And God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong.
Two women with no rank and no power stood between Pharaoh's death sentence and a nation's survival. This verse is God's verdict on what they did. It raises a question every believer under pressure faces: what do you do when the fear of God clashes with a king's command?
Pharaoh's cruelty was part of a longer war. One commentator points out when that war burns hottest.
It is always the same. There is always war between God and the enemy. Nowhere does it rage so fiercely as where His people are concerned, and when a clear display of divine mercy is close at hand. God's approaching favour to Israel drew out the hatred of Satan. Satan stirred up a fitting instrument for his malice in the ruler of the world of that day, "another king who did not know Joseph." These verses sum up Exodus 1:7-20. That passage gives the details of Pharaoh's cunning, aggressive and ruthless efforts to crush Israel. God defeated him just as plainly, for, whatever he said or did, "the people multiplied and grew very strong." The order to destroy the boys failed, not only through human pity, but through the fear of God. He honoured those who honoured Him, and brought His enemies to nothing.
The stakes went beyond one generation of babies. Pharaoh's plan came back on him.
What if this order had been carried out? What would have become of God's purposes? Israel as a nation would have ceased to exist; and what of the Christ who was to be born of that nation? (Romans 9:5). But the enemy never defeats God, whatever apparent success God may allow him from time to time. Here God worked in His wisdom, and Pharaoh's cruel order had only one result. Pharaoh had to educate and train in his own palace the man destined to lead Israel out of Egypt in triumph.
No subject of Pharaoh dared to cross him. Yet these women did, because they feared God.
Pharaoh was an absolute king, and none of his subjects dared to oppose his will. Yet God supported even these weak women in their disobedience, because they judged that their first duty was 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... So we learn four things. First, the enemy is completely unable to frustrate the purposes of God. Second, no one can conquer those who are tied to His purposes. Third, the fear of God can lift the weakest and humblest above the fear of man. Last, God's heart welcomes every sign of faithfulness to Him in a place where Satan reigns.
The real issue was which voice ranks higher.
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, in the Old Testament and in the New. We bow to human authority where it is legitimate and right and proper. But there is a higher authority we bow to: the authority of God.
God's kindness to these women was not a one-off. It follows a rule He has stated plainly.
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 faced 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 Samuel 2:30). May we always remember this, and act for God in every circumstance!
The same rule ran the other way for Egypt.
When Pharaoh saw his plan fail, he called on his own people to commit wholesale murder. They began to sow a terrible 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."
The two halves of the verse are linked. God's kindness to the midwives added to Israel's numbers.
The midwives put the fear of God first. Because of that faith, God increased Israel's population even further. He gave the midwives households of their own (v. 21), that is, children.
- Threat — Pharaoh's order struck at Israel's survival, and so at the Christ who was to come from that nation.
- Fear — the midwives feared God, and that fear lifted them above the fear of the mightiest king on earth.
- Limit — we obey legitimate authority, but God's authority is higher. Where the two clash, God comes first.
- Reward — "those who honour me I will honour." God dealt well with the midwives and made them houses: He gave them children.
- Harvest — Egypt sowed the drowning of Israel's sons. Later it reaped its own dead firstborn. A nation reaps what it sows.
And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.
Pharaoh ordered the midwives to kill Israel's baby boys, and they refused. The chapter ends not with the king but with God's reward to them, which raises two questions: why does God reward disobedience to a ruler, and what exactly did He give them?
Through the whole chapter the king tries one method after another to weaken Israel, and each one fails.
Here it is only a cowardly and devilish effort to thwart what God was doing with the sons of Israel, even using the midwives against the male children. But the fear of God in the midwives defeated it. God established them in their houses, because they refused the treachery and the murder the wicked king commanded.
Where the ESV says "families," older translations read "houses." The gift fits what the midwives did: they let children live, and God gave them children of their own.
The midwives put the fear of God first. Because of their faith, God increased the population of Israel still more: He provided households for the midwives (v. 21), that is, He gave them children.
Pharaoh held absolute power, and the midwives held none. All they had was a sense of where their first duty lay.
Pharaoh was an absolute king. None of his subjects dared to oppose his will. Yet 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, and just as powerless against those who stand with God and His people... So we may learn four things. First, the enemy is utterly unable to frustrate the purposes of God. Second, no one joined to His purposes can be beaten. Third, the fear of God can lift the feeblest and humblest above the fear of man. Last of all, God's heart welcomes every sign of faithfulness to Him in a place where Satan reigns as the god of this world, and oppresses and seeks to destroy His people.
This is not a licence to defy every authority. The question is which authority is speaking.
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 in the history of the testimony, 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.
God's answer to the midwives follows a rule He states elsewhere in Scripture.
The closing verses of this section give a helpful 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 honor me I will honor, 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!
While the midwives' families grew, Egypt was sowing something of its own.
God rewarded the actions of these women. They received honours, and God increased and blessed their families. When Pharaoh saw his plan defeated, he called on his own people to commit mass murder. 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 also to nations: "Whatever one sows, that will he also reap."
The same care for children is asked of God's people today.
Dear sisters, what an encouragement to pray for and to protect the children who grow up among us — to teach them, to give them an example, to help them in the things of God... Those children were protected from the anger of the king. They were protected from the cruel law, and they were protected for God, that they might represent Him.
- Fear — the midwives feared God more than they feared an absolute king, and that fear lifted the weakest people in Egypt above the mightiest.
- Refusal — Pharaoh's plan needed the midwives' hands, and it collapsed the moment they refused.
- Gift — "houses" means households: they had saved children, and God gave them children of their own.
- Rule — the reward is not an exception but a pattern: those who honour God, God honours.
- Harvest — God built up the families of two women who feared Him, while Egypt sowed a seed it reaped when its own firstborn died.