Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man

Exo 1:17  But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. 

Pharaoh had commanded the midwives to kill every son that was born to the Hebrew women. But the midwives feared God and did not obey the king’s command. Being Hebrews, they knew that God had forbidden murder of every kind. Hundreds of years earlier, God had said to their forefather, Noah: “Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Genesis 9:6). Therefore they saved the male children of all to whose assistance they were called.

The midwives were just ordinary women folks. They were not trained soldiers or the apostles who had been endowed with the Holy Spirit. They were ordinary folks like you and me; but they demonstrated immense faith in God. They lied to Pharaoh to save the male children of Israel. And they were rewarded for their courage and faith: “And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses” (Exodus 1:21).

Some took issue with God blessing the midwives. They asked: How could God bless the midwives for lying? Here is how we can answer them:

1. Feared God. Read carefully – they were blessed for their fear of God and not for their lie (v.21). It is the same many have tried to make a case of Rahab the harlot for lying about the whereabouts of the spies who came to her. But, the scripture says she was saved because of her faith and not her lie: “BY FAITH the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace” (Hebrews 11:31). Her works demonstrated her faith in God resulting in her risking her life to protect the spies.

It was their fear of God that led the midwives to do what was necessary to save those innocent lives. Thus, their false statement to Pharaoh was an essential part of their effort to save lives. They feared God and did the things that pleased God.

2. A Higher Authority. Rather than commit deliberate infanticide against the children of their own people, the midwives chose to disobey Pharaoh’s orders. The saving of innocent lives is a higher obligation than obedience to government. When the government commands us to murder innocent victims, we should not obey. We are commanded to obey civil authorities (Titus 3:1), but if they command us to do things against the will of God, we must not obey: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). God’s law is the higher authority that we must choose to obey when we have to make a choice.

3. A Moral Obligation. The midwives had to choose between lying and being compelled to murder innocent babies. They chose to do the right and moral thing. It took a lot of courage to disobey a tyrant. If Pharaoh were to find out that they had lied to him, they would be executed. It is their lives or the lives of those innocent babies. They put their trust in God to protect them; and He did.

If you were a soldier under a tyrant monarch, should you obey his order to kill innocent people? We read of a man called Schindler, an ethnic German businessman, who saved saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. We read of doctors who refused to perform abortions in hospitals they worked in and judges who refused to solemnise gay marriages. Not every one of them is a Christian but they know what is morally right and wrong.

Let us imitate the courage and faith of those midwives: fear God and do those things that please Him: “giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue” (2 Peter 1:5).

                                                                                                                                                              

Jimmy Lau

Psa 119:97  Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.