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Scripture Lesson: Joshua 24:14-15

 

Ordinary People – Extraordinary God

Who Do I Follow?

Week #1

 

  1. The King is powerful… and threatened.

 

Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.  The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,  “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” – Exodus 1:8-16

 

  1. The midwives obey

 

The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. – Exodus 1:17

 

  1. The King is not happy.

 

Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” – Exodus 1:18

 

  1. God bless obedience.

 

The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”  So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. – Exodus 1:19-21

 

Points To Ponder

 

  1. Why did the pharaoh want to kill the Israelite boys?

 

  1. How did the midwives disobey the pharaoh?

 

  1. How did God use the midwives?

 

  1. What can we learn from the midwives’ action, or lack of action, in this story?

 

 

Homework: 1 Kings 18