Week 22: Day 2

Intro: Hello and welcome back to Orbit, a short reflection to help you put God at the centre of your life from the team behind Satellites - I'm Liz Grier. Every day I share a little bit of the Bible with you, give you a chance to pray and think about it, and provide you with one practical way to put it into practice today.

Bible: Today we are reading the next bit in our story about the Israelite nation. Yesterday things looked pretty bad for them. Today it gets even worse. Let’s look at Exodus 1:15-20

The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, ‘When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.’ The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, ‘Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?’

The midwives answered Pharaoh, ‘Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.’

So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous.

Thoughts: Today we meet two of five women who play life-saving roles in the first two chapters of Exodus. Shiphrah and Puah are midwives. It’s interesting that we know their names and we don't even know Pharoah’s name. But we do know his orders. They were clear and terrible, instead of bringing life into the world, Pharoah had ordered them to kill the baby boys instantly. But we're told Shiphrah and Puah feared God, and so they disobeyed Pharoah. They had a simple choice in front of them. They could obey Pharoah and disobey God by taking innocent lives. Or they could obey God and disobey Pharoah who they knew was cruel and they must have been terrified what he would do to them if he found out. It was a simple choice, but it wasn't easy. They chose to obey God and unsurprisingly Pharoah found out what they were doing and called them for questioning. And their answer was laughable. In effect they said we can’t get there in time. These Hebrew women give birth too quickly. It was obviously nonsense, yet Pharoah foolishly accepts it and lets the midwives carry on. And so the Israelite nation continues to grow, despite Pharoah’s best efforts.

Shiphrah and Puah are unlikely heroes. Women in that ancient society were unimportant, they had no status and no worth. Yet from their lowly status their actions saved an unknown number of lives. God uses unlikely people like them every day. He chooses people just like you and me. Perhaps you don’t feel good enough. That you have nothing to offer. That God could never choose you. But God created each one of us. We are all different, and all unique. The New Testament describes the church as body of Christ. And a body is not made up of all eyes, or ears, or toes. Can you imagine! We need each part to make the body whole. We all come together in our differences, and that is the joy of church! We are not the same and we are not meant to be. We don’t need to compare ourselves to one another and wish we were something or someone else. God loves us exactly as we are. All our perfect imperfections. And he wants us all to follow him. Sometimes what he asks us to do may be hard. Like for Shiphrah and Puah. The decision to obey God may not be easy and may even be costly. But more often I find that it is in the little things, in the everyday choices that we make that we start to make a difference. By not joining in with the gossip. By refusing to be make fun of someone else.. We can all be God’s unlikely heroes by choosing to be faithful with the gifts that he has given us.

Prayer: Father I thank you that I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and that you love me exactly as I am. Help me to be faithful to you in the small everyday decisions I make. Give me the courage to stand up for what I know is right, even when that might be costly or difficult. Amen

Silence: There's now just a few moments of silence for you to pray, reflect on these ideas, or simply sit and be still.

Action: Every day on Orbit we give you a simple practical challenge to help you put the passage into action in your life. So today I want you to:

There are more people in slavery today than there were at the height of the African slave trade of the nineteenth century. Many of them are in the same position that the nation of Israel, working in dangerous and cruel conditions. We cannot read this story in Exodus as ancient history and not be aware that it is still happening in our world today. So today why not visit the IJMuk or Tearfund website, or do an internet search, and get informed and pray about how God wants you to be part of the story. Perhaps he wants you to pray, write to your MP, fundraise or campaign. As you pray be open to whatever God may ask of you, big or small.

Outro: And that's it! Thanks so much for joining me and I’ll be back with another reflection tomorrow.