Exodus 1: 8-22
Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks our, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”
So they put slave masters over them to press them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all finds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and ask them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but every girl live.”
A Thought
When we are willing to be faithful in service as unto our God regardless of the hard circumstances we must face, God gives us the added strength that we need to overcome. The more that Pharaoh oppressed the Hebrew people the more God multiplied them in number. When the Hebrew women were faced with their boy babies being killed at birth, God sent midwives Shiphrah and Puah who feared God more than they feared Pharaoh to save their baby boys. After the midwives’ faithful service to the Hebrew women, God gave them children of their own. But Pharaoh did not give up………. To be continued tomorrow.
Our Prayer
Father teach us to be faithful in service to you and to others. Use the things that come against us to make us stronger in our faith and our trust in you. We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
