And the children of Israel were fruitful, and swarmed and multiplied, and became exceeding strong; and the land was full of them.
Seventy people came down to Egypt with Jacob, and their descendants grew into a vast nation — the verse piles up one verb after another to say it. Two questions follow: is this God keeping an old promise, and why does such blessing end in slavery?
Some have mocked the scale of this growth as impossible. One writer answers them, starting with the word itself.
The Hebrew word translated "increased" means "swarmed." This verse emphasises their wonderful increase both in numbers and in power. Only a short time had passed after Joseph's death, some sixty-four years, so unbelief has sneered at this description of their increase. People usually overlook that besides the seventy souls who came into Egypt, a very large number of servants must have come with them. Abraham had 318 servants born in his house. Jacob had a still larger number. The covenant took these servants in too, though they were not natural descendants: the command of circumcision covered every male born in the house or bought with money... Yet even this does not fully explain the great increase. It was miraculous, the fulfilment of the promises given to the patriarchs. God witnessed by it that they were His people.
This growth was no accident of history. It matched words God had spoken to Abraham long before.
The descendants of Abraham, to whom the promises of God were made, were in Egypt... They were like the sand on the seashore for multitude. This was the vine God brought out of Egypt (Psalm 80:8).
The growth happened in a foreign land that would soon turn hostile. One writer sees that place as chosen on purpose.
Egypt was the providential nursery for the chosen race. There they grew from one great family — the sons and grandsons of a single father — into a people fit for the inheritance God had destined for them. In mercy He sheltered them for a season, so that they might grow all the more under hardship when it came. And it had to come, because men resent anyone who claims a link with the true God.
Numbers were not the only thing that set this people apart. One writer points to what did not change.
You would expect this small number of seventy persons to blend into the Egyptian nation. Instead they kept an identity totally distinct from them. Israel has been scattered among other nations for centuries since. Yet God has preserved a clear distinction between them and all other nations, even giving them their land back in 1948.
One writer takes Egypt here as a picture of something wider. He reads their prosperity as a sign of God's favour.
In Scripture Egypt is a picture of the world, and so Israel in Egypt becomes a picture of man's natural condition... First comes their increase, and indeed their prosperity... They were the children of promise, even though in Egypt, and God's favour rested on them as such. So we see this picture of earthly prosperity. God never forgets His people, although they may forget Him.
This blessing ends in slavery. One writer says that turn was no accident.
Here we see grace at its first work. A nation begins small, in the seventy souls who came into Egypt with Jacob, and then grows in a marvellous way that nothing could stop. God had already promised them even the bondage they come into, and what seemed most against them was really the working out of promise for them. The hand of power works in disguise, yet in a way faith can see through. It is essentially the same story, whether told of the nation of Israel or of any of the Lord's redeemed.
Another writer shows where that promise was given, and what it means for every dark turn in the story.
Long before this, God had said to Abram that his offspring would be strangers in a land that was not theirs, that they would serve that nation and be afflicted four hundred years, that He would judge that nation, and that afterwards they would come out with great possessions. This is the history of the first twelve chapters of Exodus. Whatever men do, even in wickedness and open rebellion, God makes it serve the purposes of His own grace and love.
- Promise — the increase was not luck. Commentators call it miraculous: "the fulfilment of the promises given to the patriarchs," and God's own witness that these were His people.
- Place — Egypt was the "providential nursery." There one family grew into a people, sheltered for a season before the hardship that would make them stronger.
- Preservation — they lived inside a greater culture and kept "an identity totally distinct." One writer traces that distinction through the centuries of Israel's scattering.
- Presence — prosperity came while they were still in Egypt, before any rescue: "God never forgets His people, although they may forget Him."
- Pressure — the growth led to the slavery, and God had foretold that too. "What seemed most against them was really the working out of promise for them" — and the same holds for any of the Lord's redeemed.
And there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
A new king takes the throne in Egypt, and the man who once saved the country from famine counts for nothing with him. Everything that follows — the slavery, the brick-kilns, the rescue — hangs on what this king chose not to know.
One writer ties this verse to a change of dynasty in Egypt:
It now seems certain that not long after Joseph died, the rule of the "Hyksos," or "Shepherd kings," came to an end. The native Egyptians rose up, drove them out, and put a man from their own ancient royal line on the throne. Joseph belonged to the same race as the Shepherd kings, so the new rulers detested him. They saw the people of Israel in the same way, and so as a possible danger to Egypt.
The same writer says the king's ignorance was a stance, not a gap in his education:
This may not mean that he did not know Joseph had ever lived. It may mean that he saw him as an intruder and an oppressor, and so ignored him completely.
Egypt owed her full storehouses and her strong throne to Joseph. One writer reads the whole nation's guilt in this single line:
So that land was the ungrateful one, the rebellious one. She had turned away from Joseph, and so from God Himself — from the One who had filled her storehouses with plenty, and her throne with honour and strength. Egypt was the world in miniature: the great deserter of its rightful Lord and kind Benefactor... Joseph's memory had been despised, and all that was left of him was put to work at the brick-kilns.
One writer takes Joseph as a picture of Christ in glory. That makes this verse a description of a heart, not just a reign:
The words that he "did not know Joseph" are deeply significant. Joseph in Egypt was a picture of Christ in His earthly glory, so not knowing him marks a moral state. Pharaoh is in fact the god of this world, and as such he must be opposed to the Lord's people.
Joseph and everyone who knew him were dead. One writer asks what difference that made to God:
"Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation." What then? Could death touch the purposes of the living God? Surely not. He simply waited for the appointed moment, the right time, and then He used the most hostile forces to carry out His purposes.
Israel had settled in the best part of Egypt and could have expected only comfort. One writer says God's word had already marked Egypt out as something else:
Israel had come down under the prestige of Egypt's greatest governor and the warmest royal favour. Settled in the best of the land, in Goshen, they might have looked for nothing but ease and honour... But whatever it looked like, Egypt in Jehovah's eyes meant slavery and affliction; and that is what came, once Joseph's protection was gone. The word of God abides, and cannot fail, whatever the weakness of man, or the pride of unbelief.
At first Egypt suited Israel well. One writer says the slavery that followed came from God's own hand, and served a purpose:
There was a time when Egypt pleased us well enough, as for a time it pleased Israel... They had a flourishing and happy time, a time when they were not slaves, but quite the opposite. And it was God who, as He says, "raised up Pharaoh," and so brought about this state of bondage. God promised Abraham this very furnace of affliction in the vision of Genesis 15... It was the necessary means to bring them out for the inheritance He promised them.
The same pattern runs on today. God's people live in a world that refuses Christ, yet they are not left unfed:
They were no longer the favoured people who received Joseph's generosity, kept and fed under his kind rule. Now they felt the power of a man who was the open enemy of Jehovah and His people. But there is a spiritual application. We are the people of God, and we still live in the place where the claims of Christ are refused... yet our true Joseph keeps us and feeds us from heaven, from His exalted place on God's throne.
- Forgotten. The king chose not to know Joseph. He treated him as an intruder and ignored him completely.
- Ungrateful. Egypt turned from the man who had filled her storehouses, and so turned from God. She is the world in miniature.
- Exposed. Joseph pictures Christ in glory, so not knowing him marks a moral state. It sets the throne of this world against God's people.
- Overruled. Joseph died and his whole generation died, but God's purpose did not. He waited for the right moment and used hostile power to carry out His plan.
- Fulfilled. God promised Abraham this furnace long before, and it was the means of bringing Israel out to the inheritance. His people still live in a world that refuses Christ, and their true Joseph still feeds them from God's throne.
And he said to his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more numerous and stronger than we.
A new king rises in Egypt, Joseph's name means nothing to him, and his first words warn his own people about the Hebrews. Why did a nation that welcomed Israel as guests now see them as a threat?
Egypt had once saved Jacob's family from famine. Under this king it became something else.
A century or two rolled by, and their fortunes changed completely. Egypt had been a place of refuge for them, a kindly shelter in the time of famine and affliction. It now became to them the house of bondage. It became the "smoking furnace" that Abraham had seen when the "horror of great darkness" fell upon him, as recorded in Genesis 15:12.
Egypt owed its plenty to Joseph, and the new king had forgotten him.
That land was the ungrateful one, the rebellious one. She had departed from Joseph, and so from God Himself, from Him who had filled her storehouses with plenty and her throne with honour and strength. So Egypt was the world in miniature — the great deserter from its rightful Lord and gracious Benefactor.
Pharaoh's complaint is really a report on what God had been doing. One writer, tracing these events in a psalm, puts it like this.
Through God's favour they increase greatly, and they become stronger than their enemies. Pharaoh's own words say so (Ex. 1:9). This, no doubt, is how we are to understand the verse that follows: "He turned their heart to hate His people." God has only to show His favour like this, and the tide of opposition rises in full force.
Another writer asks whether such a policy was just, or wise in the long run.
There had never been hostility. The sons of Israel were in no way prisoners of war or captives of any kind. They had given no reason for suspicion of seeking rule over Egypt... Yet the king who did not know Joseph dreaded their growing number and strength. They had served him for a long time... Was this in any way just? And is an unjust policy "wise" in the long run, or defensible in itself?
Pharaoh's plan reads like careful statesmanship. He weighs every factor except one.
Pharaoh could list the possible turns of human affairs, and list them correctly. The people might multiply. War might break out. They might join the enemy and escape out of the land. He could weigh all these circumstances with rare skill. But it never once occurred to him that God might have anything to do with the matter. One thought of God would have overturned his whole line of reasoning. It would have written folly across all his schemes.
The stated reasons are national security. Commentators point to a deeper struggle running underneath them.
Political reasons drove Pharaoh and his princes (Ex. 1:9-10). But there was a deeper reason than that. The enemy of souls was in all this, working behind the scenes to ruin the whole human race for ever, if he could. If Pharaoh had destroyed every male child of Israel, Christ could not have come from the house and line of David. The conflict looked like Egypt's interests against Israel's. It was really between God and the devil. God desired to bless men; the devil sought to ruin them.
Commentators differ on whether Pharaoh had real grounds for his fear. One points to where Israel lived, and to what the policy achieved in the end.
Israel lived on the frontier facing Canaan, and there were many of them. If a fresh war broke out with the old enemies in Canaan, they might open up the very heart of Egypt to them. He had grounds for his fears and for his policy, and he succeeded. His slaves made Egypt magnificent; their misery built his temples. But though Pharaoh did not know it, he did more — he made these Hebrew slaves long for liberty, and cry to their God for rest. So the enemy always defeats himself by his success.
There was also a promise standing over Israel that no Egyptian policy could get around.
In any case the righteous Lord loves righteousness. He is never indifferent to injustice, least of all injustice against the family of Abraham, "the friend of God." No one who is unfair or cruel to Abraham's descendants will prosper. "I will bless those who bless you," the Lord said to Abram, "and curse him who curses you."
- Increase — the numbers that alarmed Pharaoh came from God's favour, not from Israel's ambition.
- Fear — that visible favour was enough by itself to turn a whole nation's heart to hatred.
- Forgetting — a king who no longer remembered Joseph pictures a world that has forgotten the One who fed it.
- Scheming — Pharaoh weighed every possibility with skill but left God out. That one gap made folly of the whole plan.
- Defeat — the oppression built his cities, but it taught his slaves to cry to God for freedom. God had already promised to curse anyone who curses Abraham's line.
Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass that, if war occur, they take side with our enemies and fight against us, and go up out of the land.
A new king in Egypt saw Israel's growth as a threat. His answer was a plan: outthink them before they outnumber us. The verse shows a ruler who can weigh every human factor except one. Commentators ask whether that kind of calculation deserves the name of wisdom at all. (Older translations read "let us deal wisely with them," and the quotes below use that wording.)
Pharaoh's speech is a chain of if-then reasoning. Each link holds on its own terms. What ruins the sum is the one factor he never counted.
In Pharaoh's case, we see that he could list every possible turn of human affairs — the people multiplying, war breaking out, their joining with the enemy, their escape out of the land. He could weigh all these things with unusual shrewdness. But it never once occurred to him that God could have anything at all to do with the matter. Had he only thought of this, it would have upset his whole line of reasoning, and written folly across all his schemes.
God had settled the outcome long before Pharaoh was born.
He did not know that, hundreds of years earlier, before he had ever drawn a breath, God's word and oath — "two unchangeable things" — had made the full and glorious deliverance of that very people certain. And these were the people he was setting out, in his wisdom, to crush... He imagined, in vain, that his own management could stop the growth of a people about whom God had said, "they shall be as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore." So his wise dealing was simply madness and folly.
In political terms, the king's worry had real grounds.
What we now know of Egypt's history shows us that on several grounds Pharaoh was wise here in his country's interest. Egypt's armies had only lately conquered the nations of Canaan. A true Egyptian could see the Hebrew only as more or less connected — by custom at least — with the peoples of Canaan. Israel lived on the border facing Canaan, and they were many. If war with the old Canaanite enemies broke out again, they could open up the very heart of Egypt to the enemy, for they lived inside the line of border forts.
Yet fear does not make a policy just. One writer weighs how Israel had actually behaved in Egypt, and ends with a question.
In this case it broke the friendly agreement that had settled Israel and his sons in Goshen. There had never been hostility. They had given no reason to suspect them of seeking to rule Egypt. They had never given up the hope of returning to Canaan as their promised land. The burial of Jacob announced this loudly; the unburied coffin of Joseph, still more loudly... Was this just in any degree? And is an unjust policy "wise" in the long run, or justifiable in itself?
Behind Pharaoh's plan, one writer sees another mind at work.
Satan knows what we tend to forget: the world must hate the children of God, and they, if faithful, must stand against the world. So, in the person of Pharaoh, he seems to plan ahead for the chance of war, and to prevent their deliverance.
The deeper aim reached past Israel altogether.
Political reasons drove Pharaoh and his princes. 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 every male child of Israel had died, Christ could not have been born of the house and family line of David. So the conflict looked like Egyptian interests against Israel's, but it was really between God and the devil.
The forced labour meant to weaken Israel became their training.
The wisdom of the world overreaches and defeats itself. It was bad policy for the Egyptians to live in idleness and luxury, and to dump their hard, skilled labour on their servants as a crushing burden. It was a good apprenticeship for those who were to be mighty as well as populous, and to possess the gate of their enemies.
The policy worked — and its success gave Israel something Pharaoh never intended.
But, though Pharaoh did not know it, he did more — he made these Hebrew slaves long for freedom, and cry to their God for rest. So the enemy always defeats himself by his success.
- Shrewd — Pharaoh weighed every human factor with real skill. He left out only God, and that one gap wrote folly across the whole plan.
- Grounded — his fear was not imaginary. Israel was large, and lived on the border facing Canaan, which Egypt had just conquered.
- Unjust — Israel had given no cause for suspicion. So can an unjust policy ever be called wise?
- Deeper — behind the throne stood an enemy. He aimed past Israel at the family line that would bring Christ.
- Backfired — the hard labour trained a future army, and made slaves cry to God. The enemy defeats himself by his own success.
And they set over them service-masters to oppress them with their burdens. And they built store-cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Rameses.
Pharaoh's fear of a growing people turns into state policy. He sets taskmasters over Israel and puts the nation to work building two cities for himself.
Pharaoh's cruelty had a strategy behind it.
His plan was to reduce all Israelites to the status of slaves. He put them under slave-drivers to keep them under constant pressure of work, so they would have no chance to organise and no strength to resist. They were forced to build two store cities, which held supplies for Pharaoh's troops. In this way they went on forging the chains of their own slavery.
One of the two cities has left solid traces in the ground.
Excavation has uncovered enough of the stronghold Pithom, long buried in the sand, to tell us today that Israel worked in Egypt just as the Bible says. The monuments and papyri show that in it we have "Pi-tom," that is, "the town of the sun-god Tom." In these times of doubt about Bible history, God lets one discovery follow another, until bricks and stones lift up their voices and declare that His Word is true.
Israel's own work built Israel's prison. One writer takes that straight into ordinary life.
They built "treasure cities" — storehouse cities, cities of war supplies. Pharaoh sets to work to keep the people down and in slavery, and for this he uses their own strength against them. He makes them labour to rivet their own chains, for these cities stood in Goshen, the land given to Israel themselves. And that is what happens everywhere the world over. Take the drunkard. Every cup he takes makes him more and more a slave to it, though he knows what a hard and bitter service it is. If it is money that a man covets, every dollar he puts into his treasury only makes his heart more set upon it.
One writer looks behind Pharaoh to the power he stands for, and to the motive behind the burdens.
Pharaoh in fact is the god of this world, and as such he must stand against the Lord's people. So we read at once of his crafty schemes and malicious plans. Their aim was to destroy Israel's prosperity and reduce the people to helpless and hopeless slavery. And what was his motive? "Lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land." Satan knows what we tend to forget: the world must hate the children of God.
Pharaoh called his plan wise. He had left one factor out of the sum.
He did not know that hundreds of years earlier, before he had ever drawn a breath, God's word and oath — "two unchangeable things" — had surely secured the full and glorious deliverance of this very people. These were the people he was now going, in his wisdom, to crush. He imagined in vain that his own management could stop the increase of a people about whom God had said, "they shall be as the stars of heaven, and as the sand on the seashore." So his wise dealing was nothing but madness and folly.
The pressure did the opposite of what Pharaoh intended.
This did not, however, hinder what God had purposed. Verse 12 records that "the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew." So here was an illustration and confirmation of the word spoken by the Psalmist: "You have given me relief when I was in distress" (Ps. 4:1). The abundant increase God gave cancelled out every effort Pharaoh made to hold them down.
The older translation he used reads "You have enlarged me when I was in distress" — which is why he ties the verse to a people God enlarged.
The same writer finds a second purpose in the bondage, on God's side.
God makes the children of Israel feel the weight of their burdens, and taste the bitterness of their slavery, to awaken in them a desire for deliverance before He begins to act for them. A sinner can be unaware of how low he has sunk, and contented, if not happy, in being far from God. But if he is to be saved, he must pass through the experience pictured by this account of the Israelites. Until then, he never knows his real state, or desires deliverance.
- Fear — Pharaoh's alarm at a growing people became a labour policy. It was meant to wear Israel down so they could neither organise nor resist.
- Chains — their own strength built Pharaoh's cities. Sin still works that way: every indulgence tightens the grip.
- Stones — Pithom has been dug out of the sand, and its own monuments name it; the ground speaks up for the record.
- Blindness — the king planned without God. His wisdom was folly against a promise sworn centuries before his birth.
- Increase — the harder the affliction pressed, the more the people multiplied. God used the yoke both to enlarge them and to make them long for rescue.
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and spread; and they were distressed because of the children of Israel.
In Exodus 1 a king fears a growing people and sets taskmasters over them to break them. The pressure only made them grow, and their oppressors came to dread them.
Here one weak man sets himself against the eternal God.
What a sad mistake it is for a weak mortal to set himself up against the eternal God! Pharaoh might as well have tried to hold back the ocean's tide with his small hand. He could not stop the increase of a people who were the subjects of God's everlasting purpose. So although they "set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens," still "the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad." It must always be this way. "He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision" (Ps. 2:4).
What looks like an accident of history had been announced to Abraham centuries earlier, which changes how the reader should hear the word "afflicted".
God foretold the condition of the children of Israel in Exodus 1 many years before. He said to Abraham: "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions" (Gen. 15:13-14)… God harnesses even the wrath of man to the wheels of His own decrees. He did the same when Christ was "delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God" to men who crucified and killed Him (Acts 2:23).
The verse describes a mechanism, not a coincidence: the squeezing itself is the space in which they expand.
This did not stop what God had purposed… Here was an illustration and confirmation of the word spoken by the Psalmist, "You have given me relief when I was in distress" (Ps. 4:1). The abundant increase that God gave completely cancelled out Pharaoh's efforts to suppress them.
An older translation of Psalm 4:1 reads "You have enlarged me when I was in distress." That word "enlarged" is what ties the verse to Israel's increase.
The affliction did more than raise the numbers.
In that furnace of affliction they were welded together as a nation. They entered Egypt a feeble and divided family; they left it a united and powerful nation.
The verse ends with the Egyptians in dread of Israel.
Meanwhile man's will had its way, as Israel built store-cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses. But God's providence acted also. The more the Egyptians afflicted the Israelites, the more these multiplied and spread. So fear and horror filled their masters, and they added hardship to their bondage… But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. He cuts off the memory of them from the earth, even in a day when right and wrong are turned upside down. His eyes are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry.
Commentators see more than politics behind Pharaoh's hatred.
Pharaoh is in fact the god of this world, and so he must stand against the Lord's people. We read at once of his cunning schemes and malicious plans. He means to destroy their prosperity and reduce them to helpless and hopeless bondage… Satan knows what we easily forget. The world must hate the children of God, and they, if faithful, must stand against the world.
The burden also worked on the people themselves.
The condition of the Israelites is a striking picture of the sinner — of the sinner who has been made to feel the iron yoke of his slavery to sin and Satan… God makes the children of Israel feel the weight of their burdens. He lets them taste the bitterness of their vile servitude. He does it to awaken in them a desire for deliverance, before He begins to act on their behalf.
What happened once by the Nile is treated as a standing principle for God's people.
Egypt was the place where Jacob suddenly grew into a nation… It is the rule in all the ages that have been, for all God's people… Jacob needed humbling, but he grew by it.
The same pattern runs through Israel's later history.
Here we may read the history of Israel among the nations… Their miraculous increase always comes when oppression and persecution fall on them. When oppression comes, God's time for deliverance draws near.
- Purpose — Israel multiplied because they were "the subjects of God's everlasting purpose." Pharaoh's policy was as useless as holding back the tide by hand.
- Promise — God told Abraham in Genesis 15 what would happen. Even man's wrath serves God's decrees.
- Pressure — God let them feel the yoke to awaken a desire for deliverance, and the increase He gave cancelled Pharaoh's plan out.
- Product — A feeble, divided family entered Egypt. A united, powerful nation came out of the furnace.
- Pattern — Commentators call this the rule for all God's people in every age. When oppression is heaviest, deliverance is nearest.
And the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with harshness;
Israel came into Egypt as honoured guests and settled in the best of the land. This verse marks the moment their welcome turned into slavery. Two questions press on us. Why did God allow His own people to be crushed? And what does the picture teach?
The change was total. This was not one ruler's whim. The whole nation turned on Israel, and what they suffered was no ordinary work.
Verse 13 shows that it was not only a new king who watched Israel's growing strength with fear and jealousy. "The Egyptians ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves," and made their lives bitter with hard labour, in town and country. This was not just service. It was harsh slavery — as complete a reversal of the place they first held in Goshen as could be.
Pharaoh had a reason. He feared a growing people who might one day leave. Commentators see in his policy the world's lasting quarrel with God's people.
Pharaoh is in fact the god of this world, and so he must be against the Lord's people. So we read at once of his crafty schemes and spiteful plans to destroy their prosperity, and to reduce them to helpless and hopeless slavery. And what was his motive? He feared that they would multiply, and that if war broke out they would join his enemies, fight against him, and leave the land. Satan knows what we easily forget: the world must hate the children of God.
Egypt had not always been bitter. That is why, one writer argues, the slavery was needed. And he says God Himself brought it about.
There was a time when Egypt pleased us well enough, as for a time it pleased Israel. We know how in the wilderness they not only longed after the good things of Egypt, but went after its gods too. They copied the worship of Egypt when they made the golden calf. They had a flourishing and happy time, a time when they were not slaves, but the very opposite. And it was God who, as He says, "raised up Pharaoh," and so brought about this slavery. God promised Abraham this very furnace of affliction in the vision of Genesis 15... It was the necessary means to bring them out for the inheritance He promised them.
Another writer points to the danger God was guarding them from.
Their oppression and sorrow in Egypt was also permitted for their own good. The idolatry of Egypt began to corrupt the chosen people.
Nothing in their condition qualified them for what God was about to say over them. He told Pharaoh, not Israel, that this despised workforce was His son, His firstborn.
He was to hear that this nation of slaves, whom he had trampled on, was the son, the firstborn of the Lord of Hosts... Who could have supposed that God would pass by the ruling, cultured race of the day, take up the cause of a nation of slaves, and bind them so closely to Himself? ... What had they done to deserve it? Nothing. What state were they in when He said it? Hopeless and utter misery.
Moses later had to make his own choice about these same slaves.
They were poor whip-driven slaves, worked without mercy, but they were THE PEOPLE OF GOD. That settled it for Moses.
One writer takes the Egyptian taskmaster as a picture of sin. Freedom from that master comes by one road only.
The flesh will always serve the law of sin. Sin is a cruel taskmaster, like the Egyptians who drove Israel without mercy. The only way of freedom from this great slave owner is death. A man owns a slave and holds him in hard bondage, but there comes a day when that slave no longer answers the master's call. He is dead, and there ends the domination of the master. "But," you may say, "I am not dead. I have not received the wages that sin pays." That is true. But it is also true that Jesus, in perfect love, received those wages for you.
- Ruthless — not ordinary work but harsh slavery, in town and field. It was the complete reverse of the place Israel first held in Goshen.
- Fear — Pharaoh crushed them so they would never leave. Commentators see in him the world's fixed hostility to the people of God.
- Furnace — God had promised Abraham this affliction. He used it to loosen Egypt's hold on a people who had grown comfortable there, and to guard them from Egypt's idols.
- Firstborn — they were still slaves and had earned nothing. Yet God called this nation His son, and their misery was no barrier to His claim.
- Freedom — sin is a taskmaster like Egypt. The slave goes free only through death, and Christ took that death in his place.
and they embittered their life with hard labour in clay and bricks, and in all manner of labour in the field all their labour with which they made them serve was with harshness.
Exodus opens with the family of Israel forced into slavery, and this verse shows what that slavery looked like day after day. Two questions press: why did God let His people sink so low, and what do the mortar and bricks teach us now?
One writer sets Egypt's cruelty beside what God is doing about it.
The Egyptians made the people of Israel serve harshly. … But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to wipe out all memory of them from the earth, even in a day when the moral foundations have collapsed. His eyes are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. But the furnace grew hotter still, and God's intervention took a clearer and stronger form.
The verse names three kinds of labour. One writer sees each one serving a different Egyptian interest.
Take the three areas of labour in verse 14. "Mortar" would speak of Egypt forcing them to work to help its unity, since mortar is what unites. The "brick" speaks of Egypt's progress, and "all manner of service" of Egypt's prosperity. The world is determined to have believers bow to its authority for the sake of its own selfish ends.
Another writer traces bricks back to their first appearance in Scripture.
Scripture first mentions bricks at Babel, Gen. 11:3. The next mention is here in Egypt, Ex. 1:14. Bricks speak of human material, man's imitation of stone which is divine material. … In Babel it is "a name"; in Egypt it is "treasure cities."
The bondage did not begin the moment Israel arrived. It came later, and one writer ties it to a promise God made to Abraham.
There was a time when Egypt pleased us well enough, just as it pleased Israel for a time. … They had a flourishing and happy time, when they were not slaves at all, but quite the opposite. And it was God who, as He says, "raised up Pharaoh," and so brought about this slavery. God promised Abraham this very furnace of affliction in the vision of Gen. 15. … It was the necessary means to bring them out for the inheritance He promised them. It is His way to make them the people He wants them to be.
Their condition could hardly be lower. That is what makes God's tie to them so surprising.
Who could have supposed that He would pass by the ruling, highly cultured race of the day? Yet He took up the cause of a nation of slaves, and tied Himself closely to them. … What state were they in when God announced this? They were in hopeless, crushing misery (Exodus 1:13-14; 2:23). And He announced it not to them, to strengthen them for the fight, but to their slave-drivers, the Egyptians, to make them set the people free.
That is what Moses later saw when he looked at the brickfields and made his choice.
They were unwanted foreigners, treated with the utmost rigour as slaves. Their lives were made bitter by reason of their hard bondage as they laboured at brick-making and worked in the fields under the scorching sun (Exodus 1:13-14). But, in spite of their low estate and hard bondage, these slaves were the people of God.
One writer sees our own former position in theirs.
They were a set of slaves — so were we; they were in bondage to a hard taskmaster — so were you and I by nature. Satan, the god and prince of this world, keeps every unredeemed, unconverted sinner in his grip. … They were slaves in Egypt, which pictures the world. They were under the power of this heartless king, held in the bitterest slavery. No wonder their souls became distressed — they were miserable.
God did not mean to leave them there.
He was not going to leave His people in the brick-kilns of Egypt, under the lash of Pharaoh's slave-drivers. They were His people, and He would act toward them in a manner worthy of Himself. … He could use Egypt as a school and Pharaoh as a teacher, and He did. But when the needed work was done, He set aside both the school and the teacher. He brought His people out with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.
- Bitter — Egypt worked Israel harshly in clay, brick and field, and God's face is set against those who do such evil.
- Bricks — mortar, brick and field labour picture Egypt's unity, progress and prosperity. Bricks are human material, first used at Babel, then here.
- Furnace — the slavery came only after happier years. It answers the furnace of affliction God promised Abraham, His means of bringing them out to their inheritance.
- Ours — Egypt pictures the world, and Pharaoh the power that grips the unconverted. The misery of the brickfields is the misery of a life not yet delivered.
- Ended — the slaves in the mud were still God's people. God used Egypt only as a school, and set school and teacher aside when the work was done.
And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives -- of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other was Puah --
Forced labour had failed to stop Israel growing, so Pharaoh now turns to the women who attended Hebrew births. The verse names two of them — Shiphrah and Puah — and the chapter goes on to answer the question they raise: who will they obey?
Open force had not worked, so the king changed his method.
The oppression became more cruel still. It did not stop short of the most cowardly plans, carried out in a crafty and treacherous way.
The king's private approach to these two women failed, and one writer looks at what was really behind it.
The king's attempt to enlist the two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, in his service failed completely. So an order went out to all the Egyptians, allowing anyone to throw into the river every male child born to the Hebrews. Why was this? Political reasons drove Pharaoh and his princes (Ex. 1:9-10). But there was a deeper reason than that; for surely the enemy of souls was in all this, working behind the scenes to ruin the whole human race for ever, if he could. For if all the male children of Israel had been destroyed, Christ could not have been born of the house and line of David. On the surface the conflict was between Egyptian interests and Israel's. In reality it was between God and the devil.
Another writer traces the same enemy back to the first murder in the Bible.
Satan wanted to destroy the seed of Abraham, so as to make the coming of the Promised One impossible. The murder of Abel was his first attempt. Here is an attempt on a larger scale, followed by many others.
The command came from a king no subject dared to refuse. The midwives faced two claims on their obedience.
The king had passed laws to kill all the male children of the Israelites. 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 put 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.
One writer sets the weakness of these two women against the power of the king, and draws four lessons from it.
Pharaoh was an absolute king, and none of his subjects dared to oppose his will. But even these weak women are supported in their disobedience, because they judged it their first duty to fear God... We may learn, first, that the enemy is utterly powerless to frustrate the purposes of God. Second, that nothing can defeat those who are connected with His purposes. Third, that the fear of God can lift the weakest and humblest above the fear of man. And last of all, that every sign of faithfulness to Him is welcome to the heart of God, in a scene where Satan reigns as the god of this world, and oppresses and seeks to destroy His people.
God's reward to the midwives landed in the very area Pharaoh wanted to control.
The midwives put the fear of God first. Because of their faith, God increased the population of Israel still further: He provided households for the midwives (v. 21), that is, He gave them children.
One writer draws a rule from their example.
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!
One writer puts the midwives beside Rahab, who hid the spies. He approves what they did, but not the way they did it.
It was right of Rahab to hide the spies, and right of Shiphrah and Puah to save the male children of Israel. But if they had had the faith and courage to do it without telling deliberate lies, God would have upheld them. We find that the deed is often approved though the way it was done is not.
- Fear misplaced. Pharaoh feared a growing people. When open force failed, he turned to a crafty and cowardly plan.
- Fear's real target. The line under attack was the line of Christ. So the real quarrel was not Egypt against Israel, but God against the devil.
- Fear rightly placed. Two women feared God more than the king. When the lower authority commanded sin, they obeyed the higher one.
- Fear that lifts. The fear of God raises the weakest above the fear of man — and shows the enemy powerless against God's purpose.
- Fear rewarded. God gave the midwives houses of their own. He multiplied the very people Pharaoh wanted to reduce. Those who honour Him, He honours.
and he said, When ye help the Hebrew women in bearing, and see [them] on the stool, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him, but if a daughter, then she shall live.
Pharaoh now moves from hard labour to murder, ordering two midwives to kill the newborn Hebrew boys and spare the girls. Behind that order lies a much older conflict, and what these two women fear will decide it.
The command was more than cruel policy. One writer sets it beside Herod's later fear of the Messiah's birth and traces both to the same source.
An attack like this, and like Herod's dread of the Messiah's birth, can go far beyond the ordinary evil ways of man. Such evil reminds us of the hidden wicked one, the old Serpent and the Devil, and his hatred of the woman's Seed. Here it is only a cowardly and devilish effort to thwart what God was doing with the sons of Israel, even through the midwives against the male children. But the fear of God in the midwives frustrated it. They refused the treachery and the murder the wicked king commanded, and God established them in their houses.
Pharaoh killed the sons and spared the daughters. His reasons were political, but commentators see another hand behind them.
Political reasons drove Pharaoh and his princes (Ex. 1:9-10). But there was a deeper reason than that. Surely the enemy of souls was in all this. He was working behind the scenes to ruin the whole human race for ever, if he could. If all the male children of Israel had been destroyed, Christ could not have been born of the house and family of David. So the conflict looked like Egypt's interests against Israel's, but it was really between God and the devil. God desired to bless men; the devil sought to ruin them.
The midwives faced a direct order from the king of Egypt. Commentators read this as the point where one authority must yield to a higher one.
The king had passed laws to kill all the male children of the Israelites. 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 in the history of God's 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.
Two women stood against the most absolute ruler on earth, and the king lost. One writer draws three lessons from that mismatch.
Pharaoh was an absolute king, and none of his subjects dared to oppose his will. But God sustained 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 may learn three things. First, the enemy is utterly helpless to frustrate the purposes of God. Second, no one can beat those connected with His purposes. Third, the fear of God can lift the feeblest and humblest above the fear of man.
Every measure Pharaoh took produced the opposite of what he wanted.
What a sad mistake, then, for a weak mortal to set himself up against the eternal God... The king of Egypt might as well have tried to stop the ocean's tide with his puny hand. He could no more prevent the increase of those who were the subjects of the Lord's everlasting purpose.
God answered their choice twice over. He rewarded the midwives, and He later repaid Egypt for what it did to Israel's infants.
Blessed is the record of the faithful Hebrew midwives... And God rewarded the actions of these women. They received honours; their families increased and were blessed. When Pharaoh saw his plan fail, 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 died 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 — Two midwives feared God more than they feared a king who could kill them. That one fear decided everything.
- Refusal — Human authority is real, and we honour it. But when it commands what God forbids, we obey the higher authority.
- Enemy — Behind the throne stood an older hatred. Wipe out the boys, and Christ could not be born of David's family.
- Futility — Pharaoh's hand against God's purpose was a hand against the tide. The harder Egypt pressed, the faster Israel grew.
- Harvest — God gave the midwives households. He gave Egypt back its own crop when its firstborn died.
But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt had said to them, but saved the male children alive.
Exodus opens with a king who fears a growing people, so he orders two midwives to kill every newborn boy. Verse 17 is the turning point, and a nation's future hangs on what these two women decide.
The decree was not simply harsh policy. Writers read a deeper enemy behind Pharaoh's throne, aiming at the line through which the Promised One would come.
The attempt to destroy all the male children follows next. Satan, who is a murderer from the beginning, showed his cunning and power in this way. He wanted to destroy the seed of Abraham so as to make the coming of the Promised One impossible. The murder of Abel was his first attempt. Here is an attempt on a larger scale, which was followed by many others.
Kelly sets this cruelty beside Herod's dread at the Messiah's birth. Both go too far to explain by ordinary human evil.
A case like this, and Herod's dread of the Messiah's birth, can go so far past the ordinary evil ways of man that it reminds us of the hidden wicked one, the old Serpent and the Devil. It reminds us of his hatred of the woman's Seed, from the first to the last of man's day.
The verse gives the reason before it gives the action. Their refusal was not courage in the abstract; it grew out of what they feared most.
But the midwives, because their fear of God was greater than their fear of the king, did not obey the king's cruel commandment (v. 17).
Their social position made the contrast sharper. Pharaoh could not be resisted by anyone in his realm, yet these two were held steady.
Pharaoh was an absolute king, and 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 ruler in the world is powerless against God, and just as powerless against those who are identified with God and His people... We may therefore learn how powerless the enemy is to frustrate the purposes of God, and how the fear of God can lift the feeblest and humblest above the fear of man.
This was not rebellion for its own sake. Writers draw a rule from it: real authority exists, and it has a limit.
The king had passed laws that every male child of the Israelites must be killed. It took great courage to go against the king's authority. 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... There is an authority we bow to where it is lawful and right and proper. But there is a higher authority we bow to, the authority of God.
Another writer marks where that limit falls, and points to a moment when rulers crossed it.
Obedience to the powers that be is a sacred duty. But we owe them that obedience only inside the circle of their own lawful authority. Sometimes they step outside this circle. The rulers in Jerusalem did, when they ordered the apostles not to teach or preach in the name of Jesus. Such rulers must be told what Peter and John answered: "We must obey God rather than men."
The chapter does not leave their risk unanswered. In God's answer the writers see a rule that reaches far beyond Egypt.
The closing verses of this section give a helpful lesson. It lies 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 reward also matched the crime it defeated. Pharaoh wanted fewer children; God gave children to the women who saved them.
The midwives had faith to put the fear of God first. So God increased the population of Israel still more: He provided households for the midwives (v. 21), that is, He gave them children.
The lesson is not only for times of crisis. One writer turns it toward those who care for the young today.
These women feared God and they protected the male children. The nation grew strong partly because of their efforts, and because of the power God gave in protecting them. Dear sisters, what an encouragement this is! Pray for the children who grow up among us and protect them. Teach them, set them an example, and help them in the things of God.
- Fear decides. Two fears met in one room; the fear of God proved stronger than the fear of the most powerful man on earth.
- Fear lifts. The fear of God lifts the feeblest and humblest above the fear of man; weakness was no barrier to faithfulness.
- Fear draws a line. Obey rulers inside the circle of their lawful authority. When they step outside it, obey God rather than men.
- Fear is honoured. God made them houses of their own — those who honour Him, He honours.
- Fear protects. The enemy struck at the children to stop the promised Seed. God used two women to save them, and He still calls His people to guard and teach the young.
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.
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.