MONDAY - November 16

Read. Exodus 1:1-22

These are the names of the Israelites who came to Egypt with Jacob along with their households: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 The total number in Jacob’s family was seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt.6 Eventually, Joseph, his brothers, and everyone in his generation died. 7 But the Israelites were fertile and became populous. They multiplied and grew dramatically, filling the whole land.

8 Now a new king came to power in Egypt who didn’t know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “The Israelite people are now larger in number and stronger than we are. 10 Come on, let’s be smart and deal with them. Otherwise, they will only grow in number. And if war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and then escape from the land.” 11 As a result, the Egyptians put foremen of forced work gangs over the Israelites to harass them with hard work. They had to build storage cities named Pithom and Rameses for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they grew and spread, so much so that the Egyptians started to look at the Israelites with disgust and dread. 13 So the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites. 14 They made their lives miserable with hard labor, making mortar and bricks, doing field work, and by forcing them to do all kinds of other cruel work.

15 The king of Egypt spoke to two Hebrew midwives named Shiphrah and Puah: 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women give birth and you see the baby being born, if it’s a boy, kill him. But if it’s a girl, you can let her live.” 17 Now the two midwives respected God so they didn’t obey the Egyptian king’s order. Instead, they let the baby boys live.

18 So the king of Egypt called the two midwives and said to them, “Why are you doing this? Why are you letting the baby boys live?”
19 The two midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because Hebrew women aren’t like Egyptian women. They’re much stronger and give birth before any midwives can get to them.” 20 So God treated the midwives well, and the people kept on multiplying and became very strong. 21 And because the midwives respected God, God gave them households of their own.

22 Then Pharaoh gave an order to all his people: “Throw every baby boy born to the Hebrews into the Nile River, but you can let all the girls live.”

Reflect. In the opening verses of chapter 1 we read a summary of how the Israelites came to Egypt. You can find more of the story at the end of Genesis. Joseph had become influential in the court of the king of Egypt and this blessed the Israelites who fled to Egypt because there was a famine in the land. We learned that the Israelite population of Egypt became ver populous, “filling the whole land.” 

• In verse 8 we learn that “a new king came to power in Egypt who didn’t know Joseph.” This new king began to view the Israelite immigrants as a threat to Egypt. The king wanted to ensure Egypt’s greatness, so he decided it was time to oppress the Israelites. He forced them into slavery and ordered that the baby boys of the Israelites be thrown into the Nile River to die. 
• In the face of this oppression and injustice midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, broke the law and practiced civil disobedience. In direct opposition to the order to kill Israelite male babies, they let the babies live. Shiphrah and Puah saw an unjust law in their land and refused to obey it. Instead they protested and subverted the lawful authority and made a new way. God blessed the midwives for their faithfulness in fighting injustice. 
• How do you view the act of civil disobedience by the midwives? Does this inform how you view protests or civil disobedience today? How do you see the act of protest against the established government for perceived injustices? In what ways might God encourage disobedience in order to establish justice? 

Pray. Lord, the faithfulness of the midwives is inspiring. They had the courage to stand up to injustice and this enabled the people to live and thrive. Help me to see injustice in the world, so that I too can act with faithfulness and courage. Amen.
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