How God’s Will Is Done

I got a text from one of our teenagers a couple of weeks ago asking how we went from God creating everything and everyone being one family to the institution of slavery. I responded, that’s more of a conversation than a text response. But, it got me thinking that maybe it would be helpful to give a little of the history leading up to today’s Scripture passage.
So how did the Israelites wind up as slaves in Egypt? I’ve tried to write out the most clear, direct answer in 450 words or less, but understand that I have left out a LOT of interesting story to whittle this down:

Remember Adam and Eve’s first children, Cain and Abel, Cain killed Abel – already things were going terribly wrong with creation – by the time 9 generations had passed, the world was filled with violence; so violent that God told Noah that he was going to allow the waters, remember in ancient times, water was a symbol for chaos, and before creation, everything was covered in water – God was going to allow the waters to cover the face of the earth once more. But rather than starting creation again from dust, God told Noah to build an ark, and for Noah and his wife, and his sons and their wives to collect creatures of every kind and ride out the storm. As they resettled, they chose to build a city on the plain of Shinar, everyone spoke the same language, and God scattered them as they were building the city tower at Babel. For more on that story, be sure to go to our YouTube channel and find Kirsten King’s sermon from last Sunday.

9 generations later, Abraham was born to one of Noah’s sons, Shem’s, descendants. Abraham and Sarah had a son late in life, Isaac, who married Rebekah, who had twin boys, Jacob and Esau, Jacob had 12 sons, and his favorite was Joseph. You may be familiar with the coat of many colors that Jacob gave Joseph. His brothers were jealous and sold him to some traders for 20 pieces of silver, and he became a slave in Egypt. Fast forward, he wound up in jail, fast forward, Pharoah had two dreams, Joseph was remembered for being able to interpret dreams and recommended to Pharaoh, Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams and Pharaoh made him second in command over all of Egypt. Fast forward, Joseph’s brothers come to him, but they don’t know it is him, for help. He helps, he reveals himself, and they all settle in Egypt.

400 years go by.

Joseph’s descendants are no longer a little minority in Egypt. And a new Pharaoh, who didn’t know or didn’t care about Joseph’s legacy, rose to power. He agitated and goaded the Egyptians with fear mongering, “Look, they are becoming too powerful. They could join our enemies if we got into a war and overcome us from the inside.” He started cultivating bias, “They can’t be trusted. We have to be in control, or they could rise to power.”

And the institution of slavery began…the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites with harsh labor, making bricks in the hot sun, building cities, working the fields.
So, that’s how the Israelites wound up as slaves in Egypt. The problem kept growing for Pharaoh, though, because even though the Israelites are being worked ruthlessly and their lives were made miserable and bitter as they suffered cruel treatment and their spirits were at the point of being broken, the population of the Israelites continued to grow. The more they were oppressed, the more it seemed to the Egyptians like there were so many of them, and the more the Egyptians feared them, the more they oppressed them. Both bore the marks of oppression and both were dehumanized by this new way of life that they were caught up in, a cycle of oppression and violence.

Listen now for the word of the Lord from Exodus 1:8-2:10.

What I remember about this story from children’s Sunday school was that Moses’s mother couldn’t keep him, she put him in a basket on the Nile River, sort of Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater style, and God protected Moses and kept him from dying in the Nile River by allowing Pharaoh’s daughter to find him and raise him as an Egyptian. God had help, though. This is the first story in the book of Exodus. The Hebrew word, “Exodus” literally means, “These are the names.” These are the names through which God works.

It seems significant that we never learn Pharaoh’s name. Instead, we learn the names of some of the least likely to be known or remembered, the people through whom God works.

First we learn of Shiphrah and Puah, two Hebrew women who found a place in society by attending to women during their labor and delivery. Childbirth was ritually impure, but since Shiphrah and Puah were barren, and without any children of their own, they were worth nothing to their families, a burden to their husbands – just another mouth to feed. Helping with childbirth was a way that they could contribute to their people, a sacrifice they could make. Perhaps Pharaoh knew they were already at the margin of their people, perhaps they would be willing to get back at those women who had looked down their noses at them as they rubbed their round bellies.

Before he cries, when a Hebrew woman gives birth to a son, stop his breath.

Shiphrah and Puah were faithful women who worshiped God. They would not carry out Pharaoh’s extermination. In fact, they told him it wasn’t possible – the Hebrew women gave birth too fast. God works through people like Shiphrah and Puah; people who will do what is right even if they are putting themselves at risk, even if it goes against the proper authorities.

So, if their lungs can’t be stopped from drawing their first breath, Pharaoh demands that their lungs be filled with water – every male Hebrew baby is to be thrown into the Nile River.

Two more names through whom God works are Jochebed, a Hebrew mother, and her daughter Miriam. Jochebed conceived and gave birth to a son and when he was born she saw that he was “good,” an echo of the creation story same Hebrew phrase as God declaring creation good. Jochebed nursed him for three months quietly hiding his existence from those who would harm him. In the meantime, she prepared a watertight basket, another echo of the flood story when Noah built an ark. In the Hebrew basket and ark are the same word. She places the baby in the basket and nestles the basket in the Nile among the reeds near the shore. The place and timing of leaving her son are intentional. Her daughter, Miriam, the baby’s sister, stands watch, at a distance.

Just as she does every day, Pharoah’s daughter makes her way, with her servants, to the river to the place where she bathes. She sees the basket, and when she sees the crying baby, she is filled with compassion. Miriam approaches and offers to get a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby for the Egyptian princess. So, for the next 3 years, the child will grow up at home with his family. Then, he will go and live as the child of the princess, the grandson of Pharoah in the palace.

How is God’s Will done?

These are the names: Shiphrah and Puah, Jochabed and Miriam. None of them had any position of power; in fact, all of them were victims of oppression. None of them had special skills or talents. None of them performed amazing feats. They didn’t change a society. They simply refused to bow to power when it told them to do its bidding. And they were smart about it.
Shiphrah and Puah knew Pharoah was not going to go see for himself how fast the Hebrew women gave birth. Jochebed knew where and what time the princess came to bathe every day, and she knew that the princess was her baby’s only hope. The only one who could sway Pharaoh, who could bat her eyes and convince him to let her keep the baby, was Pharaoh’s baby girl. Miriam watched and waited, to offer to make it easy to keep the baby, she could find a Hebrew woman to nurse him until he was old enough for the princess to care for him. All of them bravely did what they knew to be right.

These are the names. The names of the people through whom God works. These are the people who are part of God’s plan unfolding. Moses will know his identity as a Hebrew and have a deep empathetic understanding of his people’s plight. He will also know the power dynamics and political personalities of the Egyptians, growing up in the palace. He will have a heart that pleads, “Let my people go” and knowledge and access to make the plea.

But only because four women practiced civil disobedience to protect him. Not because they knew God’s plan for his life, but because they knew God, who has a plan and a purpose for each life and bravely did what they knew was right. May we follow their examples. May we be the names through whom God works. Amen.