Exodus 1: Standing for Life

¹⁵ The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, ¹⁶ “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” ¹⁷ The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. ¹⁸ Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

¹⁹ The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”

²⁰ So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. ²¹ And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

-Exodus 1:15-21

We don’t usually think of Exodus 1 when we talk about the value of human life. Yet the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah stand as prime examples of people who stood for the rights of infant children under the threat of punishment or even death. They had been commanded to kill any boys born among the Hebrews, yet they did not. We are even told that God blessed these midwives with families of their own.

When we think of those in the Bible who stood for their faith, these midwives are not usually the first to come to mind. But in a world where abortion and even infanticide is increasingly prevalent, these role models represent a godly response worthy of our attention. They stood for life, even when it was against the law, and were willing to suffer the consequences. May we live likewise.

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Dillon Burroughs is the author and coauthor of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of all 31,173 verses of the Bible at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.