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Weekly Devotional

September 15, 2008
 

Exodus 1:5-21  The total number of people born to Jacob was seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt.  ⁶ Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and that whole generation.  ⁷ But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.  ⁸ Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.  ⁹ He said to his people, "Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we.  ¹⁰ Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land."  ¹¹ Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh.  ¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.  ¹³ The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites,  ¹⁴ and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.  ¹⁵ The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,  ¹⁶ "When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live."  ¹⁷ But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live.  ¹⁸ So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?"  ¹⁹ The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them."  ²⁰ So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong.  ²¹ And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

            Yesterday after church I started Confirmation back up.  Robert and Hunter begin this fall’s session by watching part of a video called “God’s Story” (or the non-technical name for it is:  The Bible according to the Rev. Dr. Thomas Ridenhour, my homiletics professor at seminary).  Dr. Ridenhour argues (and I agree with him) that the place to begin reading the Bible is not Genesis, but is instead Exodus.  Two weeks ago we began our Bible Study for this fall, and we are also looking at the Book of Exodus.  The reason that I think (and Dr. Ridenhour) this is the place to begin is that Exodus begins the Salvation History of God’s people.  Yes, Genesis has a lot in it, but Exodus starts with the saving of Israel from old Pharaoh’s brickyard which is the first salvific act that we know of.

            But as the video pointed out to the confirmands, as well as I pointed out to those in Bible Study, this major salvific act does not begin with men.  In the midst of a very male-dominated society, God begins with women.  Had it not been for the midwives, who knows how the world would have turned out.  As it is, the midwives feared God, and God treated them well and gave them families.  Furthermore, little Moses would have probably been killed, and instead, grew up as God’s messenger and the leader of the Israelites, leading them out of bondage and to the Promised Land. 

            As we think about how God has worked in our lives, we can recall that God often does the radical thing that we are not expecting.  God steps outside the norm, and performs acts that lead to the theme of the Bible as a whole:  “God saving God’s people.”  God started that salvific act so long ago, continued it with the birth, life, death and resurrection of his Son, and will continue it until the end of the age.

In our prayers this week: 

Alma, Doris and her mom, Gail’s mom, and Ann

God’s Peace,

Pastor Judson