THE FEAR OF GOD

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.

Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them. 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 out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country."

So they put slave masters over them to oppress 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 kinds 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 asked 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.

Exodus 1:1-21

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

At the end of the final chapter of the book of Genesis, we find first Jacob, and then his son, passing away. The rest of Jacob’s sons and their families remained in Egypt but as we see at the beginning of the Book of Exodus, those sons and their relatives within that generation pass away as well:

These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.

Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died.

So what happened to the next generations?

We go back to the scriptures for the answer:

...the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.

These descendants were from Jacob’s line, and since we know he was also given the name Israel by God, we know why the resultant people group was called the Israelites. In Genesis, we know that God promised that the Israelites, who traced back to Abraham, would be fruitful and multiply and indeed, they did just that with their population becoming “exceedingly numerous” as they began to fill the land of Egypt.

This population explosion captured the attention of a new Pharaoh who had assumed power, one who had no prior relationship with the Hebrew people. We see where this placed the Israelites at an immediate disadvantage for while the previous Pharaoh was accommodating and willing to assist the relatives of Joseph, his second in command at the time, this new Egyptian leader saw the people of Israel as a potential threat and so he decided to do something to nullify it.

"Look, 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 out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country."

Of interest, the Pharaoh had at least part of this concern right because the Israelite people would eventually “leave the country” but not because they would have sided with one of Egypt’s enemies. Rather, they would depart Egypt to follow their God to the land He had promised their ancestors.

The scriptures tell us that Pharaoh’s anxiety over the Israelites led to actions to try and stop their growth. First, he appointed "slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor” and under the supervision of the slave masters, “they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh." The intent here was to break the spirit of the Israelite people through enslavement but the scriptures reveal that his efforts were fruitless for the more the Israelites were oppressed, “the more they multiplied and spread."

Well, the Pharaoh wasn’t about to give up for we read where he treated the people of Israel even more harshly, making “their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields." And then, as if hard labor wasn’t enough, Pharaoh summoned the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, and gave them the following order:

"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."

Note here that oppression wasn’t enough. The Egyptian leader was ready to resort to infanticide in order to accomplish his goal, sanctioning murder to stop the growth of Israel. In doing so, we find where he drastically underestimated the Hebrew people for we read where the Hebrew midwifes refused to carry out Pharaoh’s order out of their fear of God, a God that the Egyptians didn’t prescribe to.

This stance by the Israelite midwifes is one I think that all believers today should learn from and adopt themselves. For the enemy, Satan, is always seeking to use God’s people to try and carry out his evil work. Maybe that wouldn’t necessarily involve killing someone but any proposition by the devil that involves us sinning to support his purposes is an act of absolute enmity against a God who possesses infinite power and a willingness to use it against anyone who would oppose Him.

The Hebrew midwifes feared God so much that they were willing to stand up to the authority of Egypt’s mighty Pharaoh and if they could do that, we can take a stand against Satan because we fear God more than him. Disobedience to Him can’t be an option for a believer.

Well, after learning that the Israelite midwives had defied him, he summons them to ask why they hadn’t carried out his order. Here’s what they told him:

"Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive."

Their reasoning was actually pretty funny when we think about it. Indeed, the Hebrew women weren’t like the Egyptian women but it wasn’t because they always seem able to “give birth before the midwives arrive”. Rather, they were completely different from the Egyptians because they believed and trusted in the one true God, the God who blessed the midwives for their actions by giving “them families of their own" because they feared and honored Him.

As we see evident throughout the scriptures, God blesses and rewards those who are obedient to Him. In this passage, we found the Israelite midwifes standing firm on the side of righteousness when presented with a situation where they were being commanded to sin. Their choice to remain faithful to God not only saved the lives of others but brought an abundant blessing unto their own household.

Moving ahead in the Old Testament to the 111th Psalm, we find God’s Word providing a perfect close to today’s message. For there we read these wise words from the psalmist:

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." v.10

Indeed, a lot of people deemed intelligent by the world’s standards have fallen because they lacked the wisdom to fear God and to move at His will and in His way. As believers, let us not do anything, whether by word or deed, without first seeking the approval of our Lord.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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