Exodus 1: 15-22

Have you ever had a moment in your life where the stakes were incredibly high? Where, depending on your decision at this moment, the trajectory of your life has the potential to be dramatically changed?

I can say that I have had two of those – the day I committed to following Christ and the day that I was baptized, occurring about 10 years after I committed my life to following Christ.

Yet, there are many other moments in my life where a collection of decisions led to a life trajectory as well. For example, the decision on what I wanted to do as a career or where to take my first job out of graduate school did not come quickly – it came from a series of 90 or sometimes 180 degree turns, from bumps in the road, from hills and valleys, switchbacks and “u-turns”, and sometimes even backing up. Yet, the result of these decisions has brought me to where I am now, which has led to other collections of decisions that have led to other life trajectories.

Now, none of these decisions came without risk. Often, choosing one thing led to not choosing another thing, sometimes the choice wasn’t easy or straightforward, and sometimes the choices had led to things which were less than desirable. However, with the exception of my salvation being a decision between life in Christ or eternal death, I have not knowingly had to make a decision that would put my life on the line.

Then there’s Shiphrah and Puah.

I started reading through Exodus recently. I have read the account in Exodus 1 many times, yet today this story of these two midwives completely stopped me in my tracks.

Exodus 1:15-21

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.

The Bible tells us time and time again to fear the Lord over fearing men. These two women are put into the situation where they have to choose directly to fear God or to fear men. By doing what they were asked to do by the king of Egypt, they would have to take the lives of many and inflict an unimaginable pain on these mothers. Fearing what the king of Egypt would do to them if they didn’t listen to what He said would lead to a terrible string of events leaving many mothers without their baby boys.

However, Shiphrah and Puah did not fear the king of Egypt as much as they feared the Lord. They knew that, even though we are called to be obedient to authority, we are ultimately called to be obedient to the Lord, and they feared the Lord over men. Their actions of fearing the Lord put them into a position where they could have suffered severe consequences if the king of Egypt found out about their dishonesty. Yet they knew that the eternal consequences were far more severe than anything that any man could do to them.

The decision that Shiphrah and Puah had to make reminds me of a couple more situations in the Bible where other people are faced with a similar situation. The first that does come to mind is in Daniel 3, where shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are forced to make a decision between serving God and falling down to worship a statue built by Nebuchadnezzar. Their response is incredible:

Daniel 3:16-18

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to give you an answer to this question, If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king. But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.

Basically they tell Nebuchadnezzar, who is about to throw them into a furnace if they do not obey Him, that God is able to rescue them from the furnace if it be His will. However, even if it is not His will to rescue them from the blazing fire of the furnace, they make it very clear that they will not worship anyone or anything except God. When we talk about fearing the Lord over men, that is another prime example that God has given us through His good word.

However, not all of the examples in the Bible of fearing the Lord versus fearing men are good ones. Abraham is considered one of the faithful heroes of the Bible – He was titled as one who was faithful and obedient to the Lord. Yet, we know that Abraham is not perfect, as no human can possibly be perfect. Genesis 20 tells us of the time that Abraham fears King Abimelech more than He trusts the Lord in His provision and safety as the Lord had promised Him. It is important for us to remember that not a single person on this earth will fear God perfectly every time. The vast majority of Abraham’s story describes a fear of the Lord and obedience to the Lord – this is only one piece of His story. God is merciful and compassionate, and He sent His son, Jesus, to close the gap between our failures to obey in the process of our sanctification. If we were perfect, we would be Christ and there would be no need for Christ. However, we are not, and His grace abounds when we fail to do this perfectly every time.

Now, I know it is rare (yet not unheard of!) for one to be put into the position where they have a decision with the amount of weight that these ones describe. However, I do know that there are many daily tensions that I face requiring me to make a decision – do I fear God? Or do I fear people? The Bible tells us that fearing the Lord involves hating evil and all sins that may arise from it (arrogance, pride, evil, perverse speech) (Proverbs 8:13), and in order to truly fear the Lord, we have to remain faithful and Loyal to the Lord, turning away from evil (Proverbs 16:16). Throughout my day as a Christian, as a believer, I must remember what the real loss is, and the real loss would be a result of denying or being unfaithful to God in my actions. I pray that I will never actually have to decide between being obedient to men or God, yet I would foolish to think that I will never encounter this situation in a sinful world. At a much smaller scale with far less consequences than Shiphrah and Puah face, I do live in a world that forces me to choose fear of God over fear of people. Do I participate in talking poorly about someone in order to fit in, or do I refrain or even stop the talk in its tracks because that is what I am called to do as a Christian? Do I make the choice to surround myself with people who bring me further away from or closer to God? I could think of a million choices in my daily life that I could encounter that would force me to make a choice to fear God or fear people.

The Bible encourages us many times to choose to fear God over men. Matthew 10:28 tells to to not fear those who can kill the body but cannot touch the soul – it instead calls us to fear the one who can destroy both the body and the soul.

The Bible also tells us that those who fear the Lord will have goodness stored up for them (Psalm 31:19), and He faithfully loves those who turn towards Him (Psalm 103:11). Those who fear Him will have their desires fulfilled and will be saved in their cries for help (Psalm 145:19, Psalm 85:9), they will be given a heritage (Psalm 61:5), and it will go well for them (Ecclesiastes 8:12).

I pray that you and I both can fear God more than we fear people, regardless of what life brings us, so that we can love Him and serve Him more faithfully every day.

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Scripture References:

Exodus 1:15-21

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.

Proverbs 8:13

To fear the Lord is to hate evil. I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.

Proverbs 16:6

Iniquity is atoned for by loyalty and faithfulness, and one turns from evil by the fear of the Lord.

Matthew 10:28

Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Psalm 31:19

How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you. In the presence of everyone you have acted for those who take refuge in you.

Psalm 103:11

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His faithful love toward those who fear Him.

Psalm 145:19

He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him, He healers their cry for help and saves them.

Psalm 85:9 His salvation is very near those who fear Him, so that glory may dwell in our land.

Psalm 61:5

God, you have heard my vows; you have given a heritage to those who fear your name.

Ecclesiastes 8:12-13

Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people, for they are reverent before him. However, it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow, for they are not reverent before God.