Exit to God #1 (Exodus 1-2) Entry 3

The midwives Shiphrah and Puah in Exodus 1:15-21are an interesting story in themselves.  First it is unusual for women’s names to be included in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, especially when they are bit part players.  This indicates to me the significance of their part of the story.

Their resistance to the oppression of the Egyptian policy must have made a significant impact.  I wonder if the story was told to children (and their descendants) saved by these midwives, preserving their names for generations until the story was recorded in written form.  It is interesting that the Hebrew word that is translated “midwife” is derived from the rood yalad which contains the idea of showing lineage.  In a very real sense the children they birthed owed their lineage to the act of disobedience to Pharaoh.

There are three interesting ethical themes that this passage evokes.  First is the issue of infanticide.  Clearly the story characterizes Pharaoh’s edict to throw the male babies into the Nile as an escalation in the evil of his previous orders to the midwives.  It seems that the evil perpetrated in the order to the midwives to smother the male babies at birth is then multiplied in the order to throw the birthed babies into the river.  Clearly both forms of infanticide are rejected in the story’s approbation of the midwives, but also in the triumphant rescue story of Moses that begins in chapter 2.

The second ethical theme that is hinted at is disobedience to authority.  There are several places where the Bible speaks strongly about the necessity to obey civil authority.

The third is the midwives’ untruthfulness before Pharaoh.

Exit to God #1 (Exodus 1-2) Entry 2

The story of the Egyptian oppression of the Hebrews now takes a horrific turn.  When the efforts to control the Hebrews through forced labor resulted in no change in the growth of their population, Pharoah ordered the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah to smother all the male children born to Hebrew women.  Their refusal resulted in an escalation. Pharaoh commanded that all male children born of Hebrew women be thrown into the Nile.

Why the males? One would assume that  the male Hebrews were the backbone of Pharaoh’s  forced labor program.  We could also assume that as they reached maturity a reduced population of Hebrew males would not necessarily reduce the capacity of the women to have children.  Was it their potential as future freedom fighters that Pharaoh feared of the male children?

Yet dispite that horrific policy of Egypt, Exodus 1:20 says that “the people were even more numerous.”

My next entry will explore the themes in chapter 2.

Exit to God #1 (Exodus 1, 2) Entry 1

The first sermon in the series “Exit to God” will be August 23.  I have titled the sermon “The Bread Basket Rescue”  The portion of Exodus that this sermon will be drawn from are the narritave portions of Exodus 1-2 which has three main parts.  The first major section is the discription of the Israelites Oppression as slaves in Egypt.  The second major portion is the birth of Moses.  The third major portion is Moses’ flight from Egypt into Midian.

Section 1–the Israelites Oppression

The theme of fruitfulness repeats several times in chapter 1 (verses 7, 9, 10, 12, 19, 21,)  but the theme of oppression is tied to the fruitfulness of the Israelites (verses 9, 10, 12.)  It’s almost as if the more Pharaoh oppressed the Israelites, the more productive and fruitful they became (verses 12-14.)

What is the relationship between oppression and “fruitfulness?”

It is clear that the “fruitfulness” that is spoken of in Exodus 1 is the population increase of the Israelites. Why would oppression as described in this chapter result in an increased birthrate?  Several things are implied:

• the Israelite womens’ health must have been good.  Fertility can be negatively affected by by physical maladies such as malnutrition and even by stress.
• the Israelites’s sexuality must not have been surpressed as a result of the oppression.
• It seems to be implied that the rate  of population growth among the Hebrews was greater than that of the Egyptians.  The oppression is “justified” (from the Egyptian perspective) on the grounds that “they are too numerous for us” (verses 9-10.)

In any case the results of Pharaoh’s oppression was the reverse of the intended result: “But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread.”

In the next post I’ll explore Pharoah’s program to destroy all male Israelites at birth.