Exodus 1-2:10 - Brave and Cunning Women

Read: Exodus 1:2-10

The context of this passage is one that's repeated all through out history: the narrative that minorities - the 'other' - are all fine when you've invited a small amount, but then they grow become a threat.  No wonder those who have suffered systematic oppression have so often taken heart from the Exodus story to make it their own.  But we would do well to remember also that the MO of the ancient world was one of violence and war.  Were the Egyptians' fears founded - that the Israelites posed a political threat?  From the point of view of the Egyptians, very possibly!  To gain power in the ancient world, one had to subjugate potential competition.  To build an empire, one needed slaves.  The Egyptians were 'of their time' just as much as being the archetypal oppressor.  And, when slave drivers and harsh labour was not enough, the Egyptians turned to something truly abhorrent - state-dictated infanticide.

And yet throughout this chapter and half there are five women who stand out like sparkling jewels.  They are both brave and cunning!  Firstly, we have the faithful midwives - Shiphrah and Puah.  Were they the only midwives?  I don't know enough Ancient Near Eastern history to know whether there would have needed to be more to cover that size of population, but if so, then maybe these two were the 'head midwives' who were summoned to the pharaoh.  Maybe they had colleagues who followed their example?  Whatever the situation, it is no matter - the point is that the midwives feared God, not the Pharoah.  Imagine their courage!  This could have easily been killed.  Also, I love their sass: "I'm sorry your majesty, but the Hebrew women, they're just so vigorous and independent (not like your Egyptian women), and they give birth before we arrive.  I'm sure we'd do as you ask if we could".

And then we meet one of these Hebrew women - the mother of Moses.  It's easy to raise a smile at the midwives because of the small injection of humour in the story, but by the time Moses' mother gives birth, all Egypt is on the look out for baby Hebrew boys.  Imagine the heartache - you give birth to a healthy baby, something that should be a cause for deep joy and celebration, and instead it's an occasion for fear and grief.   It seems there were no solutions: she tried to hide him but surely she knew she could not have done that forever, and so then she places him in a basket in the river.  Did she know he'd travel down to where Pharoah's daughter was bathing?  Could she have envisaged what would happen?  I've no idea and I don't think we can ever know!  But I think we can know this: that in an impossible situation, probably trembling with grief, she trusted the fate of her child to God.

Our fourth woman is Pharoah's daughter.  She joins the ranks of Gentile women - with Ruth and Rahab, who are also caught up in the reality of God's rule and God's way.  Our English renders the words: 'she felt sorry for him'.  Was she just sentimental about a crying baby she thought was cute?  Somehow I feel her actions are a little too radical for that to be the whole story.  I don't know, but whatever was going on in her mind and her heart, and however much she was aware of the One God the Israelites worshipped, she went out of her way to live a different story to that of her father, the Pharoah who wanted all the Israelite boys dead.

Finally, we have Moses' sister.  Now this one is clever.  Whilst her mother goes away having left Moses in the river, probably too heartbroken to wait to see what happens next, this sister watches carefully from a distance and sees her brother get picked up by none other than Pharoah's daughter!   And then, all innocently, as if she has no idea who the mother of the baby is, she says: 'shall I go and get a Hebrew woman to nurse him for you?'  And then, who is the Hebrew woman she brings along but Moses actual mother!  Of course, this is a happy ending tinged with sadness - Moses will eventually go to the courts and be a royal son - let's not forget that.  But imagine that joy - all because of the bravery of Moses' sister, that Moses' mother gets to hold her son close once more, nurse him, and know he will live.

All five of these women broke the mould of what was going on around them.  In the reality of Ancient Egypt, power was the currency, and fear the ruling force: the fear of the Egyptians that the Israelites would become too powerful; the use of force by the Pharoah to evoke fear in others, and driving them to submission.  But as the Apostle John would write all those centuries later, 'perfect love drives out fear' (1 John 4:18).

In their small acts of rebellion these five women lived to a higher reality - a reality in which God, not Pharoah, is King.    This is a reality in which a loving God reigns supreme over the universe - a God committed to justice.  We are all called to live lives of 'rebellion'.  But when I say that, I don't mean a purely political rebellion.  I mean rebellion against fear; rebellion against the natural inclinations of our hearts which desire to grab power if we can, or if we can't, to follow the easy path of compromise in order to not risk our necks - instead living lives of integrity and compassion, things which have no place in the economy of fear and power.   And in living lives like these women of Exodus 1 and 2 did, we will find ourselves at odds not only with our natural desires but also with the society that is shaped by those desires.   We rebel against these powers by quietly living our lives not under the economy of power and fear, but under God's economy.

Your actions may seems small.  It may seem futile.  As Shiphrah and Puah saved the baby boys, they may well have been tempted to think: 'what's the point? They'll only be living lives as a slaves.  We're not actually going to change anything in the long-term'.  Whatever Pharoah's daughters' intentions, anyone could be tempted to think that saving just one Hebrew baby boy would really make a difference.  It's lucky that none of these women reasoned along these terms.  Because however small it seems, God notices.  And what is more, God is not done acting in the universe.  Things couldn't seem bleaker at the beginning of Exodus but, as we all know, the story is about to change.  And God has a plan which intended to work through that one Hebrew baby boy, preserved in the basket, watched over by his sister, and rescued by a princess.  Faithfulness is never futile - the God of the universe is not done yet.