S-RSD5oIB9UxnOf4ZkZS7tZb9jIgFaugYUejIUKetoAaX4E60D7YzuI )
Now the real story here, for me anyway, is that “210 of our elected officials think that a baby born alive after a botched abortion should STILL be fair game, to be killed OUTSIDE the womb; and 219 of them don't think that pro-life organizations like ThriVe - like US, West Hills! - deserve protections against vandalism and violence” (DuVal, FB post, 1/12/23). And by the way, both bills are probably irrelevant because they’re expected to FAIL when they go to the Democrat-led Senate.
So Christian: if you thought the fight for life was over last June, think again. The spirit of Pharaoh is still very much alive and well in our country today. Which brings us to…
Point #3 - that Life must still be CONTENDED FOR. (1:17-21)
If Pharaohs still abound today, then so too must Shiphrahs and Puahs!
Those willing to put our NECKS on the line in the FIGHT to save the lives of the unborn.
Those who fear GOD more than we fear Pharaoh; as Jesus put it in Matthew 10: “do not fear those who kill the body… Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (v28).
We need advocates for life who are willing even to break the LAW, when it goes against GOD’S law; as Peter put it in Acts 5: “We must obey God rather than men.” (v29)
Dare I say: we need advocates for life who are willing to bend - perhaps even BREAK! - the TRUTH, for the sake of LIFE?
Let’s go there; any honest examination of this passage MUST. Are these Hebrew midwives guilty of LYING here to Pharaoh? And if so, does God really condone, even COMMEND, their lie?
Pharaoh ORDERED them to kill the Hebrew baby boys. They DON’T. He calls them in and asks WHY. And they reply: “the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”
Some commentators speculate they were telling the truth, a HALF-truth anyway; that Shiphrah and Puah couldn’t possibly have midwifed over an Israelite population that on the eve of the exodus, in ch12, we’ll hear had grown to 600,000 men (not including the women and children, so between 2-3 million people, total!). So Shiphrah and Puah must have been the HEADS of the midwifery operation, and as such, they must have given secret instructions to their employees to TAKE YOUR TIME getting to the delivery room.
Philip Ryken, who I’ve been quoting so much, offers a different interpretation (42): “Their lie - if it can even be considered a lie - was such a whopper that they can hardly be accused of trying to DECEIVE anyone! If what Shiphrah and Puah said was literally true, then why would the Hebrews even NEED midwives? This is one of the places where understanding the Bible requires a sense of humor. Speaking tongue-in-cheek, the midwives were making sport of Pharaoh by suggesting that the Hebrews were hardier than the Egyptians. What they said was more a JOKE than a lie. Thus, Pharaoh was mocked as WELL as deceived.”
Maybe that softens it enough for some of us to swallow. But I’ll offer a THIRD interpretation for us: maybe they just LIED. And maybe God is just SO pro-life, that as much as he hates LIES, He hates DEATH even more. Maybe this is one of those classic “lesser-of-two-evils” situations where there IS no good choice for Shiphrah and Puah, so the less BAD choice - lying - becomes the BEST choice; speaking of politics, some of us are praying that God is gonna judge the VOTE we cast in the last election along the same lines, aren’t we? “God, I tried to do the best I could with two crappy options!”
We find biblical precedent for this interpretation elsewhere; RAHAB lied to hide the Israelite spies in Joshua 2, and James 2 tells us that she was “justified” - SAVED! - for it. Even Jesus got himself in trouble with the Pharisees for healing on the Sabbath. But as BAD as it is to work on the Sabbath, it’s WORSE to let someone suffer when it is in your power to help them, even if it IS the Sabbath. It’s the “lesser of two evils”. Was it RIGHT and MORAL for Christians during the Holocaust to hide Jews and lie to the Nazis when questioned? I say YES. I understand God’s WORD as saying yes. That sometimes LIFE trumps even the truth. And for those worried about the slippery slope: your wife asking if she looks fat in this dress is NOT a case of life-and-death, okay? I suspect NONE of us in this room have ever been in one of these extremely RARE situations when it’s possible to tell a “righteous lie”.
Ethicists call this “ethical hierarchicalism”, by the way, as opposed to “moral absolutism”. But it’s WAY too late in the sermon for a lecture in ethics.
So suffice it to say: if it WAS a lie, we must at least agree that they were REWARDED for it! Vv20-21: “So God dealt well with the midwives… And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.”
Because God is pro-LIFE. And he’s a covenant KEEPING God. As we’ll see in the weeks to come, NO ONE - not even the most powerful king on EARTH - can thwart God’s plans; if God promised his people land, offspring and blessing, then Israel will BE plentiful, established, and blessed, with or WITHOUT Pharaoh’s permission. And likewise, brother, sister: if God has promised YOU life to the fullest, and if He sent His own son Jesus to purchase that life for you, then He will INDEED work all things together for your good, come what may. And “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:38-39)
Amen.