COME AS A CHILD LESSON 110 THE IMPORTANCE OF MIDWIVES

(WRITTEN BY SHEILA GAIL LANDGRAF)

So Joseph lived out his days in Egypt, surrounded by his brothers; Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher; twelve sons from Jacob’s loins. 

The Book of Exodus starts out by mentioning that 70 souls came from these sons.   

After the mention of the twelve sons of Israel we hear of no more names called until we come to the time of Moses, with the exception of two individuals named Shifrah and Puah, who were the midwives in charge of all those who delivered the babies of the Hebrews.  

By now Joseph and all of his brothers were dead.  The generations after them lived in the land of Egypt, becoming very fruitful and mighty.

The day arrived when a new Egyptian King came into power.  This was a king who knew nothing of Joseph, or the people of his family.  He looked out on his kingdom one day to see that the foreign Israelites living within the land were greater than the native Egyptians living within the land.  This troubled him.   He began to think about the fact that Israel’s descendants were foreigners and they might come closer to agreeing with some of Egypt’s enemies than with the ways and laws of Egypt.  He became fearful of the possibility that they might someday join in with Egypt’s enemies and overpower the Egyptians and help others to take over the country. 

This set the new king to thinking of ways to eliminate the Israelites.  He decided to treat them like slaves, hoping this would control the situation.  More than likely, this started with heavy taxation until the people owed so much that they had to go into slavery to repay their debts.   He put taskmasters over them and organized them into various labor groups which he used to provide manpower to build his treasure cities.  

His treasure cities were the places where he kept all of his nation’s treasures stored.  The two main cities were Ramses and Pithom.  They skirted the country’s borders and in order to enter Egypt one had to go through these cities first.  They were heavily guarded by the armies of the King.

Oddly enough, even after they were made to be slaves, the Hebrew people were still very fruitful and strong and they grew into an even greater multitude.  Multiple births were very common occurrences with the Hebrew women.  Some gave birth to four or five babies at once.  When Pharaoh noticed this he cracked down harder.  He put them under total bondage and made them serve by making heavy bricks and mortar.  He worked them for long, hard hours each day.  The work was hard and grueling. 

Still the people were fruitful and multiplied. 

The Hebrew babies were delivered by midwives.  Realizing how the Israelites were constantly increasing, Pharaoh told the midwives to kill all of the Israelite sons when they were born and to only leave the daughters alive.  This could be done from the birthing stool where the midwife sat during the birth process without anyone really realizing what was happening.  They would simply strangle the male children as they were being born and not strangle the female children.  The male child could then be presented to the mother as if it had been still born.  Two midwives were told to instruct all the others in this method.  It was to be done quietly but it was not to be ignored.

Still, somehow sons were being born.  It didn’t make sense.  Pharaoh questioned the midwives and they told him that the Hebrew women were very strong and did not labor as long as the Egyptian women when giving birth.  They told him that a lot of the babies were being born before they could arrive to assist with the delivery.  This wasn’t the whole truth.  In actuality, the midwives feared God more than Pharaoh.  They were deliberately stalling and even when they arrived in time, they would often allow the Hebrew sons to live despite Pharaoh’s commands.  God blessed these midwives because of their bravery.  He blessed them materially and financially with homes and provisions for their families.  He blessed them with protection from Pharaoh even realizing what they were doing.   The two head midwives that the scriptures called by name were Shifrah and Puah.  Why out of all the individuals that lived from Joseph till Moses did God inspire only their names to be recorded? 

One must consider that without the brave heroic acts of these midwives, much of the history of the nation of Israel would have been wiped out completely.  Because they listened to God over Pharaoh the midwives allowed a whole generation to be born that made a difference in the lives of the Israelites.  

One cannot help but compare these midwives to those working for pro-life issues today.  I wonder how many of the babies they have saved from abortions are the ones who will make a difference in our country one day?   

It is not so clearly spelled out in the scriptures and you really have to read between the lines, but Israel at the time we are speaking of was decaying.  As a nation and a culture of people they were moving backwards instead of forward.  They had forgotten the teachings of Joseph, Jacob and Abraham.  They were not worshiping God; they were merely trying to survive. 

This time of the killing of the innocents in the history of Israel is said to be a type and shadow of the conditions of the nations during the end times.  Many think the Egyptian experience is a foreshadow of what the people of God will experience before their final redemption. 

We know that the people of Israel had been living in Egypt and existing through the horrible conditions of slavery for so long that they had become almost like animals.  Their world had been turned upside down.  All that was good had turned into a time of slavery and bondage.

Knowledge and righteous living was so silent that the connection between God and the people was almost severed.  Though many of the people still had the knowledge of God and His ways within their memories, they had not actually internalized it.  It was not a whole part of them. 

There, in the foreign land of Egypt, a whole nation had been conceived.  The nation was swollen in pregnancy, ripe and ready to give birth, but the nation was stuck without the ability to deliver.  Without the help of the midwives, new birth would not be possible.  They would remain in slavery and death forever.  The midwives provided the connection needed to bring new birth.  They changed a totally bleak situation into one of hope.  Many now think their names were inspired to be placed strategically between the Patriarchs and Moses because they had been the actual conduit of life that brought the Exodus which gave the people freedom and new life.  They were the actual link from death to life. 

If you look at translations of the Hebrew you begin to see that many of the words used to describe the Israelites in this period of time were not positive.  They translate out to mean animalistic, reptilian, insect-like in reproduction.  It seemed that through time they had taken on all of the cultural qualities of the greater Egyptian population.  Life and birth are sacred experiences in the Hebraic way of thinking.  Here in Egypt though, life was unimportant and birth was insignificant.   The grandchildren of Jacob seemed to have lost all of their distinguishing marks of being God’s chosen people.  Nothing appeared to be sacred anymore.   They did not remember their sense of purpose.  

Much like the generations living today, the quality and goodness of a godly life seemed to be completely removed from them.  They were slaving, mating and giving birth and repeating the process over and over.  Everything was rote, without thought or purpose of design or a plan.  The meaning behind the lives they birthed so frequently was lost in a foreign culture contrary to their God.  

Then the midwives entered the scene.  They were not merely assisting with the birth process; they were assisting in the birth of a new nation.  The midwives had not sold their souls out to tiredness and hopelessness.  They continued to trust in God.  They continued to believe in the promise and sacredness of life.  They were righteous in the face of death.  Because of the unselfish deeds of these midwives male children were born that would grow up to be the men who served God in leading the people to freedom.

It was Pharaoh’s design to destroy this very pregnant nation, but God had other plans.  

God had strategically placed these midwives in order to begin a re-birthing process for the Nation of Israel, just as God has strategically placed The Holy Spirit in place to minister to the Church so that people may be "born again."   

This is yet another proof of the evidence that God uses the lives of faithful women to do his work.  It is not a new notion that has only come about in recent years because of woman's rights, God has always used women to accomplish His will.  Not all of the greatest leaders were men.  Many women played a crucial part in the forming of a people for God as well as the forming of a Bride for Christ in the Church.   God did not overlook their faithfulness or let their names go unrecognized and unnoticed.  He recorded them in his book for all the world to know that they were faithful servants.

Pharaoh, seeing that the midwives could not or would not control the situation, charged the people of Israel directly.  He ordered them to cast their own sons into the river as soon as they were born.  He claimed that their daughters alone could live. 

Can you imagine the panic and the broken hearts of the people? 

Not only would they lose the lives of their precious children, a whole nation would now be snuffed out.  Without the male children the present generation would be the last of the Israelites. 

This was the plan of Pharaoh, but God had other plans indeed!