I love the story of Moses. And I felt drawn to begin reading it again yesterday so I flipped to Exodus, Chapter 1, and got started. Almost immediately I noticed something I’d never really paid attention to before: the mention of midwives.
Here’s the excerpt from Exodus 1 where these women are discussed:
“Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah: “When you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch as they deliver.If the baby is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.” But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king’s orders. They allowed the boys to live, too.
So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. “Why have you done this?” he demanded. “Why have you allowed the boys to live?”
“The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women,” the midwives replied. “They are more vigorous and have their babies so quickly that we cannot get there in time.”
So God was good to the midwives, and the Israelites continued to multiply, growing more and more powerful.And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.”(verses 15-21)
I have such an affinity and respect for midwives(which could take up a whole other blog post itself!) and when I saw how Shiphrah and Puah obeyed God’s work, had strength and courage to stand up to Pharaoh and how they cared for all the Hebrew babies and saved them, I was awe-struck.
How had I missed these two remarkable women before? How had I not known their names?!
So I continued reading and was stuck by ANOTHER fact that I’d never noticed before: Shiphrah and Puah weren’t the only women who were instrumental in saving Moses’ life and fulfilling God’s will. There were 3 other women who were brave, faithful and wise: Moses’ Mom, Moses’ sister and Pharaoh’s daughter!
How beautiful to see how God used His daughters to ensure the life and prosperity of His precious son, Moses!
And it got me thinking about how all of us, men and women, are midwives. We are all able to help ensure the safety, growth, prosperity(physically, spiritually, emotionally, etc.) of our brothers and sisters. We’re all spiritual midwives; we are here to help birth change in the lives of those around us. And of course, me being the English major that I am, I started researching what others have thought, written, preached, or blogged on this idea of ‘spiritual midwifery’ and I happened upon an interesting quote.
Please check out Part 2 of this post for the quote and how it helped me to understand my role as an instrument of the Lords to help birth spiritual change in my brothers and sisters in Christ.
