The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them" (Exodus 1:19).

I used to think that the Hebrew midwives were sinning against God by lying to Pharaoh about the Hebrew women giving birth. Yet, there is no indication in the context that they did anything sinful. To the contrary, they were commended by God and blessed:

So God was good to the midwives, andthe people multiplied, and became very mighty. Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them (Exodus 1:20-21).

Now, some may argue that they were not blessed for their lie but because they "feared God." The midwives could certainly have told Pharaoh the truth, got themselves killed and then replaced by other midwives, who would do the Pharaoh's bidding. Yet, I contend that they got a better result through their clever ruse.

Rather than thinking that the midwives did some evil, it is better to understand that they chose to do the greater good. Telling the truth is a good, but it is not the only good. Saving life, in this case, is the greater good.

Similarly, when Nazi SS soldiers questioned Corrie ten Boom about Jews in her house, she lied and said there were none. She chose the greater good, namely, saving the lives of the Jews hidden away in her home. 

There are some that insist that she ought to have told the truth and trusted God to protect them. Perhaps God would have intervened or perhaps not, but is this not presuming on God? 

Many years later Joshua would send spies into Jericho to prepare to take the land. These spies were hidden away by a prostitute named Rahab. She too feared God, and lied to the king about the spies' whereabouts . Again, God blessed Rahab (cf. James 2:25), not only with her life, but she became a significant part of the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Matthew 1:5). 

Because contemporary theologians are reacting to the popular philosophy of "situational ethics," I think they sometimes overreact by going beyond even what the Scriptures assert. For example, there is no Scripture that asserts that the Law of Moses, even the Ten Commandments, is absolute, eternally binding, or even equally binding on all. If this was the case, God would have been found to violate the command against murder when He commanded the massacre of the Amalekites. If this was the case, Christians would still be practicing the Sabbath rest command today. If this was the case, then there would be no occasion to make any distinction between intentional and unintentional sins. 

Friends, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 4:6, "Do not go beyond what is written." Let us not straight-jacket the Scriptures with our moral absolutes. God's pinciples are certainly not subject to simply anyone's whims; however, to argue that God's laws are not arbitrary is far different from asserting that it is always wrong to lie or it is always wrong to kill or it is always wrong to disobey one's parents. There is such thing as a greater good, even a lesser evil (e.g. John 19:11).

Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph (Exodus 1:8).

How fortunes can suddenly change! As long as the Pharoah knew of Joseph, and the good that he had done for Egypt, all was fine for Israel. But the first king that failed to receive the memo upon ascending to the throne turned against them. Israel's fortunes changed in a single generation. And then for over eighty years Israel would suffer the oppression of the Egyptians. Throughout this time, however, Israel continued to grow in number, so that the original 70 that entered Egypt grew 10,000 fold. Regardless of the conditions, whether free or slave, God's purposes and promises were not thwarted in the least. 

Friends, this is a good reminder for us, who hope in the LORD. His promises to us are sure. They will not be thwarted by the passage of time, nor by political upheavals of nations, nor by unpredictable twists of fortune. God is above these things. His promises rise above these things. Praise the Lord!

Exodus 1

I suppose that the Israelites were a force in Egypt that was something like a nation inside a nation. Nation with an army-like capabilities:

7 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

9 And he said to his people, "Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.

10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land."

Unlike the image I have had as a child that these people were weakling slaves under a Pharaoh, these were a people capable of a great unheavel, perhaps not enough to defeat Pharaoh, but enough that they could join any invading force and defeat Pharaoh's army.

In Exodus 12, after God had reigned down his wrath, the Israelites simply asked for their plunder:
35 The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. 36 And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

Knowing God had a watchful eye over the Israelites, I am sure any appeasement would be given them.

Furthermore, you see Israel's organization referred to in military terms

Exodus 12:51
And on that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts

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Exodus 3
15 God also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

There is a subtle claim here that is powerful when considering those who oppose a strict monotheisic background of our faith. There are some that doubt David's existence, but this has been established by archeological artifacts. There are some that go farther to say it was in Egypt that a group chose to unify their beliefs into one identity. But Moses is claiming to have gone in, and spoken to his people and unified them by recalling a lineage they all either truly had or truly did not have.

They knew their history, this was not taught to them by Moses. These were powerful people in Egypt who had their own possessions, though likely had no land, who were distinct from the Egyptians, and had their own culture and history. It was by this that they were unified for the exodus.

So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 2:24).

Friends, I take just a moment today to raise my eyes toward heaven in praise of God's remembrance of His promises to His people. Do you know that in just about every place in the OT where we read of God's love, His lovingkindness, and His faithfulness, all these words traslate the same Hebrew word hesed. If you were to study this word, you would discover that it is always used in connection with God's faithfulness to keep His covenant promises. That is why some literal translations render it "God's loyal love." 

This is important to realize because it keeps us from thinking of God's love as some kind of sentimental affection that God has for His people because they are such a lovely people. No, quite the contrary, Israel was a stubborn and rebellious people. They had no significance or worth. However, this all changed when God chose to make a covenant with them, a unilateral covenant, that did not depend ultimately on their faithfulness but on God's faithfulness. It was a covenant that would make them God's chosen race, His royal priesthood, even a kingdom of priests to show forth God's glorious Name. 

The hope of Israel was God's faithfulness to God's covenant promises. When they thought of His love, they thought of His faithfulness to keep these promises to them. And so it is not right to say that God loves everyone equally, as some unbiblically try to assert. God loves His elect infinitely more than He does anyone or anything else. Why? Because His love is intimately connected to His covenant promises, which was initiated toward them.

And when someone becomes a Christian, they enter into this kind of love relationship with God. They enter into God's new covenant relationship. They are forgiven their sins on the basis of this covenant relationship. That is why we read in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." It does not say that God is compassionate or that He feels sorry for us. He may feel compassionate at times and certainly He has cause to feel sorry for us at times; however, this is not the basis of the hope of forgiveness and salvation for Christians. The basis of our hope is in God's faithfulness to keep His promises to us, even the promise that whoever believes in Jesus as their Lord and Savior has forgiveness and eternal life. 

So, today, won't you join me in lifting up your praise to God because He remembers His covenant promises to His people, even to us, who have been adopted into the family of God through a common faith with believing Israel in Jesus the Messiah through the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

Being in the medical profession, the story of the midwives stuck out for me. "The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live."

Friends,

As we begin the Book of Exodus, I want to remind you that this site provides introductions (Resources > Bible Book Summaries) for each book of the Bible. I encourage you to read these introductions as you come to each book. They will give you some background to better understand and interpret each book.

For today's reading, isn't it interesting that God tells Moses His Name in Exodus 3:14, particularly since God did not do so when Jacob asked Him the same thing in Genesis 32:29. Why? Putting that aside, much has been said about the Name of God, particularly with respect to the "I AM WHO I AM," which is where we get  Yahweh ("LORD" in English translation). We understand that this expression could also be understood as "I was who I was" or "I will be who I will be," as no particularly tense is associated with it, having no vowel pointers in ancient Hebrew. While much can be made about its significance in suggesting the eternality of God, sometimes such ontological discussions can overshadow the great relevance of the Name for the Hebrew slaves in Egypt.

Remember, after God said the famous "I am who I am," He explained it with the longer Name, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations" (Exodus 3:15). Sometimes we get so caught up in our own conceptions - so fascinated with the possibilities in a name like "I AM WHO I AM" - that we overlook God's explanation of His own Name.

By this time Israel had suffered over eighty years (cf. dating of the slavery in Answers to Genesis) in Egyptian bondage (cf. Exodus 12:40-41). That's long enough time to make Israel begin to question God's faithfulness to keep His promises. And who knows whether Abraham shared with his children the prophecy of Genesis 15:13-14, where God foretold this bondage?

The people needed to be reminded that God, who gave the promises to their forefathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was the same God that would deliver them now from their bondage to Egypt. He would not only deliver them, but He would also fulfill all His promises to make them a great nation and give them the rich land of Canaan. His Name would express to them that as God was faithful back then, He would be faithful to them now, and looking forward He would be faithful to keep His promises in the future. The suffering Hebrews needed to know that God had not forgotten them and that He was still their God and would be so forever. They needed to know that the God who initiated the covenant with Abraham and confirmed them to Isaac and Jacob was the same God who would fulfill His covenant promises to them.

Let us take this experience of Israel to heart, because we too have waited many centuries, even millenia, without seeing the fulfillment of all God's promises to us in Christ. Let us remember that despite this long passage of time, regardless of the radical changes in nations and cultures, our God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, remains the same. And as He was faithful in the past, He is faithful now in the interim of this age, and He will be faithful to fulfill all His promises to us on that future Day when Christ comes again.