And The Journey Begins

Exodus 1

So some time has passed- in fact enough time for Joseph and his brothers to have all died- and a new king to be in power. Enough time has also passed for this new king to not know about Joseph. The Israelites took this be fruitful and multiply thing to heart and the Egyptians were starting to worry.

They hypothesize- if there's a war- there are enough of these people to side with the enemy and cause us some serious trouble. So they crack the whip and lay down the law- enslaving the Hebrews, trying to break their spirit. But even in their misery- they still found time to make babies.

So finally the king talks to the Hebrew midwives (they only had 2? They must have been quite busy from the sound of things) and tells them to let the girls live but to kill the boys. The midwives were God-fearing though and it didn't happen. When questioned about it, the midwives reply- These Hebrews are some vigiorous women- by the time we get there, they've already given birth. God rewards these midwives with families of their own.

Pharoah orders all male Hebrew children to be thrown into the Nile- which I guess would make it a less than ideal picnic spot.

2 lessons:
1) We're only a small part of the plan. It's easy to have grandiose visions about your role in God's plan- but only one generation later (?) the news of Joseph's great works was gone from Egypt. If his life can be forgotten so quickly, what chance do I have to make a major impact?

1b) in the same light- it's easy to carry around the weight of the world for things done poorly or not done at all- we're still only a small part of the plan. We can't thwart God's will- and our weaknesses and failures aren't bigger than God's power and grace.

so...work to please God- but take the pressure off yourself. You aren't the savior- or the serpent- just a servant willing to keep trying.

2) What about these midwives? They save the lives of these Hebrew children (yeah!) and then cover their backsides with this whopper of a lie about vigorous Hebrew women (oops). Yet God is pleased and rewards them.

Couldn't they have saved them and faced up to it? Were they saving themselves to save more babies in the future? Does it matter?

Seems here that saving the children was a bigger issue than honesty- but I'm not sure why they were mutually exclusive. How is their deception acceptable? Maybe the message is that we're way more concerned with the details than God is- although that thought scares me- and goes against every legalist-ingrained bone in my body.

Love your God- love your neighbor- maybe they still had these things covered.