Valiance of the Hebrew Midwives

January 26, 2009

Today's Reading: Exodus 1-2 and Matthew 17

Now that we have started the Exodus readings, it gets pretty exciting to read about Moses. I guess its because of all the really cool films they have made about him including Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments and The Prince of Egypt.

In fact, I think there are four versions of this. The other versions include Moses, staring Ben Kingsley, and then that CG version of The Ten Commandments that I haven’t seen yet, and honestly, don’t really want to.

However, in watching these versions of the Exodus story, I can’t help but discover the parts that are left out. In fact, what I’d like to talk about today I’ve never noticed until now. Maybe it’s because I know the Exodus story so well that I just brush over it.

The story is one of courage and valiance that is almost as good as Moses himself. It is about how two midwives resisted the command of an evil king. The king of Egypt had commanded them to kill any boy that the Hebrews bore.

Apparently, these women, Shiphrah and Puah, feared God more than the king, who could have easily killed them. Granted, they didn’t exactly stand up and tell off the king saying: “dude, if you want the boys dead, you kill them yourself”.

I believe their cover story was: “they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive”. So I guess the Hebrews had a baby and hid it before any midwife could arrive. I suppose all the Hebrews could have heard about the standing order of the king to kill the new Hebrew boys, but there wasn’t a formal declaration until later. It must have been like living in Nazi Germany.

I often wondered what it would have been like during that time, as evil was taking root in Egypt and can’t help but wonder what I would have done. Would social pressure take precedence over my basic morality, and would I just ignore the lives of other people just to save my own skin?

I would like to think that I wouldn’t, that I would be willing to stand up for the rights of others. I would like to think I would be defiant like Daniel Craig in that film Defiance that I have been hearing so much about. I heard it’s about underground movements of Jews that fought back when the Nazis were taking over.

Chances are, I’d probably be like Oskar Schindler, who did his part to help the Jewish community, but his efforts were subtle. Still, he saved more lives that I have.

Okay, I am going to decide now to be like the Hebrew midwives. Let us hope I live up to it.