Following our story on from Potiphar’s wife last month. Joseph’s family have set up in Egypt to survive the famine, if you recall. The Hebrews have multiplied massively over the years , and a new Pharaoh starts to see them as a threat to security. They live at the top corner of Egypt, where, if there were an invasion, it would be through this territory. You don’t want a group of immigrants with no real affinity guarding your weakest border. Plus, there seem to be tons of them, and they are still growing in number. They may grow to be a challenge to the Egyptian way of life, the culture, perhaps they will take over and the Egyptians could disappear altogether…..I find it incredible that those same fears ripple down through History.
So, in amongst this setting, Pharaoh has a plan: he invites two Hebrew midwives to come and see him. He instructs them to slyly kill the male babies that are born to the Hebrew women. Two things to note here: The Egyptians didn’t have midwives; they thought labour was taken care of by one of their goddesses. So I wonder if there was some small level of respect for the Midwives, at least some curiosity. They are called in to meet the top man; no one would have had so much power in those parts but him. He assumes they are going to obey him; they are, after all, merely women, even if they are doing some sacred level of work.
The midwives do the right thing; they choose to do the right thing. We are told they feared God more than they feared Pharaoh, and when they are called back to explain why they haven’t obeyed, they make an excuse about how the Hebrew women give birth so quickly that they never make it in time. Pharaoh obviously doesn’t have a clue about childbirth, and he seems to just accept what they tell him.
What intrigues me is what gave them the courage or fortitude to risk death rather than defy God, and I think the answer lies in knowing your calling, walking in your purpose. I think that gives you a level of conviction in your path that helps you to remain on it, whatever the challenges to change course.
I wondered how that must feel, and then last week… The last few weeks were pretty intense, many, many clients in some dark and painful places. The widower on the first anniversary of his loss and facing all the symptoms of parkinson’s alone now. The widow, who has been wracked with guilt for five years, for booking a holiday where the ambulance service didn’t respond quickly enough. The emergency services responder, traumatised by things no human was ever meant to see, to find the subsequent PTSD was met with pressure to leave a job that till then was so much of their identity. The client, living in the days post her suggested life expectancy, had spent the last months thinking that to invest in any form of activity would have been a waste of time, and realised now that was what wasted the time.
I’ve got home and tried to find a sigh deep enough to reach and release all that I’ve held in a few short days. Each person’s story and suffering taking its place in a heart being continually stretched to accommodate just one more soul.
It was heavy, and hard but I felt spent, drained in the most beautiful way imaginable. I left each home with a gratitude for the honour of holding their story, even for an hour. For the privilege of being the one who gets to hear it shared, sometimes for the only time it’s ever been spoken out loud. Wow. It struck me that maybe I am walking in my purpose, that this is what it feels like …does that mean I do it perfectly?…well, no.
As I sat with a sobbing mother who is watching her teenage child decline by the day, I said “don’t worry” and almost instantly I closed my eyes and apologised “sorry, what an absolutely crappy thing to say to you”. She actually smiled then, I think maybe at my “shoot me now” expression. There was a door opened here somehow, maybe by the fact that I didn’t come as a saviour, but someone real and flawed willing to climb into the mess with her. These are all huge lessons in turning up as yourself, with an acceptance that the one who brought you to be there will make up for whatever you may lack.
Those situations where you show up even though someone else might do it better, might be more qualified are divine appointments.
Shiphrah and Puah, our women of the word, were simply walking in their purpose when they faced the choice of obeying Pharaoh or obeying God.. The choice is easier when your allegiance to one or the other is strong and unquestionable. I think this is true for big decisions as well as small ones. When we are walking in our purpose, we have all the grace we need to respond. I imagine that as they held the hands of women at their most base, most feral moment, something in them knew….this is exactly where I am meant to be.
So my takeaway, and I’m offering it to you, is what are you meant to be delivering? What is God bringing into the world through you? I don’t want you to think too big here, it might be that you gave five minutes to someone who needed it today, maybe its organisation so that someone else thrives or shines, perhaps even your inability to do something allows someone to grow in confidence. Maybe your needs stretch someone elses heart to be more compassionate. I think if we are where we are meant to be God can and will use every ounce of what we offer.
Pharaoh vastly underestimated these women. He never saw that they had a purpose in a bigger plan. I wonder if we are a little like Pharaoh too, underestimating what God can do with a little obedience and faithfulness in our seemingly small roles in the bigger plan for the kingdom. If we walk in His purpose for us, we change the world and we too can change history for the better, because it is Him who writes the story…And for us, the work becomes it’s own glorious reward
You can download the small group resource here
Music suggestions: Nothing I hold onto – Will Reagan, Refiner (feat Mara Justine) – Maverick City Music, Thy Will – Hillary Scott
