Prince of Egypt

I have been reading through Exodus. I have read through the classic story before, but I am reading it slowly and carefully during my...what some refer to as "quiet time" or "devotions"- whatever you want to call it, it's my special time spent with God & in His Word. So I've been noticing a lot of little things that can be easy to miss when you're just reading through the story. I've learned that, as much as I like the Dreamworks animated movie Prince of Egypt, it is not very accurate.

However, this is not the important or most interesting thing I've learned so far. What ended up striking me the most from my reading of the first chapter of Exodus began with an initial important realization from verses 15 & 16:

Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, "When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live."

I knew that during the period of time in which Moses was born, there was a command to kill all newborn male Hebrew children. I did not realize that the original command was for the Hebrew midwives to carry out this action. This actually shocked me. I always imagined Egyptian bad guys going on a killing spree [probably Prince of Egypt influence]- which actually may not be far from the truth, because, as we learn in verse 17:

But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.

The midwives did not do comply with Pharaoh's orders, because their fear of God was greater than their fear of Pharaoh. This is not a casual, "I'm going to obey God instead of Pharaoh because Pharaoh is wrong." The king of Egypt had oppressed, enslaved and dealt ruthlessly with the Hebrews. I would imagine that this is not someone you would disobey lightly given how he had treated your people in the past, is treating them in the present, and as king does not have anyone over him to stop him [actually, this isn't true, he's just not aware of it yet] from cracking down even harder. However, the midwives feared God, so they disobeyed Pharaoh. 

The Ten Commandments hadn't been written yet, but these midwives knew God's sanctity of life and that God would not want them to kill the male newborns no matter what Pharaoh said. So they didn't, and God blessed them for it, multiplying their families, much to Pharoah's dismay given that his oppression of the Hebrews was a result of his fear of their great numbers.

Fear seems to be a key word. Here are a few definitions of fear (the verb) from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:

1) to have reverential awe of <fear God>

2) to be afraid of: expect with alarm <fear the worst>

3) to be afraid or apprehensive <feared for their lives>

I would imagine that the Hebrew midwives fear falls under category #1, Pharaoh's under category #2 (expecting the Hebrews to rise up against him if their numbers kept multiplying) and the Hebrew's fear of Pharaoh to fall under category #3. Even given the circumstances, for the Hebrews 1 > 3. The question is, what is my "greatest fear"? Is my greatest fear of God? Or do I let other fears trump it?

A little over a week ago, our fellowship's large group meeting comprised of an outreach workshop. In discussions with the student in charge of outreach before this night as well as in various other times, the subject of "being afraid to talk about Jesus with friends" came up. In fact, I presented during part of this outreach workship on using a Soularium board and mentioned how it is a fun and easy way to get into spiritual conversations, and particularly good for people who are afraid of getting into such conversations.

This fear can come whether you know the person you are talking to or not. I'm sure you know this fear- it comes after you feel inside of you that now would be a good time to mention God [the Holy Spirit working- another important topic during our outreach workshop]. There may even be an obvious opportunity, transition, something in the conversation that begs for it, and you physically feel it inside- you should bring in God RIGHT NOW. And really, why shouldn't you? God is the most important thing in your life, why shouldn't He be part of your conversations and responses with people? But you don't. Why? Because of secondary fear- any fear that isn't fear of God.

In some places in the world, secondary fear may have consequences as harsh as the possible consequences for the Hebrews. In my position (and most, if not all, of ours) living in the US, this is not the case. Even way, it shouldn't matter. My fear of God should be my #1 fear. If we really fear God, we know that He is more powerful than anything else in this world, and should not let anything stop us in our obedience to Him and His Spirit's promptings in us. And if we truly fear Him, we obey His command to love others- if we truly love others, we will share Jesus with them [going back to last week's post].

As I said last week, I am not saying that I am good at this- in fact I have often [much more often than not sadly] let secondary fears get the better of me. Much of this post may have seemed obvious to you, but I wanted to share a little bit of what's going on in my thoughts and reflections- which I pray will translate into action.