Step 2: Killing the Jewish boys

2/29/2008 7:58 PM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                  Focus:  Step 2:  Killing the Jewish boys

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  Exodus 1:15-21

            Message of the verses:  “15 ¶  Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah; 16  and he said, "When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live."  17  But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live.  18  So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?"  19  The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them."  20  So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty.  21  Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them.”

            I want to begin this SD by writing something that should have been included in yesterday’s SD.  First I want to say that there seems to be some kind of a decreasing scale of evil in how the Pharaoh and his court decided to handle what they though was a problem with the children of Israel.  First they decided that there was a problem, and then they began to use the children of Israel as slaves and treat them with contempt in order to stop them from have more and more children, however God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that their families would grow into a might nation and it grew all the faster with the persecution from the Egyptians.

            In today’s verses there is another step in this evil process and that is that Pharaoh told the Jewish midwives to kill the new born boys, but let the girls live so in this way the children of Israel would stop growing and the girls would marry the Egyptian slave boys.

            These two midwives mentioned were probably the head of all of the midwives and had other midwives reporting to them for there were many to Jacobs’s family by this time and two midwives could not take care of all the babies being born. When Pharaoh found out about this he called these two midwives into his office to have a chat and they told him that the Jewish women were too fast delivering their babies before the midwives had a chance to get there.  God blessed Puah and Shiphrah, the Jewish midwives with children because of their obedience to Him concerning this issue.  The question arises did they lie to Pharaoh?  The answer is that they probably told all of the midwives working under them to be late whenever there was a baby to be born.  The lesson is that believers should obey God when the rules of man defy the Law of God.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Just as these midwives of old obeyed God I think that it is important that I too obey God and love my wife by staying with her when she has her next surgery.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Obey God even when it causes a problem for me.

Memory verses for the week:  Philippians 1:9-11

9. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,
10. so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ;
11. having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.