"But the Midwives Feared God"

You have some bulletins up here if you'd like a bulletin to take notes, maybe I could have a couple volunteers

Just put your hand up so that you can have some notes and while those are being passed out

If you're not a note -taker, let me encourage you you ought to be a note -taker a little pedagogical insight your your mind when it's engaged in taking notes will do a better job of Listening and engaging with what you're hearing than if you're only

Listening and then your mind begins to wander and you kind of keep circling back So the old adage that the strongest memory is weaker than the weakest ink is certainly true

And even if you never look at your notes again You will have gotten more out of the fact that you took notes while you were listening

So maybe there's a few that I've convinced to take some some notes. It's not exactly heavy this morning but may be good to develop the habits of taking notes

This morning we're continuing in Exodus in chapter 1 This is now the the second week that we've dipped our toes

Into the shoreline of this tremendous book and we're going to weigh deeper and deeper as we make our way forward over the coming months

Last week we kept in mind that Exodus does follow Genesis not only

Chronologically by a turning of the page but it also begins with a callback to Genesis 46 and so the opening of the narrative of Exodus is meant to be read in Conjunction with the closing of the book of Genesis of course all five books the first five books of the

Bible have a certain unity given to them by Moses and his writing of them and they're often called the first five books or the

Pentateuch And so we're reading Genesis and Exodus as a cohesive narrative and all of this is the outflow of Genesis 1 through 3 the creation of man and God's purpose and intention for mankind and Then the fall and all of the consequences of the fall

But in spite of the fall God's grace and with God's grace God's promise

That he would redeem the curse of the fall as far as that curse would be found

That his good desire and intention for man would be found in the fullness of time

When he sent the promise seed the seed that he promised to the woman into the world to accomplish

What the first Adam had failed to do the last Adam would succeed and so secure

God's blessed intention for man to be in a relationship of glory and enjoyment

Forever without any possibility of sin or fall so that that is taking us into Exodus We're taking further steps into the unfolding of what we call redemptive history not just History as it would stand in a homeschooling textbook.

Let's say but history from the perspective of God's great acts of redemption and the fullness thereof found in the person and work of our

Lord Jesus Remember what God had promised Abram in that dark sleep that came upon him

He said to Abram. No, certainly your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them and Will afflict to them for 400 years and the nation whom they serve

I will judge afterward They shall come out with great Possessions that was what he had revealed to Abram when he made the covenant with Abraham And we're walking now in the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise

We left off the Israelites last week in sore affliction in great bondage in the land of Egypt Crying out to the

Lord as Pharaoh begins his programmatic crushing of their spirit and this morning in the remainder of Exodus 1 the programmatic crushing of their seed of their children

We Began to see last week the the contrast between the mercy of God Blessing in multiplying and making fruitful the

Israelites so that they're becoming a mighty nation in the land that does not belong to them Contrasted with the cruelty of Pharaoh who keeps adding burdens that they cannot bear and and soon

We'll see the fullness of that being complete folly make bricks without straw do this work

That's now impossible to do. The point is that I I completely subjugate you to my will and to my yoke

This morning. We're gonna see the beginning of a counteraction against Pharaoh's tyranny and that's all coming in this marvelous phrase

The fear of God that's the focal point this morning the fear of God something needful for the hour men and women who fear

God So we're going to consider first the fear of God briefly we'll consider

The return on that fear the blessing of God. All right, so fear of God first Briefly the blessing of God, which is the return on fear and then moving more toward application the need for God fearers

The need of the day the need of the hour to be God fearing as believers

So first the fear of God beginning in Exodus 1 verse 15 Then the king of Egypt spoke to the

Hebrew midwives of whom the name of one was Shifra the name of the other Pua and he said

When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstools if it is a son

Then you shall kill him But if it is a daughter, then she shall live

Pharaoh has gone from the brutality of slavery now to the brutality of infanticide.

He seeks to destroy The male lineage among the Israelites. This is a major step forward in his plan

But at this stage, it's very subtle It's not to the very end of the chapter, but now he'll go to the

Egyptians and say cast the Israelite sons into the river This command is done more subtly.

He he finds these two Hebrew midwives We'll talk about that phrase Hebrew midwives in a moment

And he gives the command every son born among them is to be killed

In a secret covert way in a way that it could be seen to be Accidental or stillborn not in a way that was intentional

So he's seeking to cover up this murderous intent through the agency of Shifra and Pua and likely

Those that they had authority over again a note. I'll make in a moment The daughters are to be spared in Pharaoh's mind the daughters don't pose an immediate threat because there's a way of Submerging a people's identity through intermarriage that can take place with daughters

Intermarrying Egyptians or other subject races, but it can't take place with Israelite men forming households of their own so it seems to be

Pharaoh desiring to have still ranks of slave labor in his kingdom and Realizing the way to do that is to allow the

Israelite daughters to intermarry and so be Compromised and yet still be servile

But as for the men who pose the greatest threat to my power and the greatest form of Israelite identity

They must be killed. That's the policy We're given the names of two women

Isn't it ironic we're given the names of two women and we're not given the names of Pharaoh We're given the names of two midwives

Shifra and Pua Some make the case not just modern scholars, but even

John Gill is an example give the case for the amount of women that the Lord had blessed with children

It's unlikely that two midwives Could have handled all of the workload and you can imagine them jogging and sprinting from one

Tent or home or dwelling place to the next so so perhaps these are representative

These are the ones that are named and remembered perhaps they have a position of unique authority in their relationship

Not only as midwives to the Hebrew women, but also in their relationship to the court of Pharaoh So John Gill says perhaps they were the most noted in their profession

And so the king began with these if he could succeed with them, he would go on to others

Or perhaps they were not the only midwives. They may have been representative of those in a similar position

That's how some of the rabbinic interpreters long ago took it like Rashi as an example another debated issue

Calvin Gill all these brothers take different views on this is whether or not Shifra and Pua were actually

Hebrew midwives or Were they midwives over the

Hebrews the translation could go either way In fact the Greek translation of the

Hebrew here what we call the Septuagint Translates it in Greek as they were midwives over the

Hebrews rather than Hebrew midwives and the case is made How could

Pharaoh expect Hebrew midwives to exterminate Hebrew sons that would have been a hard sell

But if they were Egyptians, then it's more likely that he could have coerced them or commanded them to kill the enemy of the people in this case the

Israelites Well, that's possible But we're not told if he was coercing them with the reward or if he was in some ways threatening them with punishment

There's more than one way to skin a cat Don't you ever wonder where that phrase?

Where does that phrase ever come from? I don't want to know Poor Ralphie as it stands in the narrative.

We're not told whether they were Hebrew midwives or midwives over the Hebrews It seems logical that they could have been

Egyptian women and that's why Pharaoh approached them or he simply could have approached them with his power Remember he thinks he's the cream of the crop

He has all of the power in the mightiest kingdom of the ancient world and he would think if I say do this

It's either you do this or I will do this to you. You exterminate who I say to exterminate or you will be exterminated

Scholars note they have not Egyptian names, but Semitic name It's possible that they were given

Semitic names in this position of honor afterward the Hebrews Recognizing the the great mercy that God showed through them

Just like Joseph had a Semitic name you say but was also given Egyptian names up not

Pena As it stands the narrative is not interested in giving us these details it's only interested in portraying their courage and their fear of God in Contrast to the evil and foolish bent of Pharaoh upon destroying

Israel Now let's focus on on that the significance of Pharaoh's desire to destroy

The male lineage among the Israelites as I mentioned briefly last week This part of Exodus this this entree into Exodus is ultimately depicting satanic

Opposition not only to God's people But to God's purpose for the world through his people

Right. It's not just a direct opposition to the Israelites but what God had promised to take place through the

Israelites as a blessing for all of the nations of the world and so on the one hand we're learning from Shifra and Pua how to be faithful to God in times of persecution and Tribulation, but on the other hand the story is meant to open up the cosmic dimensions of everything

We've seen from Genesis 3 15 and forward It's not difficult to peer behind the scenes as Arthur Pink says and find

Pharaoh simply to be an instrument Which is accomplishing the design of the serpent

Seeking to crush the seed of the woman ultimately Exodus 1 is a reminder that God had put enmity

Between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman the promised seed who is the

Lord Jesus Christ in the lineage Through Abraham and through his descendants that ultimately would bring forth that promised seed

John seems to pick this up in his unique Apocalyptic way from Revelation chapter 12 where he typifies the serpent this this dragon from the beginning in moments like Exodus 1 in moments like the massacre of the innocents when

Jesus was about to be born in these very moments We see the serpent opening wide his jaws to devour the promised seed and bring

God's promises to not The dragon stood before the woman who is the woman?

Eve mother Israel Mary the church

Yes to all of the above it's the enmity between the serpent and the woman

The dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born

Pharaoh's opening wide his satanic jaws to crush the messianic lineage

Now it's cosmic as we're saying It's ultimately about the promised seed we're unfolding redemptive history

But redemptive history is a way of viewing concrete actual lived and experienced history.

And so I Don't want us to miss the cosmic contour of Exodus 1 this is dealing with principalities and powers

Eschatological promises the storyline of the entire scriptures and how that all comes at its very height

To reveal the person and work of Jesus, but I also don't want us to miss the lived and experienced reality of this cosmic and satanic opposition

Impacting the lives of men and women and children like you and me the commentators

I think on this end are very helpful and when they consider what

Pharaoh was commanding They're incensed John Gill says the scheme was so Barbarous and shocking especially to the tender sex, especially to these two women

So devoid of humanity One would think it could never have entered the heart of me

Calvin says Pharaoh desires the infants to be killed as they're born and he commands the midwives to be the instance in instruments of this dreadful barbarity

We read of no such detestable example of inhumanity since the world began this past week.

I read a report from BBC about doctors in Greenland who inserted intrauterine contraceptive devices into Several thousand local women without their knowledge and without their consent

And this was not some random rogue doctor Shirking the responsibilities of the

Hippocratic Oath. He had taken this was a government policy from the

Danish government this is a quote from the report when Danish authorities noticed a dramatic growth in the native

Inuit population a growth ironically that came with the wonders of modern health care

The decision was made by the government to artificially limit the ability of Inuit women to have children

This was done without their consent or their knowledge. This is from the report Convinced that Greenlandic women were constitutionally incapable of taking birth control pills

Danish doctors secretly inserted IUD devices without informing them a Source told

Danish journalists that doctors often would joke About how Inuit women wanting treatment for swollen fingers would come to their clinic only to leave with an

IUD Ultimately about half of all of the Inuit women on the island were sterilized between 1966 and 1970 with an investigation now looking up to the same figures through 1991 and some reporting an

IUD being implanted without their consent as recent as five years in China you're familiar with perhaps their policy and They relied also on IUD devices

I some months ago came across an artwork by a Chinese artist named Wenjing Zhou And if you saw it you'd perhaps be a little confused at what it was, but the title of the piece is

IUD It's sort of a blank dark wooden board And there's these intricate little pieces of copper wire all different shapes very similar but each one unique and They're put in sort of this grid like pattern on this board

Well the artist Zhou explains the work There is a traditional piece of art in China where people write the same character over and over a hundred a thousand ten thousand times and the more you write it the more your meaning to To reward or give to someone the significance of the character that you keep repeating and so often

It's blessing so the Chinese character for blessing you write out a hundred a thousand a hundred thousand times and in each little

Calligraphic stroke is meant to show your desire for the recipient What I use was pieces of copper wire

That were actually not manufactured by me, but by companies medical manufacturers that made

IUD devices these pieces of copper wire were in fact IUDs The sharp edges would be prongs that were inserted into an otherwise healthy woman

When inserted they would cause a local inflammation and therefore a higher amount of white blood cells which would act to prevent pregnancy between 1980 and 2014 three hundred and twenty four million

Devices were planted into Chinese women and Joe the artist who made this piece said in China Fertility was a disease that needed to be cured fruitfulness blessing

Becoming a curse the jaws of Satan Opening wide to deform and destroy

God's good design and good intentions for humanity to Thrive and flourish to be blessed and enjoy him to glory and worship as his creatures on the earth

In our day Has not abortion Been aided and abetted because we've been silent

Perhaps more silent in ways than we know we could be But we comfort ourselves to say we're more vocal than a lot of other people that we know

Now you don't need to have copper wire Implanted without your consent.

You can simply go to Walgreens or CVS and take a pill It may be different as far as the mode

But the design and the ultimate source isn't different at all It's from the evil one and it's direct rebellion and opposition against God a hatred for anything that resembles his image

It's the satanic monstrosity That deforms and makes men and women miserable.

It makes doctors killers rather than healers There's a born -alive act.

Perhaps you read about that or heard about that this week Where so many politicians on the left

Kept simply repeating the lines. We will always stand for a woman's reproductive, right? We will always stand for choice

When the act was simply describing That if an abortion had been attempted and yet failed and a baby was born alive

The doctor must not make any attempt to save that baby's life all of a sudden

Exodus 1 isn't that far away from where we are and The question is where are the shifras and the

Pua's today? What delivery wards are the shifras and Pua's going to stand not in fear of man, but in fear of God There's certainly no shortage of pharaohs today whether in China in Denmark in Greenland or here in the

United States of America There's no shortage of pharaohs acting as pawns of the satanic hatred for God's intention for man and woman for God's love for his image bearers to walk in the glory of his

Design intricately knitting them in his womb giving them life and health

Happiness and and all of the propensity of man in the world to be dominion takers and meaning makers to bring glory to God as his image bearers and seeking to exterminate and crush and Mutilate that purpose of God to mar and deform the image of God in human life without thought without Remorse without hesitation.

There's no shortage of pharaohs. They're in the Congress. They're in the halls of power

They're in the state chambers. They're in the city hall councils. They're your neighbors

If Pharaoh were alive in 2023, he would simply put on his

Twitter account The Kingdom of Egypt will always stand with women for reproductive rights, but the reality behind that subterfuge of rhetoric is

The dragon opening his jaws looking to devour the child Where are the shifras and the

Pua's today? Shifra is a semitic name as we mentioned that it means beautiful one

Pua very similar splendid one Perhaps these were honorary names that were given to these two midwives

They did a beautiful thing. They did a splendid thing They had been commanded perhaps with their own necks on the line to murder children

But in direct opposition they ended up saving all of the male children alive

Pharaoh Had a final solution for the Israelites and they didn't say well

Personally, I oppose this Personally, I have a very different view about this

But I recognize my view is not everyone else's view and it is legal And of course if it's legal, my hands are somewhat tied.

So while I would make the argument This is an ethical who am I to assume the ethics of the person that I'm treating or I have responsibility

Toward and after all there probably is more things that I have to enter into dialogue with about climate

Catastrophe and potential food shortages in the Nile. Maybe in some ways. This is a wise measure that Pharaoh is taking

That's not what Shifra and Pua said and they didn't even say something a little closer to home.

What can we do? Our livelihood is bound up in our positions We don't eat if we don't obey and much less if we disobey we may be killed

Better some Hebrew boy on the birthstool than me That's not what Shifra and Pua said

What did they do? Verse 17, it's the central text of this section of chapter 1 they feared

God The midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them

But saved the male children alive What did

Shifra and Pua do? They feared God and they disobeyed man

What did Shifra and Pua do they disobeyed an evil policy of Infanticide and instead of killing male children let the male children live saved them alive

Now Shifra and Pua almost surely were afraid of Pharaoh's power But they were more sure of God's power for them.

The choice was clear Pharaoh and the state of Pharaoh had given a command that was directly against God's command

And therefore they knew there was only one right way to act and there was no gray area Surrounding it they simply had to choose

Will we fear God or will we fear Pharaoh? Will we obey

God or will we obey the state? I don't know that we ever up to this point in reading the

Bible Come across two women of this caliber certainly, we've seen godly women in the account of Genesis and women also that failed just as we've seen godly men who were also failures, but Shifra and Pua are held out as the examples

Before we get to Moses the Deliverer We have Shifra and Pua the Deliverers These are,

Philip Rykin puts it, these are the first pro -life heroines the first pro -lifers in the

Bible Shifra and Pua Courageous women, clever women

Wise as serpents and how they respond to Pharaoh as we'll see in a moment They did a beautiful thing.

They did a splendid thing. They feared God Pharaoh was the most powerful man in the world.

Pharaoh, above all rulers in the world, had the most resources at his disposal, the most luxury.

If he couldn't win them by the corruption of that luxury, by the promise or the elaboration of some bribe or some offer of a greater position and status, then he could certainly make them tremble with the power of torture and dungeon to see their own body, perhaps their own loved ones, taken from them

But Shifra and Pua dared to risk their lives, perhaps the lives of their relatives or family lines beyond them, because they feared

God. They understood that obeying God is always the safest thing to do

But it never seems to be the safe thing to do Do you understand that obeying

God is always the safest thing to do? Even when it feels like it's the most unsafe thing you could possibly do.

In the bitterness and corruption of Egypt we find fear of God.

I love that. I love that because when we read it with Genesis we notice this great contrast.

Remember what Abraham said about Egypt in Genesis 20? When he was pressed with the the vexing question, why would you do such a thing?

Why would you lie to me? And Abraham said it's because I thought surely there's no fear of God in this place.

There's no fear of God in Egypt Well, there is now Shifra and Pua are in Egypt and they have a fear of God Do you remember later on when

God was commending Abraham because he did not withhold his only son and what did

God through the angelic proclamation say now I know that you fear

God now I know that you fear God It's not your thought to your sentiment or reaction to some news piece that you've read in Action with your life and livelihood on the line now.

I know that you fear God brothers and sisters If you haven't been licking your finger and putting it in the wind, we're rushing toward fork roads quite like these

Sooner or later most of us in this congregation will have opportunities to prove whether we fear

God or not Jacob swore by the fear of his father

Isaac Joseph said in Genesis 42 do this and live for I fear

God There's been this faithful Correspondence of God raising up his promises

Because people were walking with him in fear of him and therefore not of man

More and more because of Shifra and Pua there were little Hebrew boys sprouting into tents and homes

There were Hebrew boys crawling down the sidewalks Hebrew boys napping in pack in place and sooner or later

Pharaoh's going What happened to this little policy we were supposed to have there shouldn't be any

Hebrew boys that are above the age of perhaps One something like that.

There should be a complete decimation of Hebrew toddlers And so he calls for them.

Can you imagine what it would have been like for these women to be called before Pharaoh? But they're still fearing

God Why have you done this thing? Why have you saved the male children alive?

Pharaoh's a fool, but he's not that foolish How inept are you at your job that not one of them has been killed?

Why are you saving them and the midwives said to Pharaoh?

Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women They're lively they give birth before the midwives come to them

We get the telephone call at 1 a .m. We get there at 110 and there's the baby nursing

Now there's translation Issues with what what is meant by the phrase? They are lively.

It's a very very difficult to translate In fact, there's some ancient translations going back to for instance

Simicus and the translation from Simicus is for they are midwives and the Vulgate in Latin takes that up They are skilled in midwifery.

The idea is they don't even ask for us They don't call for us because the Hebrew women are so good at midwifery that they don't even need us and that's a possible

Translation another thing for lively is it would be the the idea of their they're like beasts

How's that ladies The Hebrew women are like beasts when they give birth. Well, I can attest to that I've seen my share of the birth experience

But what's meant by that is they're they're animals that don't need any help they're able to do it all for themselves

They're that lively that rugged when it comes to giving birth Whatever was meant whatever the best translation is

They have doubled down on their fear of God and Pharaoh Simply does not respond to them the most powerful man in the world cowed by two midwives

The most powerful ruler the world had ever seen up to this point in history Huffing and puffing in the backcourt

Because these two midwives were afraid of God but not of him that is power These were not

Women with neon purple hair saying hear me roar That's not power,

I know that the world likes to pretend that that's power that's actually just debased corruption and degradation

Godliness has power holiness has power reverential fear has power were they

Exaggerating the situation This is always the issue, right? We've been encouraged over the past several weeks at SLBC and in some other conversations to to be

Teaching the Ten Commandments little ones little ears little minds and hearts need to be formed around the law of God Why?

Because this is the law that corresponds to what is written on their hearts and their conscience needs to be informed by what's written on Their heart rather than them repressing and pushing down and ignoring the law

That's on their heart the law that they should hear Externally because in their conscience it accords with what is written internally.

So we've been talking a lot about that So I'm sure there's some astute ten -year -old that will say did

Shifra and Pua break the ninth commandment That's a great question they certainly are not presented in the text as anything less than godly women of faith

Now You can be really hard -lined about this and take the approach that John Calvin took or Augustine took who don't deny these women were praised as many other figures that seem to be

Saying less than the whole truth and nothing but the truth are often praised within the narrative

There's of course several examples we won't take the time to look at them, but you can look at Joshua 2 as an example of deception or delusion or lying

Joshua 8 Judges chapter 4 1st Samuel 16. You remember the Prophet says I'm here to sacrifice

Certainly wouldn't be anointing a new king Not the whole truth And if it's not the whole truth, is it the truth?

So this is viewed as a problem. It's been a historical problem for Interpreters Augustine who wrote one of the great treatises day mendaki on lying

He said basically this is wrong. It's wrong. It's wrong There's no way no situation in which lying can be seen to be right this is a breaking of the ninth commandment and then he can go on to praise their courage and their virtue and show that God was pleased to show them mercy and Forgive this wrong for the sake of the good that led to it

So that's the most that you'll get from Augustine Calvin or perhaps even that's where your sentiment lies on the other hand as Robert Rayburn would argue

Christian ethicist has sometimes said there is what we could call the dutiful lie an untruth

That's that's politician speak, isn't it an untruth? That is nevertheless right to tell

Because it is necessary to save life Of course the the classic conundrum that systematic theologians and Christian ethicists deal with you could find this in Wayne Grudem and John Frame as if you were a

Dutch farmer in the 1940s and the Gestapo showed up on your door and the leather boots were there and men with Lugers and Mausers were barging into your room and they said are you hiding any

Jews? In your home or in your barn What do you say? If you were to bring your neighbors out from the attic or the crawlspace, you know that they'll be lined up against your barn and shot

But you're also a good Dutch Calvinist and you know, I Don't want to break the Ninth Commandment Shouldn't I be the one that's fearing

God like Shifra and Pua? And so Christian ethicists come up with this idea of what's called sometimes by them the dutiful lie a bald -faced untruth that's

Rayburn says But one that's right and necessary That still may not take away the issue that It is indeed a breaking of the

Ninth Commandment But Christian ethicists argue it depends how we understand it.

For example, the Sixth Commandment They would say a soldier kills as an act of his duty and function as a soldier

As he broke in the Sixth Commandment We tend not to view

Enforcement of laws or military actions as murders, right? Our justice system certainly doesn't view it that way

So there's a sense in which not all killing is murder Is there a sense which then that not all not all deception is a lie at least a

Ninth Commandment breaking lie and then We're just assuming from the way the text is coming to us that they lied to Pharaoh when he pressed them on the matter a

Puritan like Matthew Poole said maybe they didn't even lie at all They certainly said a truth concerning some of the

Hebrew women Maybe that wasn't the case with all of the Hebrew women. So though it wasn't the whole truth

They certainly weren't speaking a lie and they were never obliged to give the whole truth. Anyway, so that's

Matthew Poole trying to say We're good. So those are your options I'm not choosing a hill to die on this morning.

Those are your options You can take the pool approach the Calvin approach or the Rayburn approach. Is it a dutiful lie?

Is it something that God has to forgive because it was a sin? But he highlights his mercy to them because they did a great thing or were they not lying at all?

They were just presenting one aspect of something. That was true. I Will agree and I think all shot all sides should agree should agree with this when the midwives were called before Pharaoh And Pharaoh was thinking

I can crack the whip and make sure that if they'd been half -hearted now They won't doubt and they won't ignore my command

For them to simply double down and say what can we do our hands are tied we're trying to obey you

Pharaoh the Hebrew women are just beastly in the way that they bear children and Lightfoot JB Lightfoot says in this sense.

The midwives are not lying They're giving the most glorious confession of their faith in God, and I love that They're giving their most glorious confession of their faith in God Shifra and Pua had been sent out like sheep in the midst of wolves

Christians are often sent out as sheep in the midst of wolves And that's why Jesus says be as innocent as does but be as wise as serpents and Here I think we have a good illustration of what

Jesus meant by being perhaps as innocent as a dove and as wise as a serpent So let's talk briefly about the blessing that attends

Shifra and Pua the blessing that attends fearing God remember this great verse

The midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them and then we read verse 20 therefore

God dealt with the midwives well and the people multiplied and grew very mighty and So it was because the midwives feared

God That he provided households for them So what we have repeated in the narrative is the midwives fear of God.

That's what that's meant to stand out to us That's the highlighted portion the midwives feared

God and because they feared God he provides Households for them and the question is what's the them is it?

Households for Shifra and Pua perhaps they were in midwives because they didn't have husbands and families of their own

Because they had preserved other families by not killing the male offspring God had blessed them with families and households of their own.

That's a possibility It could be that the them is simply referring back to the growth of Israel in its might so it would read something like this

The people grew and multiplied and became very mighty and so it was Because the midwives feared

God he provided households for Israel In other words more and more homes the next generation and the generation was being formed all

Because of the fear of God in these two women Perhaps it's a little bit of both.

I think the text is wanting to hold out They had a courage that was led by the fear of God and God took care of them

Rather than being cast into a dungeon to rot away in oblivion God actually blessed them and gave them families in a lineage of their own

I certainly think that's open to the text But then also what are they doing by not killing the male offspring?

They're making households for Israel God's giving households for Israel through the fear of God in these two women

Israel's becoming more and more mighty even as Pharaoh is more bent than ever on destroying them

So we're meant to see that God rewards faithfulness Major theme it's part of the law of reaping and sowing

Sometimes the rewards are late Sometimes the rewards come in strange packaging

Sometimes the rewards may not be what we pray for or what we would even initially want

But God rewards faithfulness we also see with faithfulness

Comes the blessing of God and with the blessing of God comes opposition

The same spirit in the world who wants to open his jaws and devour the the children is enraged when he sees the blessing of God attend

Shifra and Pua and the Israelites and So blessing is not without opposition.

The more the people are blessed the more they're opposed And that leads us to the last verse of the chapter

Pharaoh commanded all of his people fine. If I can't get Shifra and Pua to do it I'll get my people to do it and the command goes out

Every son who is born you shall cast into the river every daughter.

You shall save alive the slave population now being raided at random by the

Egyptian populace that had this hatred this racist hatred for the Israelites and Their children being cast into the river to drown with blessing comes opposition

Pharaoh is now seeking to destroy is your light strength, whatever it takes If he couldn't do it secretly in the dark through this arrangement with the midwives and he'll do it openly as in the day

Don't be surprised when the things that our opposition can't do in the dark. They just do openly in the day

We always want to think there'll be some restraint Surely there'll be jaws dropping in the floor and that will repel them from being as vicious and as cruel as they would be.

Otherwise Read Exodus 1 carefully That's not necessarily the case

And of course all of this is setting up our entrance into chapter 2 because Moses is one of these little

Hebrew boys Whose life is on the line and his mother has to take action to save him

So we have the backdrop to the birth of Moses and this providential unfolding of what

God will do For Israel through him as the great deliverer in mediator

We're reminded again, and I love what Calvin says on this point The whole design of Pharaoh was meant to frustrate

Essentially the Church of God. All right, Israel was that the Church of God the people of God Pharaoh's whole design as Calvin says with that was that Israelite men would die without any hope

But the name and the race of Abraham would be cut off that all of God's promises would fail

In these days and these days are the 1500s Where we have to bear similar insults and our urge to despair as if the church would soon be utterly destroyed

Let us learn to hold up this example like a strong shield because it is no new case

When immediate destruction seems to await us the divine aid comes suddenly and unexpectedly

You can picture Calvin preaching that to French exiles huddled there in Geneva thinking all our

Huguenot cousins and uncles are being Massacred back home and the whole church itself was about to be destroyed

And Calvin saying take hearts God moves mightily to deliver his people

Jesus says it and perhaps even better words Matthew 10 27 and following whatever

I tell you in the dark Speak in the light and what you hear in the ear preach on the housetops and do not fear those who kill the body

But cannot kill the soul But fear him

Who's able to destroy both body and soul in hell? Don't have a fear of man

Have a fear of God Have a fear not of what Pharaoh could do to you bodily or financially

But have a fear of God if God can destroy both body and soul something no ruler No tyrant no dictator could ever do if he can destroy both body and soul

Can he not also preserve both body and soul so fear God? We shouldn't stop short in what

Jesus says in Matthew 10 Right fear him who's able to destroy body and soul in hell and every fundamentalist preacher wants to stop there.

Amen. Yeah What does Jesus go on to say? All right, he's able to destroy body and soul in hell.

So you tyrants better back off my sheep You might afflict my people outwardly my father will get all of you forever

No hiding place from him No end to what he will do to avenge his beloved

I Think he's primarily speaking to the persecutors in that passage

Fear God because of what he's able to do and then what does Jesus say to the sheep? That are sore pressed and in bondage and afraid.

What does he say are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? Not one of them can fall to the ground without my father's notice.

The very hairs of your head are numbered do not fear therefore You are worth much more than these

Shifra and Pua a part of God showing his concern for the sparrows

And that's why like The Israelites needed a shifra needed a Pua they needed two women that above all

Israel at this point in time Were God -fearing women they were the deliverers before Moses was a deliverer

They were the deliverers that allowed Moses to be a deliverer How many generations of Israelites were marching through the

Red Sea? Centuries later because of what Shifra and Pua had done the power of fearing

God so brothers and sisters We need God fearers today. We need men and women that fear

God not status quo Not Christians who dutifully go to church and then jump through the hoops of the workweek

But have the right insignia and status on Sundays. No, we don't need more of that.

We've got enough of that We actually need men and women that fear God The psalmist gives a description of this blessing that attends those who fear

God blessed is everyone who fears the Lord Not everyone fears the

Lord. Not everyone is blessed But blessed is everyone who fears the

Lord So the fear of God is first and foremost a way of living under the blessing of God and the

Bible gives so Many descriptions of what this means of of what the fear of God entails

The first thing the most basic thing we take away is for Christians for believers we do not view the fear of God as a sort of base dread of Repulsion a

Horrified terror that causes us to flee from the presence of God in what way would that be a blessing?

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. They're so blessed to be running in panic away from God's presence

No, the fear of God is not Adam running darting through the limbs and trying to cover himself

That's not the fear of God That's fearing God, but that's not what is meant by the phrase the fear of God and often these things are held together sometimes as in Matthew 10 a

Fear that would be rather heart -melting is held together with the Command don't fear you saw that in Matthew 10, right fear him who's able to destroy both body and soul and then do not fear

You're of much more value than Sparrows Exodus 20. We'll see it when we get there.

Moses says to the people do not fear God has come to test you so that his fear would be before you right don't fear

God's doing this so that you'll have fear That's essentially what he's saying. Well, what kind of fear?

What is the fear of God what does it mean to fear God a Definition that I've worked out

I've used this over the past few years. I think I've shared it before and this is I think a good well

Well measured definition Taking up some of the

Psalms and Proverbs and other descriptions of what the fear of God entails. So here's my definition the fear of God is revering

God Rooted in knowing God Resulting in obeying

God. All right. I'll say that again. The fear of God is revering

God Having a reverence for God Rooted in knowing God Not a

God you don't know that you're afraid of it's not being afraid of hell. That's not knowing God The reverence comes from actually knowing him knowing his character knowing who he is

So the fear of God is revering God rooted in knowing God resulting in Obeying God it can't just be flat empty reverence

It is borne out in acts of obedience Shifra and Pua had a reverence for God That in some way the text doesn't elaborate was rooted in their knowledge of God And it resulted in them obeying

God rather than Pharaoh The most basic sense of that definition is of course reverence

Scripture commends that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Pharaoh has no fear of God and as we see he's acting most foolishly

He's doing everything in his power to destroy Israel and in all of his power. He's making

Israel stronger by the day The fear of God is

Primarily a reverence for God rooted in knowing God that results in obeying

God that entails several things I'm just gonna gallop through some of these the fear of God is

Keeping his word Ecclesiastes 1213 let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear

God keep his commandments That's what the preacher Says everything else that he's seen under the

Sun has been vanity vanity of any's all of life is vanity good things end up Decaying the best of times end up evaporating.

I've seen everything and everything is vain. So what's the end of it all? fear God Keep his commandment the fear of God is delighting in his word

Psalm 112 one blessed is the man who fears the Lord who delights greatly in his commandments

The fear of the Lord is not that the sort of proverbial Roman Catholic expurgation

Self -flagellation. I messed up again. Oh father. Forgive me for us It's a delight in his commandments.

That's the fear of the Lord even when we Delight because of the contrast of our sin

We know that he's given us mercy and we see why his command is wholly just and good That's how we delight greatly in his commandments.

The fear of God is trusting in him Psalm 115 11 you who fear the Lord trust in the

Lord. He is their help. He is their shield The fear of God is hoping in his mercy.

Psalm 147 11 The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him in who in those who hope in his mercy the fear of God if it's

Reverencing God rooted in knowing God resulting in obeying God the fear of God delights in the company of God's people

When you reverence God you like to be around other people that reverence God When your reverence for God is rooted in knowing

God not knowing about him But knowing him you want to be around people that know him too

When your life is being characterized by a striving to obey you want to be around people that are striving to obey, too

Psalm 119 63. I'm a companion of all who fear you of those who keep your precepts

The fear of God is hating evil and perhaps I'll end the sort of gallop here. This is the closest to Shifra and Pua Proverbs 8 13 the fear of the

Lord is to hate evil That's Shifra and Pua the fear of the

Lord is to hate evil How can you imagine when they were assembled before Pharaoh and this command came down from him?

And as they sort of silently bowed you don't you don't interact with a command like that When they looked up the

Golden Throne, I wonder if any of you want to go see the National Geographic presentation of Tutankhamen's tomb where they have all these walled projections and so the

Glittering gold and light and it was meant to recreate the sort of splendor of Egyptian royalty you can imagine these these two midwives stumbling into the halls of power and And the command comes down from the

Golden Throne surrounded by guards and idols And when they humbly bow and make their way out they get outside and they say how could we do this is evil?

How could we this is evil? We can't do this. What are we going to do? The fear of the

Lord is to hate evil If you're growing in the knowledge of God you're growing in the fear of God If you're growing in the fear of God you're growing in obedience to God We should take with a grain of salt someone who says oh,

I fear God Of course, I know God and I fear him but their life is pockmarked with disobedience

The simple answer is you neither know God and you certainly do not fear God Fearing God is keeping his commandments.

Remember Joseph the story of Joseph His brothers cast him into the pit

Cut out from his family life cut out from all he had known cut out from that position of favor that that robe that status symbol that symbol of his father's love torn from him an abject slave there in the land

He works his way up blessed by God in Potiphar's household So easy for him to think well,

I once thought I had this relationship with religion But that didn't really get me far not in my family life, but you know what?

When life gives you lemons you make lemonade. I started at the bottom and look what I made of myself All right.

I'm a self -made man. No wonder I rose to the top. I just mustered it deep within myself

I found some great podcasts that were just positive Enforcements in my life, you know,

I had some great life coaches I read some really good books about the power of positive thinking and here I am The master over Potiphar's house a self -made man if ever there was one

That's not how Joseph lives that's not how Joseph thinks of himself and so when Potiphar's wife

Tempts him flirts with him calls for him grabs him begins to strip him And he's he's halfway compromised already

Here I am in a land far from God far from family for all far from all I've known here I am

I made it And here I am halfway into the bed with this woman What does

Joseph say How could I do this evil against God And he runs out into the streets

And then ends up back in a dungeon to start from scratch all over again Do you see the fear of God?

It's easy to seem like you're fearing God when things go well, but that's never the test is it? It's when you're in the wilderness it's when you're at the lowest ebb of your life

It's when you have Every reason to be dismayed and depressed and discouraged and what does it even matter?

To follow through in any of these things that I used to do, but I used to want to do it doesn't matter anymore

Joseph his whole life could be gutted and he says how could I ever do evil against God? That's a fear of God in Oracle within my heart

David in Psalm 36 concerning the sin of the wicked

There's no fear of God before his eyes He flatters himself in his own eyes

When he finds out his iniquity he flatters himself in his eyes. It's not that bad better than that guy when he finds out

His iniquity when he hates other people he flatters himself in his eyes the words of his mouth wickedness deceit

He ceased to be wise he ceased to be good he devises wickedness on his bed He sets himself in a way that is not good.

He does not abhor evil Let me tell you something that I find between the lines in the lives of Shifra and Pua And without knowing too much about your own lives.

I can tell you it's it's also there between the lines of what anyone else sees For Shifra and Pua to take a stand here in this way

It could not have happened if their lives up to that point had not been consistently

Characterized in many small ways throughout every day by the fear of God You don't compromise a thousand times and then get the biggest trial the biggest fork in the road the biggest crisis

You've ever experienced and think that's all of a sudden when you're gonna do a 180 of everything You've been leaning toward for the past year

Have you ever seen stacks of dominoes I'm not very good with physics a few years after homeschooling.

I'll be better at physics So I don't have an intelligent way to describe this, but perhaps you've seen you have a small domino and Then the next one is slightly larger and the next one is slightly larger and maybe you begin with a three inch

Tall domino, but by the end of that chain as long as you make it you'll knock down a 30 -foot domino

Simply by the collective momentum of a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more

To not have a life that's characterized by the fear of God in the way that we have described is to think that when that crisis comes

When that test inevitably comes because the Lord is always proving his people You can take your little three -inch domino and put it against that wall and really hope it knocks it over How different it is when you have a life of momentum from the smallest things in your life

To the greatest moments. That's the difference of Schiffer and Poole. That will be the only difference in your life

You will buckle you will fold you will compromise you will fall If you think you can muster it up at the ninth hour as a

Christian It's daily obedience In all that God has required

It's a delight in all that God has commanded It's seeing light and life and goodness and hope in all that God has provided That's the way 30 -foot walls get knocked down.

That's the way two midwives can sit down a Pharaoh That's the way that men and women who fear

God transform an evil society This is a calling brothers and sisters for the whole church, don't you love the little summaries and acts?

It's like the hallmark moments of the book of Acts and you know what? The best one is that I've read so far

Acts 9 31 and Walking in the fear of the

Lord and In the comfort of the Holy Spirit They were multiplied wouldn't you like that to be a summary of GRBC from this year forward?

Walking in the fear of the Lord And with the comfort of the Holy Spirit God knows it's hard comfort your people

They were multiplied without these faithful women.

The Messiah would not have come Without these faithful women the

Maniacal and genocidal tyrant would have crushed out the very purpose of God for the world The hope of all the nations even the hope of Egypt itself rests in the promised seed of the woman

No monarch. No Pharaoh is ever named in the Old Testament, but we know the names of Schiffer and Pua This is what the fear of God will do to a humble or a meek woman or a humble or a weak man

In that humility and weakness they'll make Kings bow and so and I close with perhaps this observation

We can fear God and trust him because God has all power and all wisdom and all might when

Pharaoh the sort of serpentine puppet when Pharaoh Tries now in verse 22 to drown the children of Israel.

Do you know what God does in? due time He drowns all the soldiers of Pharaoh in the

Red Sea God has all power and all might therefore we shall not be afraid.

What can man do to us? Let's pray Father we thank you for your word.

We pray Lord. You would give us a reverence for you that we currently do not possess a reverence as individuals as Households here

Lord that you would be the fear in our homes That we would reverence you however awkward it may be we would follow through on your commandments

That we would not fail in the day of trial Because we've put on the armor day by day to keep what you've given to us out of fear

Out of love that we would see the conclusion of the whole matter truly is to fear you and keep what you have commanded us

Help us in this church Lord to walk together Collectively not just as individuals not just having you as the reverence of our homes

But even as a church Lord that we would walk together Collectively in a fear of you and in the comfort you give us by the paraclete and that you would so multiply us

Lord That even where your blessing begins to attract the attention if not the opposition of those around us

We would not lose heart. We would not be distracted we would see your great purpose for your kingdom in this world and how it it has a

Great calling on every believer in whatever station or season they may find themselves It has a purpose in the sphere of the home.

It commands the nation in the state and ultimately Lord It will be your kingdom that brings forth that promised seed and the fullness of the curse will be eradicated forever the serpent finally and forever crushed

Help us Lord to be motivated and moved by these things give us momentum Lord and strength where we are weak

Give young women in this church a fear of you might they be worthy of the names beautiful one and splendid one