Exodus 1:15-22 And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah:… I. THE GROWING SHAMELESSNESS OF CRIME. 1. Murder was intended from the first - the hope was that the people should be diminished - but the intention was veiled. 2. (15, 16.) The crime was now looked in the face, but it was so arranged that. it might be done secretly. 3. When this failed, then public proclamation was made that the murder should be deliberately and openly done (22). No man steps at first into shameless commission of sin. Every sin is a deadening of the moral sense and a deepening of shame. II. THOSE WHO REFUSE TO AID IN PHARAOH'S CRIME FIND BLESSING. 1. The refusal of the midwives was service to God. (1) It prevented secret murder. (2) It rebuked Pharaoh's sin. 2. Their refusal was justified because it sprang from obedience to a higher authority: "they feared God." Disobedience to human law must have a higher sanction than a factious spirit. 3. God gave them inheritance among his people. In that dread of sin and heroism for the right they were fit allies for God's people. Those who separate themselves from evil God will lead into the light. III. THOSE WHO AID BRING JUDGMENT UPON THEMSELVES. The king appeals to his people and they make his crime their own. But Egypt's sin is set at last in the light of Egypt's desolation. Obedience to unjust laws will not protect us from God's just judgment. The wrong decreed by authority becomes by obedience a nation's crime. - U. Parallel Verses KJV: And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: |
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