The Fear of God

This episode dives into the story of the Shiphrah and Puah, the Hebrew midwives that God used to save many lives, as well as lessons we can learn from the wickedness of Pharaoh. Our study is found on Exodus 1:15-21.

Gospel in the Air is a podcast ministry of Cornerstone Christian Church. We are located in Maui, Hawaii, USA. Our number is (808) 463-8859. You can also visit our website at www.cornerstonemaui.org or you can send your email to danibanggo@gmail.com.

Transcript

Episode 13
The Fear of God
Exodus 1: 15-21
© Dani Banggo 02/08/2024

Hello everyone! From the beautiful island of Maui, I want to greet you with a warm Aloha! I invite you to listen to “Gospel in the Air,” a short devotional lesson that will inspire and encourage your daily walk with Jesus.  May you be enlightened with new insights for living as the Holy Spirit reveals His passion for humankind to be saved, that is, that no one should perish but all will come to repentance. But before we begin our devotion, may we have a word of prayer. Let us pray.

Dear God, heavenly Father, I declare your majesty. May your name be magnified. Thank you for this opportunity to share your message through this podcast, “Gospel in the Air.” May you touch lives of those that hear and listen to your words as you bring them into your kingdom through faith in your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. I pray to convict their hearts and bring results as you desire and “achieve the purpose for which you sent it” (Isa.55: 11b). I ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Our devotional lesson is taken from the book of Exodus chapter 1 verses 15 through 21 (Exo. 1:15-21). I will read to you the following verses:

 15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 

16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 

17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 

18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” 

19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” 

20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 

21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

 This period in biblical history tells of the sad plight of the Hebrew people under the hands of a new and ruthless king in Egypt. This new Pharaoh knew nothing about Joseph and his people including the history of his great accomplishments. Joseph once ruled Egypt as governor, and he was next to Pharaoh in terms of power and authority. And during the seven-year drought that resulted to severe famine that struck not only Egypt but including its neighboring countries as well, Joseph’s entire family from Canaan numbering to 70 people were asked to move and settle in Egypt (Gen. 46:27). The Pharaoh at that time graciously offered the land of Goshen to be their permanent place to settle. As a result, Joseph’s family which, became the future nation of Israel, were saved, and began to establish their livelihood on that place. 

 Years and years passed by the population of the Hebrew settlers continued to increase rapidly. And it became evident that they became a threat to the Egyptian population. This scenario caused great alarm to the reigning Pharaoh. Therefore, he must find a solution to this escalating threat to their security otherwise they will soon be overpowered by them if he will not act swiftly. He put them into forced labor and made their lives so miserable by working with bricks and mortar and all kinds of work in the field. The Pharaoh and his slave drivers treated them ruthlessly. But God intervened in many ways. God was always there, and He did not abandon His children. Let us see how He put people to save many lives and delivered them from a wicked plan of an evil king. 

 There are fundamental truths that we can learn from the story and apply in our life. 

 I. The midwives: Shiphrah and Puah
There are two Hebrew midwives whose names were Shiphrah and Puah who are assigned for the care of delivering babies of Hebrew mothers. From the throne of the Pharaoh, they are given directives to kill all male babies being born but to spare baby girls. This is to stop once and for all the escalating population of the Hebrew people. But these two godly women are God-fearing. Their loyalty is only to God and not to Pharaoh. They must make a choice because their lives are at stake if they will disobey the Pharaoh. I could just imagine how many sleepless nights they have been through thinking about this fearful matter. I am very sure they were seriously affected physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It is easy for them to suppress the babies and lie to their mothers about killing them, but they did not allow themselves to conspire with the Pharoah for the crime of infanticide. Instead, they feared God and they surrendered their undivided loyalty to Him.  

This crime is tantamount to our present-day practice of abortion. Abortion is defined as murder in the Bible no matter how anyone tries to justify it. It is still murder. The Bible is very clear and specific when it says in Revelation 21: 8, “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, and all liars – they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” Indeed, these godly women avoided what is evil and feared God. Proverbs 16: 6 says, “…Through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided.” They faithfully attended to their duties by sparing the lives of the innocent ones despite knowing the costly price they must pay. Unfortunately, reports have reached the Palace for their disobedience, thereby they are summoned to present themselves before the court of Pharaoh.  But whatever the consequence of their disobedience they already made up their minds. And God gave them wisdom how to answer the Pharaoh. They reason out that the Hebrew women were more vigorous than the Egyptian women because even before they arrived, they have already given birth. (Exo. 1:19). 

This is true and they are not lying because they have planned the risk of doing this technique of delaying in order that before they arrived babies would be delivered. They knew too well that this method was very risky on the part of the mother, but this was the only way they could for the greater good. And it worked so well! Male babies were born before they arrived, and they were spared. In return, God honored their dedication of risking their lives and they were blessed by having families of their own (Exo. 1:21). These two courageous women were able to influence the parents of Moses who in turn were not afraid to disobey the edict of the Pharaoh (Heb. 11: 23).

Thank God for having a remnant of godly people who fear the Lord rather than the Pharaoh. They have faith in God and that was the reason they took the risk of saving many lives. They did not regard anymore their safety if they do the right thing rather than to compromise their faith in God. 

This principle of disobeying the authorities in favor of God is carried on in the New Testament when Peter proclaimed in the presence of the high priests before the Sanhedrin by saying, “We must obey God rather than men!” (Acts 5: 29). The apostles were given strict orders by the religious leaders not to preach and teach about Jesus Christ. But they did not. Instead, they continued preaching and teaching until they finally paid a very costly price with their lives. According to tradition the apostles died a martyr’s death. But their blood became the bedrock of Christianity.

Today, there are still many Shiphrah and Puah, those two courageous and faithful midwives, who are willing to risk their lives for Jesus Christ. Thank God for those people who dare not to leave in poverty, leaving their families, their businesses and the comfort of this life and go to a place where Christians are persecuted. Like the apostles, there are still many martyrs today who are willing to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the gospel message. I pray that God will give us also the courage to stand for the truth by not compromising the message of the cross. There should not be any let up to our Christian duty but always make every effort to be the prophetic voice in this darkened world where Christ should shine, first, in our family, in our workplaces, in school, or anywhere else we are. You can cross reference this to the book of Philippians chapter two verse fifteen (Phil. 2:15). We should not easily be intimidated to circumstances we face but to continue serving the Lord well no matter our situation is, especially when we are in the midst of storms of life.  Even more that we put our trust in God and be steadfast with our faith by committing our fears, our burdens, and our problems to Him. 

How are you in the midst of a crisis today?  Do you feel so helpless, and you don’t even know what to do? You go to bed, but you cannot sleep because you don’t have peace of mind. You are greatly troubled. Perhaps you can still manage to smile at your friends but deep down in your heart they don’t know how much you’re hurting. You’ve been on your knees in prayer, but nothing has changed since then. You are still in the same predicament, and it seems you’re not being heard. And you have been suffering a lot! Don’t give up. Do not be discouraged or disappointed. For God being silent on your situation does not mean He has abandoned you or forgotten you. God is fully aware of everything going on in your life. He is concerned for you (Ps. 138:8; cf. 1 Pet. 5:6-7). 

 Wait upon Him patiently because His time is perfect. God’s time is beautiful. Ecclesiastes 3: 11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Continue with your prayer even though you haven’t received any answer yet at this time. But by faith trust Him because He knows best what you need most. You will probably not even expect what you asked for, but He will give you a different answer according to what is best and appropriate for you (Isa. 48:17). Cheer up and tighten your grip of faith. Face your fear with boldness through prayer because you know that He is listening to you. The Bible says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Phil.4: 6)

II. The Pharaoh
In the ancient times, all Egyptian kings were called Pharaohs. It was a title for them. It is a thing like “her majesty,” “his highness,” or “your excellency.” The Pharaohs were regarded as gods by the Egyptians, the sons of Ra, their sun god. They believed that they were the reincarnation of the god Horus,[1] their god of the sky and their patron who protects Egypt.[2]  The Pharaoh was their intermediator with their cosmic gods of the universe. All of Egypt believed that their destiny was dependent on him. He held in his hands the life and death of every man. The Pharaoh was their high priest. At the same time, he was the supreme law of the land. There was no need for them to write down their laws because his words were the laws.  He was literally the absolute authority of all Egypt. 

 Since time immemorial, having control of power is very intoxicating to anyone who holds a position, especially in high offices. This is without exception to all sectors and organizations of society whether secular or ecclesiastical in nature. Having power is very tempting and very risky. According to John Dalberg-Acton, an English historian, politician, and writer who penned this immortal phrase about power, he said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Indeed, as we see in our lesson, the Pharaoh was intoxicated by the glittering wine of power. He decreed infanticide. He instructed the midwives to execute this job as soon as a Hebrew male baby is born. They must not wait any minute for the infant to cry his first breath of life on earth but to suffocate him and inform the mother that it was a still-born baby! That is how absolute power makes unto a very powerful leader. He made the Pharaoh so cruel as a brute beast. 

Here is a king who has no knowledge about the history of his kingdom. He does not know that in the past, there was once a young Hebrew man whose name was Joseph who governed all of Egypt and saved his land and his people from a severe calamity. He does not even know that there was once a great Pharaoh like him who was very kind to the Hebrew people and offered the land of Goshen in Egypt as their permanent settlement. How uninformed this Pharaoh was despite being surrounded by great scholars and having all the available tools under his disposal to learn his history. But he failed miserably. This Pharaoh and his throne were destroyed because of lack of knowledge. Here is a man who was so insecure because of the increasing population of the Hebrew people. He was afraid that they would become strong and powerful and soon take control of his throne. He thought of the possibility that they might even ally themselves with other nations to wage war against him. Poor Pharaoh! He presumed too much. And to deter this self-made threat or presumption, he rallied behind his people against them by sending them to force labor and ordered the killing of all Hebrew male babies. Indeed, decisions made of presumptions are always wrong. It is dangerous. He thought he was doing the right thing. But he did not know he was fighting God instead.

In like manner, can you think of a major decision in your life that you ultimately regretted in the end? You realized you made a drastic decision after all. And it is too late to correct it? Pharaoh made that fatal mistake that caused him to pay a very costly price. His first-born son, his supposed successor in the throne, died consequently. His ignorance and arrogance caused his downfall. What a great lesson to learn for our own good lest we too might fall if we are not cautious. We take the Bible as our guide in this manner. King David was inspired by the Holy Spirit when he wrote down this everlasting truth about our confidence in the Lord when he said, “Entrust your ways to the Lord. Trust him, and he will act on your behalf.” (Ps.33: 5, God’s Word Translation) In other words, if we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in our decisions, God will take care for us. Let us therefore humble ourselves before the Lord and be happy in Him by committing our ways to Him. Let’s bring to Him our burdens. This assurance is found in 1 Pet.5: 6 & 7 which says, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” How manifold is the love of God towards us if only we trust Him. He is good all the time to those who find their confidence in Him. In Proverbs 19: 21 it says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” These reassuring truths from his Words will make us very confident in facing life no matter the situation we are experiencing.

We know that God is on our side. No amount of crises will break you down as long as you commit your life to Him. And this happened to Shiphrah and Puah, the two midwives who fearfully defied to execute the command of the Pharaoh to kill all male Hebrew babies being born. They feared God more than the Pharaoh. The Lord honored their devotion to Him, and they were blessed with having families of their own! 

How are you today? Do you face a gloomy future and uncertainty? Are you having trouble with insurmountable crisis after crisis and until now you are still down on the ground? It seems there is no ending to life’s miseries on you and the chance of hope is very slim. 

You are tired and about to give up. You thought God has forgotten you. It seems God is so far away and He’s not even listening to your cry. Don’t loosen your grip on faith. Be strong and courageous and continue to trust Him. You cannot change your circumstances, but they can lead you closer to Him. 

Perhaps you are in the midst of a storm right now and your boat is about to sink. Your sails have been shattered and ripped apart. I want you to know that there is hope in Jesus Christ. Hold on to Him. He will not give up on you. Believe Him. Trust Him.   

It is my prayer that you have been blessed today. Listen to this podcast, Gospel in the Air, and be encouraged in your daily walk with Jesus. Gospel in the Air is a podcast ministry of Cornerstone Christian Church. We are located in Maui, Hawaii, USA. Our number is (808) 463-8859. You can also visit our website at www.cornerstonemaui.org or you can send your email to danibanggo@gmail.com. This is your host, Brother Dani Marantan Banggo saying, keep punching the good fight of faith. Mahalo!

[1] Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Ronald F. Youngblood, General Editor (Thomas Nelson: Nashville, 1995), 978.
[2] Google.com, Ancient Egypt > uk > gods > explore (Horus – Ancient Egypt.co.uk).