And the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, Why have ye done this, and saved the male children alive?
Pharaoh's plan has failed, so he calls the two midwives in to answer for it in front of absolute power. His question — "Why have you done this?" — exposes what was at stake in a birth room in Egypt.
Pharaoh's order looked like state policy. One writer traces it back to a deeper cause, and forward to the Messiah:
Political reasons drove Pharaoh and his princes (Ex. 1:9-10). But there was a deeper reason than that. The enemy of souls was surely in all this, working behind the scenes to ruin the whole human race for ever, if he could. If all the male children of Israel had been killed, Christ could not have been born of the house and line of David. So the conflict looked like Egypt against Israel, but it was really God against the devil. God desired to bless men; the devil sought to ruin them.
The whole nation, and the promise carried in it, hung on whether two women obeyed.
The verse before already gives the answer Pharaoh demands: they feared God. One writer weighs the two sides:
Pharaoh was an absolute king, and none of his subjects dared to oppose his will. But even these weak women are held up in their disobedience, because they judged it their first duty to fear God. The mightiest king in the world is powerless against God. He is just as powerless against those who stand with God and His people.
The same writer adds that "the fear of God can lift the weakest and lowliest above the fear of man."
Refusing a royal command takes courage, and it takes a higher claim. One writer names both:
The king had passed laws that all the male children of the Israelites must be killed. It took a great deal of courage to go against the authority of the king. Killing all the male children would destroy the nation, but these midwives "feared God" (v.17). They accepted the authority of God above the authority of the king.
This is not a licence for general rebellion. One writer states the limit:
The word of God plainly directs His people to obey the governing authorities (Rom. 13:1; Titus 3:1; 1 Peter 2:13-17). It is not for us to raise questions about how that authority came to be, or about the character of the one who holds it. Our part is to obey. But when the will of man clashes with the word of God, and tries to force that will on our consciences, we must obey God rather than man. (Acts 4:19).
The verse leaves the king waiting for a reply. The next verse supplies it:
The king called the midwives to account for their disobedience. They have a good answer: Hebrew children were already born before the parents called a midwife, so the mother knew the child was alive. (vv. 18-19).
Pharaoh asked why they had let the boys live. The rest of the chapter answers him — not with an argument, but with blessing:
The closing verses of this section give an instructive lesson in the conduct of those God-fearing women, Shiphrah and Puah. They would not carry out the king's cruel scheme, but braved his anger, and so God made them houses. "Those who honour me I will honour, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed." (1 Sam. 2:30) May we always remember this, and act for God in every circumstance!
God settled the king's account later, and in kind:
When Pharaoh saw his plan defeated, he called on his own people to commit wholesale murder. They began to sow an awful seed. The harvest came years later, when the firstborn were killed and there was no house in Egypt without one dead. Galatians 6:7 applies to nations too: "Whatever one sows, that will he also reap."
- Fear decides. Two fears met in that throne room, and the greater one won: their fear of God outweighed their fear of the king.
- Fear lifts. The fear of God raises the weakest person above the fear of man. The mightiest king on earth is powerless against those who stand with God.
- Fear has a limit. God's word tells us to obey rulers. When a ruler's will collides with God's word, we obey God rather than man.
- Fear guards the promise. The plot reached past Israel to the Christ who would come from David's line. It broke when two women refused.
- Fear is repaid. God honours those who honour Him, and He made these women houses. The king sowed dead children and reaped a night when every Egyptian house held one dead.
And the midwives said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian; for they are strong, and they have borne before the midwife comes to them.
Pharaoh has summoned the two midwives and demanded to know why the Hebrew boys are still alive. Their answer is that Hebrew mothers give birth before a midwife can reach them. Behind that answer stands a decision they had already made in verse 17.
So why were the boys still alive? The midwives point to the timing of the births.
The king called the midwives to account for this disobedience. They have a good answer. Hebrew children were already born before the parents called a midwife, so the mother knew the child was alive.
Where did two powerless women find the nerve to defy a king? Verse 17 gives the reason: they feared God.
Pharaoh was an absolute king. None of his subjects dared to oppose his will. But God sustains even these feeble women in their disobedience, because they judged it their first duty to fear God. The mightiest monarch in the world is powerless against God. He is just as powerless against those who stand with God and His people... So we learn several things. First, the enemy is completely unable to frustrate the purposes of God. Second, no one can defeat those who are connected with His purposes. Third, the fear of God can lift the feeblest and humblest above the fear of man. And last, every sign of faithfulness to Him is welcome to the heart of God, in a scene where Satan reigns and oppresses His people.
Their refusal was not rebellion for its own sake.
The king had passed laws that all the male children of the Israelites must be killed. It took a great deal of courage to go against the authority of the king. Killing all the male children would destroy the nation, but these midwives "feared God" (v.17). They accepted the authority of God above the authority of the king. It has always been so for God's people, in the Old Testament and in the New. There is an authority we bow to where it is legitimate and right and proper. But there is a higher authority we bow to, the authority of God.
One writer draws the line clearly, writing about three men who later refused a king's decree.
The believer obeys kings only so far as obeying them keeps him obedient to God. Suppose a king demands something that would mean disobeying God. Then, to keep a good conscience towards God, he must refuse to submit, even at the cost of his life.
More hung on this moment than the lives of a few babies.
Satan devised the murderous conspiracy described in Ex. 1:15-22. Pharaoh decreed that every male child of the people of Israel must be thrown into the Nile. If Egypt had carried out this decree, what would have become of the purposes of God? Israel as a nation would have ceased to be; and what of the Christ who was to be born of that nation? (Rom. 9:5). But God is never thwarted by the enemy, whatever apparent success He may allow him to have from time to time. Here God worked in His wisdom. Pharaoh's cruel decree ended with Pharaoh himself educating and training, in his own palace, the man chosen to lead Israel out of Egypt in triumph.
God did not leave their stand unanswered.
The closing verses of this section of our book give an instructive lesson in the conduct of those God-fearing women, Shiphrah and Puah. They would not carry out the king's cruel scheme, but braved his anger, and so God made them houses. "Those who honour me I will honour, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed." (1 Sam. 2:30) May we always remember this, and act for God in every circumstance!
The same rule ran the other way for Egypt.
They began to sow an awful seed. The harvest came years later. The firstborn died, and there was no house in Egypt without someone dead. Galatians 6:7 applies to nations too: "Whatever one sows, that will he also reap." God honoured the Hebrew midwives because they honoured Him. The retribution came upon cruel Egypt in God's own time.
- Fear decides. They feared God more than they feared the king. That settled what they did and what they said.
- Fear lifts. The fear of God lifts the weakest and lowest above the fear of man. Two women with no power outlasted an absolute king.
- Fear has a limit line. Obey rulers — until they demand disobedience to God. Then refuse, whatever it costs.
- Fear guards a promise. Killing the boys would have ended Israel as a nation. Instead the plan put Israel's future deliverer inside Pharaoh's own palace.
- Fear is repaid. God made the midwives houses, while Egypt reaped what it sowed when its own firstborn died.