TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL PASSAGE

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “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.” The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous.

Exodus 1:8-20

DEVOTIONAL

by Sandra Chua

The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Exodus 1:17

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise. (Ps. 111:10)

When I was in elementary school, I had a fear of failing, which made me try to understand the lessons as soon as they were taught so that the lessons would not pile up. During that time Filipino horror movies were also popular. I watched them with my family on a black-and-white television in the living room. At night, I would squeeze in between my mom and dad on their double-size bed. My mom would grudgingly let me sleep in between them, saying, “It’s so crowded!” The first fear was good for me because it made me study; the second was not because it disturbed my parent’s sleep.

Jacob’s descendants have settled in Egypt because of the famine. They stayed in the land and flourished so much that the new Egyptian King became worried that they had become more numerous than they had. The king anticipated that the Israelites would join their enemies once there was war. The solution they came up with was to command the midwives to kill the baby boys. Verse 17 says the midwives feared the Lord, so they did not obey the command to kill the babies. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It means this good kind of fear will help us make the right choices, especially in choosing to obey his commands. This is a respectful fear, a fear that comes not merely from being punished, which could lead to a rebellious heart, but a fear of displeasing or offending someone we hold dear. This is the fear that moved the midwives to obey God.

REFLECTION