How about a little old fashioned Bible study? Grab your Bible and read Exodus 1:15-22, the awesome story where we meet two lesser-known heroines of faith, Shiphrah (pronounced Ship-rah) and Puah (Poo-a). They were Hebrew midwives who’d been very busy delivering bundles of joy throughout the Hebrew slave quarters in Egypt, when dastardly Pharaoh decided repression and domination were the best ways to control the blossoming Jewish subculture. He was alarmed enough at the population explosion to heinously order midwives to murder newborn Hebrew baby boys.
But Jehovah-honoring Shiphrah and Puah refused to obey the king’s command. They chose to obey the One True God, their spiritual king, rather than their physical king, knowing they could easily lose their lives by taking a stand. Gutsy, right?
Truly courageous heroes of faith.
When it came time to pay the piper, Shiphrah and Puah had to think fast when summoned by royal Pharaoh and pointedly asked why there weren’t more baby graves dotting the hillside. I picture our gals gulping, sweating, and quivering as they replied that, well, those darn Hebrew women are so robust and strong – not like the wimpy, pampered Egyptian women – they plunk out healthy babies and get back to work before we can even arrive. What’s a girl to do?
And by the blessings poured out by Jehovah (cited in Exodus 1:20), apparently Pharaoh bought this heaven-approved message.
But soon he lost control over losing control. Verse 22 indicates that Pharaoh ditched the murderous midwife scheme and turned to his kingdom constituents to take it upon themselves to toss all Hebrew man-children they encountered into the crocodile-infested Nile.
Swell plan, Pharaoh. What goes around comes around in the form of losing your own firstborn son in a lethal plague a few decades down the road.
That, as they say, is history. It’s how baby Moses landed in the bullrushes of the Nile — the exact location Jehovah orchestrated to begin preparing him to become the deliverer of Shiphrah and Puah, and the entire Hebrew population. And it all started with two godly, feisty women standing up to a menacing monarch.
How might the example of Puah and Shiphrah enlighten and empower us today?
