by Jason Hardin<\/p>\n
Their names were Shiphrah and Puah. They were Hebrew midwives, living in ancient Egypt during an era when a new Pharaoh was determined to slow the numerical growth of the descendants of Abraham. By any means necessary. Indeed, so intense was his determination to curb the Hebrew population explosion that he ruthlessly commanded Shiphrah and Puah…<\/p>\n
“When you serve as midwife of the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live<\/em>” (Exodus 1:16).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Can you imagine? The king of Egypt has given you a straightforward, horrifying command-“If it is a son, you shall kill him<\/em>“-and shortly thereafter, the first son of a Hebrew mother is born right before your eyes. He’s placed in your arms, and Pharaoh’s cold-blooded words ring in your ears-“If it is a son, you shall kill him<\/em>“-and you have a choice. What will you do?<\/p>\n
“But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live<\/em>” (Exodus 1:17).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Our circumstances may not be nearly as harrowing today, but the fundamental choice remains the same: Will I fear God more than I fear anyone or anything else? Do I respect God more than I respect everyone and everything else? Do I love God more than I love every other one and every other thing? In this moment, will I choose God above and beyond everyone and everything else? Why do those questions matter? Because passages like Ecclesiastes 12:13 matter. Today.<\/p>\n
“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of mankind<\/em>.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It’s one thing to read that grand summary in the present. But in the scope of human history? These people lived thousands of years ago. And yet, if they could speak to us today, what would they say? Ultimately, when all worth hearing has been heard, the end of the matter remains just as true in the 2000s A.D. as it was in the 2000s B.C. God is to be fearfully respected. His commandments are to be obeyed. No one, no thing matters more.<\/p>\nDespite the pyramids and sphinxes and cities and temples and wealth that still impress today, despite all the power and influence wielded during that brief ancient era, we’re not even precisely sure of this Pharaoh’s name. But we know the names of those two Hebrew midwives. Their names were Shiphrah and Puah. They feared God. They were more determined to honor him than anyone else.
\nMay their ancient example inspire us to do the same today.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Jason Hardin Their names were Shiphrah and Puah. They were Hebrew midwives, living in ancient Egypt during an era when a new Pharaoh was determined to slow the numerical growth of the descendants of Abraham. By any means necessary. Indeed, so intense was his determination to curb the Hebrew population explosion that he ruthlessly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,310,54],"class_list":["post-87525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-abortion","tag-government","tag-obedience"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51378,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-the-hebrew-midwives-lie\/","url_meta":{"origin":87525,"position":0},"title":"Did the Hebrew midwives lie?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Exodus 1:15-20, do you think this was a lie told by the midwives to Pharaoh or was it really true that the Hebrew women gave birth before the midwives came to them? Answer: \"Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3144,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-masters-under-the-old-testament-law-beat-or-kill-their-slaves\/","url_meta":{"origin":87525,"position":1},"title":"Could masters under the Old Testament law beat or kill their slaves?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 24, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I know what the Scriptures teach about how we Christians today\u00a0are to treat our fellow man and that it is a serious sin to murder, that being so, Is it true that during the Old Testament age\u00a0the slave\u00a0masters had the right to severely beat or to even kill their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93371,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/notes-on-foreigners\/","url_meta":{"origin":87525,"position":2},"title":"Notes on Foreigners","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 22, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The Resident Alien The Hebrew word is gerim. These are people who live within Israel's borders, often as refugees or laborers. Leviticus 19:33-34 \"When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Notes","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/notes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43159,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-the-egyptians-keep-hebrew-slaves\/","url_meta":{"origin":87525,"position":3},"title":"Did the Egyptians keep Hebrew slaves?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How can I prove to atheists that the Bible is true when some people claim that there were never records that the Egyptians kept Hebrew slaves? Why would there be no such records? Answer: See:\u00a0Egyptian History and the Biblical Record - A Perfect Match There is evidence of Semites\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10420,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-commandment-you-shall-not-kill-or-you-shall-not-murder\/","url_meta":{"origin":87525,"position":4},"title":"Is the commandment “You shall not kill” or “You shall not murder”?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is the commandment \"You shall not kill\" or \"You shall not murder\"? Answer: The Hebrew word in Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17 is\u00a0ratsach. It is not the commonly used words for killing, which are\u00a0haragh\u00a0(to slay) and\u00a0muth\u00a0(to die).\u00a0Ratsach\u00a0is most frequently used in Numbers 35 where rules are given to determine\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20152,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-have-you-seen-that-the-law-was-done-away-with\/","url_meta":{"origin":87525,"position":5},"title":"Where have you seen that the Law was done away with?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: So because he follows the law statutes and commandments of the Old Testament, you assume that the Hebrew Israelites are not correct? You need to do some more reading, where, in the Scriptures, have you seen that the law, statutes, and commandments were done away with? If you read\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}