The Full Monty:
Exodus 1:1-22 To read if you have time to take-in the whole story
The Continental Option:
Exodus 1:15-20 Read this if you only have time for the key episode
One Shot Espresso:
Exodus 1:17(a) ‘But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king’s orders.’
The woman we honoured today held no public office, she wasn’t a wealthy woman, didn’t appear in the society pages, and yet when the history of this country is written, it is this small, quiet woman whose name will be remembered long after the names of senators and presidents have been forgotten.’
These words were spoken in 2005 by the then Senator Barack Obama, at the Detroit funeral of Rosa Parks. Fifty years earlier, a 42-year-old Parks had altered the course of American history through a single act of civil disobedience, refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her arrest triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. This may not have been the birth of the Civil Rights Movement, but it was its coming out party. ‘The world knows of Rosa Parks,’ former President Bill Clinton said, also at the funeral, ‘because of a single, simple act of dignity and courage that struck a lethal blow to the foundations of legal bigotry.’
What both men have perhaps overestimated is the extent to which such hidden acts are remembered; 4,000 people came to Rosa Parks’ funeral, but will she really be remembered as more significant to history than senators and presidents? Probably not. History books are written in honour of those (often men) who stand on the world’s stage. They all too easily forget those (often women) who got them there. Witness, for example, the story of Shiphrah and Puah. Have you heard of them? Did you know that the freeing of the Hebrew slaves recorded in the book of Exodus - without which we would have no Moses, no Israel and ultimately no Jesus - was pretty much down to them?
Jesus warned us of the danger of practising righteousness in front of others, 2,000 years before Facebook even existed
These two women were senior midwives, in charge of the team that assisted at births across the slave community. A powerhungry Egyptian king, determined to limit the numbers of Hebrews born in his country (v12), commanded the midwives to murder at birth all the male children (v16). They chose to disobey this law of terror (v17), tricking Pharaoh into believing that they couldn’t get to the mothers in time (v19). As a result of their courage, three things happened: the Hebrew race grew (v20), Moses was born safely (chapter 2:2) and God blessed his two faithful midwives (v21).
Like Parks and King centuries later, Shiphrah and Puah engaged in a sustained plan of civil disobedience that struck, in their own context, ‘A lethal blow to the foundations of legal bigotry’. They played a vital part in the unfolding plans of God, not by taking centre stage, but by carrying out their day-job with diligence and justice, and by finding the courage to defy an unjust law. They are an abiding model for all who see life, not as a journey into fame and fortune, but as an opportunity for faithfulness to the purposes of God. Here are four key principles from the lives of these lionhearted women that we all can take into our lives and ministries.
Shiphrah and Puah engaged in a sustained plan of civil disobedience that struck a lethal blow to the foundations of legal bigotry
The midwifery principle
Sometimes your role is to bring to birth the dreams of others. The Bible is filled with characters whose acceptance of God’s will leads not to their success but to the success of others. Mary and Elizabeth are New Testament examples, but so are Barnabas, the ‘son of encouragement’ of Acts 4:36, and Stephen, whose martyrdom in Acts 7 was instrumental in the conversion of Saul.
Have a look around you. Do you see people moving towards the fulfilment of their purpose who could benefit from your (perhaps hidden) help and support? Why not take a day off from pursuing your own fulfilment to serve as a midwife to theirs? It is a measure of your grasp of God’s mission in the world that you are as committed to the growth and success of others’ calling as to your own. Shiphrah and Puah, by their breadth of vision and submission to the ways of God, ‘delivered the deliverer’ of Israel. What higher calling could there be?
The disobedience imperative
Sometimes resisting injustice is not about what you do but about what you refuse to do. We are used to plotting our assault on evil in terms of the actions we can take, but what about inaction? Are there things you cannot do in the cause of greater justice? Are there products you should refuse to buy, for the sake of those involved unjustly in their manufacture? Are there actions you have been asked to take at work that you know you shouldn’t, but can only refuse at the risk off your job? These things don’t come along every day, but you need to be ready for them when they do. Perhaps there are other believers you should confide in, so that your wisdom, like that of Shiphrah and Puah, is shared not hoarded. It is worth taking time to reflect on aspects of your life and culture that might just be crying out for acts of divinelysanctioned disobedience.
The long haul path of blessing
We know very little about Shiphrah and Puah outside of this one courageous decision, but we are told that the blessing of God went with them. ‘Because the midwives feared God,’ Exodus tells us, ‘he gave them families of their own.’ One interpretation of this draws on the traditional view that midwives in the ancient world were often women who could not themselves have children. Their act of supporting young mothers was a kindness extended at the cost of great personal pain. Whether this is true or not, the clear implication here is that for these women, there was blessing to be found in serving others. By pursuing a path of obedience (to God) matched with disobedience (to injustice), Shiphrah and Puah found themselves walking in a place of blessing. A literal translation would be that God ‘gave them households’. He established them, extending to them the very blessings they were helping others to enjoy.
The unexpected joys of obscurity
Do you love others in the hope that you’ll get a good blog post out of the experience? Are you hoping to be noticed, building your own career on the backs of those you ‘serve’? I know you want to say no - but I know, too, that the answer is too often yes. It has been for me, on many occasions. You and I share a tendency to practice righteousness, ‘In front of others, to be seen by them’ (Matthew 6:1). Clever of Jesus to warn us of such a danger 2,000 years before Facebook even existed. Grace calls us to a deeper way. It is the way of hiddenness, a road on which, away from any spotlight, we act out our love for our maker and for our neighbour before the eyes of God alone. Our reward is the good that it does us: the growth we experience, the joy of intimacy with God, and the vicarious pleasure of holding someone else’s baby and knowing that, ‘I helped bring this into the world’. Do you sense the call of God to embrace such obscurity?
‘If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it,’ Jesus said. ‘But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the good news, you will save it.’ (Mark 8:35, NLT.) Which are you trying to do?
Take Away
Two easily digestible tweet-sized bites
Thought:
In a culture obsessed with platform-building, where we have each become producer, director and star of our own blockbuster life-story, we need the deeper grace of a hidden way.
Prayer:
God give me the passion to obey, the courage to disobey and the wisdom to know when each is needed.
Gerard Kelly is co-founder, with his wife Chrissie, of the Bless Network – a mission and training agency at work across mainland Europe with a hub community in Normandy, France (blessnet.eu). Follow @twitturgies for Gerard’s popular twitter prayers and see his blog at godseesdiamonds.tumblr.com
