Very Interesting!

My church, Mile High Calvary, is doing a 90 Day Challenge, where we are reading through the whole Bible in 90 days...it is a demanding regimen, but also doable, if you rearrange your priorities. I have decided to give up Facebook for the duration of the Challenge...and so far, it has been AWESOME!!!

Today is day Four, but I was reading ahead on Day 5 in Exodus. I was captivated by the midwives and what it says about them in the Bible...not many women are mentioned by name, so I am always curious as to why their names have passed through centuries.

Here is what Exodus says:

'Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?” And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.”
Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them.' 1:15-21 NKJV

The first thing I found interesting is the meaning of their names. Shiphrah is Hebrew and means 'fair, brightness or beauty'. Puah means "splendid". Wonderful names, don't you think? To be remembered for generations as 'fair' and 'splendid'? And it would seem that we know their names and a little about their character because they feared God and did not do as the Egyptians demanded, and for this God blessed them and provided households for them.

I also love that they had a sense of humor, even with the feared Egyptian king. “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.” Wow! They were standing before Pharaoh - who, with a nod of his regal head, could have ended their lives...yet there they stood with a clever response, and because they feared God more than the man in front of them, their lives were changed forever!

I pray that if I am ever in a situation like that, one where 'fear of what could come' would overwhelm 'fear of He who created me', that I will remember this story and lean into the One who knew me before I was in my mother's womb.

What about you? Have you ever been in a situation where the wrong kind of fear threatened to change the course of YOUR life? What did you do?

P.S. You can get involved by signing up for youversion, a Bible site (also available as an app) that has the 90 program. I recommend signing up online, then downloading the app...seems to have worked better that way!