CRITICAL NOTES.—
Exodus 1:15. Hebrew midwives] It is curious, though it may not throw light on the precise relation in which these women stood to the Hebrew women, that their names should be of a like sig. (according to Fürst): Shiphrah = “beauty;” Puah = “gracefulness.”
Exodus 1:16. Upon the stools] Perhaps a low seat employed by the mid wives; or the word may be used for a washing vessel of stone, in which they used to wash infants (Ges.) But the explanation of Fürst appears to be, contextually, more forcible: “Look to the two sexes.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 1:15-21
HIGH SOCIAL POSITION USED FOR THE FURTHERANCE OF A WICKED PURPOSE
I. That sometimes high social position exerts its authority for the accomplishment of a wicked and cruel purpose. (Exodus 1:15.)
1. The king commands the murder of the male children of the Israelites. What could be more diabolical than this? They were to be murdered in the birth. They were innocent of any plot against the Egyptian government. They had in no way injured the country—yet they are to be put to death—almost before their first experience of life. None but the king dared to have uttered such a cruel mandate. Kings seem to have an idea that they can do what they like. What an abuse and degradation of regal power. It is this kind of thing that brings them into contempt.
2. He seeks to accomplish this by bringing the innocent into a participation of his murderous deed. These Hebrew midwives were of godly moral character. They feared Jehovah; they sympathised with the enslaved Israelites; they had no thought of doing their comrades any harm; as for murdering the offspring of those whom they attended in childbirth, the very suggestion was most revolting to them. Thus, the king tries to enkindle within the hearts and minds of these midwives the same envy, and unholy thought that occupied his own. It is almost unpardonable to suggest sin to those that have no previous occasion for, or idea of committing it, and especially when the suggestion is rendered authoritative by power and national supremacy. This suggestion was not only cruel and murderous, but it was subtle. In this way the king would be concealed as the murderer. It would be done by the midwives, and they even would not be detected in the act. Thus many simple lives would have been plunged into awful crime—and innocent victims would have suffered for the guilty. Tyrants are generally cowards, and seek such means for the accomplishment of their designs as are more likely to involve others than themselves.
II. When high social authority is used to further a wicked design we are justified in opposing its effort. (Exodus 1:17.)
1. We are not to do wrong because a king commands it. Many weak-minded people will do anything a king tells them. They think what he says must be right; they are flattered by his personal attention to them; they are awed by his pomp and splendour; they are bribed by his offer of reward (the king would no doubt promise these midwives ample recompense). When the highest personage in the realm needs an accomplice to aid in an evil deed, never help him, however humble or poor your station in life may be. It will be your ruin if you do; he will soon want to dispatch you, to shield himself from the possibility of detection. Right is the supreme monarch of the soul, and claims obedience before any temporal power. To oppose murder, when advocated by a king, and when it could be accomplished unknown—and when, if known, would win the applause of a hostile nation, is heroic—benevolent—divinely rewardable, and is the duty of all who fear God.
2. Such opposition must embody the true principle of piety. The midwives feared God—more than they did the king. This opposition to the cruel intent of the monarch was not obstinate, but it was the outcome of a conscience influenced by the Divine Spirit. We must always reject the idea of sin in a pious spirit—from Christian motive.
3. Such opposition will secure for us the Divine protection. The king summoned the midwives to himself again. He asked why they had neglected his command. They replied fearlessly. No harm came to them. God will protect brave souls that dare to defy a wicked king.
III. That for such opposition we shall be Divinely Rewarded.
1. God dealt well with the midwives.
2. God made the midwives houses.
3. Men lose nothing by serving God in preference to a cruel king.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exodus 1:15. Sin often brings men into companionships that otherwise they would despise.
It is a mercy that tyrants are often dependent upon others, of more tender sympathies, for the accomplishment of their designs.
The plan of murder is not so easy after all; there are persons to be consulted who may turn round upon us, and, on some ground, deny our authority. What if the midwives set themselves against Pharaoh? Two humble women may be more than a match for the great king of Egypt. No influence, how obscure soever, is to be treated with contempt [City Temple.]
Exodus 1:16. When burdens do not effect the will of tyrants on the Church, murder shall.
Cruelty on the first onset seeks to shed blood by subtilty.
Tyrants will make helps for life to be instruments of death—midwives to be murderers.
Bloody powers suborn either such as be of the Church, or strangers to destroy them.
Subtle tyrants order the best opportunity at first, to hide their cruelty.
It is devilish to set a tender soul upon such bloody designs [Hughes].
Satan, in all his instruments, hath always aimed at the death of Israel’s males [Hughes].
No greater argument of an ill cause than a bloody persecution [Trapp].
Why were the males to be put to death?—
1. Because they were the most capable of insurrection and war.
2. Because the Israelitish women were fairer than the Egyptian, and so might be kept for the purposes of lust.
3. Because the Israelitish women were industrious in spinning and needlework, and so were kept for service.
Exodus 1:17. The tyrant-projects of a wicked king may be thwarted by the piety of his subjects.
God has instruments in the world to aid His Church, as well as to persecute it.
Religion will deter men from the most terrible sins.
God gives courage to timid souls, to enable them to resist kingly wrong.
God makes them save life whom men appoint to destroy it.
The good hand of God doth keep the males, or best helps of the Church’s peace, when persecutors would kill.
Still the conflict rages between God and the tyrant king. On which side are we found?
Those who fear God are superior to all other fear. When our notion of authority terminates upon the visible and temporary, we become the victims of fickle circumstances; when that notion rises to the unseen and eternal, we enjoy rest amid the tumult of all that is merely outward, and therefore perishing. The men who fear God the most save their country. They make little noise, they hold no open-air demonstrations. All great workers in society are not in the front [City Temple].
Exodus 1:18. That tyrants are sometimes disappointed in those whom they expected to fulfil their designs.
That tyrants can call those who disappoint them to account:—
1. In anger—the king was in a rage that his purpose had failed.
2. In disquietude—the king was perplexed as to the issue of Israel’s growth.
3. In astonishment—that two women should have set at naught his royal commands. He did not know the great force of true womanhood.
Exodus 1:19. Faith in God enables men to give a reason for not doing wrong.
Tyrants are foiled by little instrumentalities in their efforts to destroy or injure the Church.
God can make His persecuted creatures more lively and strong to bear than others.… Religion fires a timid soul with heroism.
Exodus 1:20. Persons who are instrumental in the saving of human life are pleasing to God.
Persons who render ineffective the designs of a tyrant, and preserve the Church from harm, are Divinely blessed.
All who fear God will be favourably dealt with—now and hereafter.
They who serve God serve a good master. Was God indifferent to the character and claims of the midwives who bore practical testimony for Him in the time of a nation’s trial? His eye was upon them for good, and His hand was stretched out day and night for their defence. They learned still more deeply that there was another King beside Pharoah; and in the realization of His presence Pharaoh dwindled into a secondary power, whose breath was in his nostrils, and whose commands were the ebullitions of moral insanity. No honest man or woman can do a work for God without receiving a great reward [City Temple].
There are times when nations are called upon to say “No,” to their Sovereigns. Such times are not to be sought for with pertinacious self-assertion, whose object is to make itself very conspicuous and important; but where they do occur, conscience is to assert itself with a dignity too calm to be impatient, and too righteous to be deceived [City Temple].
The Church must grow, even though the king seeks its death.
Exodus 1:21. God makes sure houses for the sons of His Church when persecutors destroy them [Hughes].
Our reward is proportionate to our fear of God.
ILLUSTRATIONS
The conscience, that sole monarchy in man,
Owing allegiance to no earthly prince;
Made by the edict of creation free;
Made sacred, made above all human laws,
Holding of heaven alone; of most divine
And indefeasible authority [Pollock].
Exodus 1:22. There is a woful gradation in sin. As mariners, setting sail, lose sight of the shore, then of the houses, then of the steeples, and then of the mountains and land; and as those that are waylaid by a consumption first lose vigour, then appetite, and then colour; thus it is that sin hath its woful gradations. None decline to the worst at first, but go from one degree of turpitude to another, until the very climax is reached.