Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He
said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more
powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase
and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from
the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced
labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more
they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians
came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks
on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and
brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks
that they imposed on them.
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives,
one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to
the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but
if it is a girl, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God; they did not do
as the king of Egypt
commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned
the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to
live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the
Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes
to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and
became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, God gave them
families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the
Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you
shall let every girl live.”
***
I don’t know if I could do it, harbor people in the basement
of the manse like Jews in Nazi Germany or runaway slaves in the early South. I
imagine an S.S. officer, or an old sheriff and his dogs coming to the door and
I don’t want to be in that darting eyed, sweating hands, quick thinking lying
on your feet position. Perhaps in avoidance and certainly with the luxury of
imagination, I instead have hoped I would be one of the ones who speaks truth
to power and that those words, along with other’s words, could stop us from
being in that prison place in our own home. I have hoped what would cost me my
life is my outward speech instead of an inward lie, of harbingers in a basement
or an attic. Maybe that is idealism, maybe it is cowardice, maybe it is
honesty. I don’t think I could do what these midwives did. I don’t think I
could do what Moses’ mother did. I don’t think I could do what Moses’ sister
did. I don't think I could do what Pharoah’s daughter did. To lie with penalty
of my own life to save another, but this is what they did.
I imagine Shiphrah and Puah as young children sharing
their mother’s tent, their still boyish figures cocking their non-existence
hips to hold other’s children in the balance of one arm. I imagine them the
curious ones, not squeamish to cut the umbilical cord or hold a freshly bloodied
babe. I imagine them being raised with the reality of death in childbirth, and
knowing the gift of child life. I imagine them not so much making a decision to
be midwives but rather becoming them in the smallest of stages. I imagine them
women of sporadic sleep, often awoken by an urgent pounding door, and the
response of calm haste, a bag of herbs and oils always awaiting by the door.
Shiphrah and Puah, hurrying toward the expectant mother, not hurrying toward
the orders of a king. Yet, here these women’s women, Shiphrah and Puah were
summoned by the King of Egypt.
This king who knew not the story of Joseph and his
call to preserve life. This king who hoped to balance the number
of Israelites so there were enough to do his labor but not yet enough
to over take him. With fear and greed, he set taskmasters over the Hebrews to
oppress them with forced labor, forced labor that built entire cities and made
the Hebrew’s lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and every kind
of field labor. Ruthless were these tasks, imposed by a ruthless king, and more
ruthless was his decree to Shiphrah and Puah. “When you act as midwives to
the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but
if it is a girl, she shall live.” I imagine Shiphrah and Puah, women
summoned by the call to life, now summoned by the call to death.
I imagine they had seen the grief of a mother’s face
when a baby did not live. They knew both the physical birth and the hoped for
child would be undone like the bleeding out a dream. I imagine Shiphrah and
Puah’s own grief likewise, never tempered by experience but only numbed in the
balance of another birth. They knew that moment when the mother first held her
child when all that was dreamed could be heard in the whisper of an infants
snuffled breath.
Shiphrah and Puah feared God, which is to say they
knew God intimately they knew God as the assured presence in the
midst pain, and they knew God as the realized presence of joy in life. I
believe this they knew as deep down as they knew anything else, for they had
not learned it, but lived it with their whole being in the whole of their
lives, and so it was against their every grain to kill. So they disobeyed thing
king instead of disobeying God. This is the part I understand, this is the part
that I too hope I would follow. I hope, even in the bitterest of evils, I would
continue to do that which is at my core, that which in my own way preserves
life even if all I have are words. I don't know how deliver a baby, but I like
Shiphrah and Puah know how to deliver hope. But I wonder, could I convince a
king, or would I too twist the truth.
The king of Egypt summoned the midwives and
said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” The
midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian
women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”
I like that Shiphrah and Puah use the intimate knowledge of their call to
deceive the king, and wonder if similar words were used in Nazi Germany, or the
slave holding South, or the places in our current world where refugees hide and
ordinary people risk their lives with a lie. I don’t know if I could do it, it
seems to contrary to me. But perhaps it isn’t so contrary, perhaps this was the
exact call for which Shiphrah and Puah had been trained, to remain calm under
pressure, to speak words of reassurance in the midst of chaos to
point out the gift of birth and life. Perhaps even with the king they are doing
that which they always knew, he is midnight banging on
their door, and they have opened and merely showing him the herbs and oils of
their trade. Though their bravery fitting to their call. And it makes me
wonder, how might God be likewise preparing us? What are the ways we might be
called in chaos to do that which we always knew? Maybe I will have the right
words one day, maybe I will distract someone with a
nerdy soliloquy about a wild edible mushroom, or swim someone to
safety in the midst of a storm, something which seems to little, so natural,
but preserves life. What are the ways God might be using the core of who we are
to preserve life for all? God dealt well with the midwives; and the people
multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, God
gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is
born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile,
but you shall let every girl live.” And then the story turns, to Moses mother,
to Pharaoh’s daughter, to Moses sister, and the ways they used what
they knew to preserve life. I wonder where is it today?
