March 6, 2023

How to fear God

Exodus 1

Niki Krauss
Monday's Devo

March 6, 2023

Monday's Devo

March 6, 2023

Monday's Devo

March 6, 2023

Monday's Devo

March 6, 2023

Big Idea

God reveals the way and His will through His Word.

Key Verse | Exodus 1:17

But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.

Exodus 1

Israel Increases Greatly in Egypt

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt. 6 Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. 7 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

Pharaoh Oppresses Israel

8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. 13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves 14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

15 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. 18 So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children 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 grew very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews 1 1:22 Samaritan, Septuagint, Targum; Hebrew lacks to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

Footnotes

[1] 1:22 Samaritan, Septuagint, Targum; Hebrew lacks to the Hebrews

S2:046 Exodus 1

Listen Now

Dive Deeper | Exodus 1

What do you think of when you hear the word fear? I grew up in a church preaching the fear of God—teaching God was someone to be afraid of, terrified even. That may be true for an unbeliever who has reason to fear God's judgment and eternal death (Hebrews 9:27). But for a Christ follower, to fear God is to hold Him in the highest regard, to be in awe of His power and His majesty. It is a humble reverence of God. How my relationship with God changed when I came to understand the true meaning of the fear of God! This is the fear Shiphrah and Puah had for the Lord.

The midwives' faith was grounded in their reverent fear of God. Their faith gave them courage to disregard Pharaoh's command to kill male babies born to Hebrew women. Pharaoh had the power to execute these midwives. Yet, even in the face of possible of death, Shiphrah and Puah chose to follow the higher authority of the God they feared. Their reverent fear of and faith in God moved them to obedience to God's commands instead of Pharaoh's. God's plan to grow the Hebrew nation would not be thwarted, for God is faithful to His promises, always (Hebrews 10:23).

Because the midwives disobeyed Pharaoh's command, did they also lie to him when confronted? God rewarded the midwives because they feared Him. He blessed them with families of their own. Did God overlook a lie, let a sin slide? Nowhere does Scripture say the midwives deceived Pharaoh. We can't assume they made up a story because it sounds like they might have. The midwives could have ensured they arrived late to Hebrew births, or it could be it was true about Hebrew women: they tended to deliver babies very quickly. That scenario fits perfectly into God's plan to grow the Hebrew population. All we can know for sure is what Scripture tells us. 

Fear of God leads to obedience. God blesses obedience. God is faithful to His promises. May we always choose obedience because we fear God and refuse to fear man.

This month's memory verse

27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

– John 14:27

Discussion Questions

1. How can it be that the instruction God gives most often in Scripture is "do not fear," and yet Scripture encourages fear of God? Describe the difference between these two types of fear.

2. What does fear of God look like in your life? What emotion/feeling/action does it most bring out in you?

3. Describe a time when you chose obedience, when you allowed your fear of God to overcome the fear of man.

As we gear up to release even more features for Join The Journey in 2025, our staff team, unfortunately, no longer has the margin to continue to support the comment functionality. We have big things in store for Join The Journey 2025. Stay tuned!

HS

Hugh Stephenson

Who is more powerful - the Pharoah or some Hebrew midwives? In this passage who has joy peace and rest? Spoiler alert. It’s not Pharoah. I love the expression “kicking against the goads”. https://www.gotquestions.org/kick-against-the-pricks.html It feeds into my journey about understanding the sovereignty of God. For decades I struggled with the existence of God. Even if God did exist was He involved? Or did He just create then step back to watch; Thomas Jefferson’s great watch maker, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/how-thomas-jefferson-created-his-own-bible-5659505/ The journey that brought me to saving and surrendered faith showed me the truth of Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:26-28. Not only did God create everything, not only is God is intimately involved; God is completely and totally sovereign, supreme, and sufficient. He has a detailed plan and calls me into partnership. Any who decline the invitation and want to change or thwart His plan will find THEIR plan thwarted.
HS

Hugh Stephenson

Even more, God may choose to demonstrate through the “least of these” that those the culture regards as least important can and will be used to lead in executing His plan. In Exodus 1 I see God blessing through Joseph in growing the Israelites from 70 people to 2 million. All attempts to subdue them fail. Even more, they continue to “be fruitful and multiply”. Then, when Pharoah says kills all the boy babies the midwives refuse. In divine irony God actually names them. Shiphrah “Beautiful One and Puah “Splendid one. Pharaoh means “Great House”. Yet, the name of this Pharoah is never mentioned. That’s what happen when you “kick against the goads”. But just wait. God has more to say about Pharoah. The midwives “feared God”. Because of their faithfulness God He “gave them families”. Now even the midwives are being fruitful and multiplying. Beautiful and Splendid!
HS

Hugh Stephenson

God reminds me, again, that the reason He calls me to know and to regard Him with awe and respect (fear) is so that I will trust Him. - therefore surrender - therefore obey -therefore be blessed. In experiencing His blessing, He will give me joy, (John 15:10-11), peace, (Philippians 4:6-7) and rest, (Matthew 11:28-30). The central idea [in this pericope] is that God faithfully fulfills His covenant promises in spite of severe and life-threatening opposition. Even Pharaoh, the most powerful man on earth could do nothing to thwart God's purpose. In fact, God used Pharaoh's opposition as a means of carrying out His promises."[47]
MS

Michael Sisson

INTRODUCTION: While it is not obvious in English, it is helpful to know the Hebrew text reveals deliberate repetition and repurposing of passages and literary structures found in Genesis, so as to make clear to those who read Hebrew that Exodus is a continuation of the same narrative started in Genesis. (c.f. Gen 46:8 and Ex 1:1) This is meant to emphasize G-d’s fulfillment of promises originally made to Abraham. Moreover, the reader is meant to draw a parallels: • Between Adam & Eve and Abraham & Sarah • Between Nimrod and Pharaoh • between Babel and Egypt. As Babel had been the epicenter of the forces opposed to G-d in Genesis, so Egypt embodies opposition to G-d In Exodus. For a deep dive in preparation for reading Exodus, checkout Dr. Michael Heiser’s (who passed away 2/20/23) rather scholarly podcast below: https://nakedbiblepodcast.com/podcast/naked-bible-255-exodus-1-part-1/ Re: Ex 1:12 Ex 1:12 (NASB) But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that >>>they were in dread of the sons of Israel.<<< As we embark upon reading Exodus, we immediately encounter yet another link in a chain of examples throughout scripture of the far off, approaching Messiah (Num 24:17a), His progenitors, and His people being feared, abused, and despised. As the ArtScroll’s Stone Edition Chumash puts it: “It was the first instance in history of what has become a familiar pattern of anti-Semitism: The Jews are too dangerous to keep and they are too important to lose.” Re: Ex 1:16 Having failed to curtail Jewish population growth through enslavement and backbreaking labor, Pharaoh now hatches a more direct, though secret, scheme to destroy the Jews: Infanticide. >>>Still, how could Pharaoh’s monstrous plot ever work without the Hebrew midwives’ treachery quickly becoming apparent? At some point, wouldn’t Hebrew mothers stop calling these midwives for help?<<< In a 2019 podcast about Exodus 1, Dr. Michael S. Heiser provides the following, helpful, cultural context which better explains how this sinister plot cloaked in secrecy might have succeeded, were it not for the midwives’ fear of the L-RD. According to Dr. Heiser, the word in Ex 1:16 rendered as "birth stool" in most English translations also appears in Jeremiah 18:3, where it’s more accurately translated as “the potter's wheel.“ This latter translation better fits with Egyptian cosmology about the source of human life, because the ancient Egyptians believed in a ram-headed, artisan deity called “Khnum,” who molded humans in the womb from clay, as one would mold a pot on a potter’s wheel. It is also interesting to note the ancient Egyptians employed means of determining gender in utero, AND they had abortifacients. Consequently, some scholars suggest Pharaoh commanded the midwives to >>>abort<<< the males they saw "on the potter's wheel." In other words, when the midwives’ “prenatal exam” determined the baby would be male, they were to abort the pregnancy. Thus, the plot involved more subtlety than murdering newborn males. Experienced midwives would be able to disguise their murdering infant boys who were still on “the potter's wheel.” Moreover, this may better explain why Pharaoh seemingly accepts the midwives’s alibi in Ex 1:19. The midwives’ refusal to be accomplices, along with their shrewd cover story, not only saved their own lives and the lives of untold children, but also dragged Pharaoh’s cruelty into the light. While Pharaoh’s plot involving the midwives was cloaked in secrecy, his subsequent edict to throw all newborn, Hebrew males into the Nile exposed Pharaoh as the ruthless anti-Semite he was. You can listen to Dr. Heiser discuss “the potter’s wheel” starting at the 60m 0s mark in the following podcast… http://www.nakedbiblepodcast.com/naked-bible-255-exodus-1-part-1/ A SEASONAL BONUS: Tonight (3/6/23) marks the start of Purim (i.e. “Feast of Lots”). Purim finds its origins in the book of Esther. Consequently, tonight observant Jews will be reading Esther in its entirety. For some spine-tingling, modern parallels to the Purim story, check out this 11m teaching…guaranteed to give you goosebumps! https://youtu.be/gzaJZ0bGe0s
MS

Michael Scaman

In Genesis there is 1 use of the work 'holy'. In Exodus there will be about 70 uses of the world 'holy'. In Genesis the world was made out of something formless and void. In Exodus, a nation will be made in a formless and void dessert. In Genesis God promises to bring Israel out of Egypt with Power. This is fulfilled in Exodus. The Joseph like betrayal ending Genesis/Psalm book 1 quoted by Jesus at the last supper will spill over into Psalms book 2 with more laments following.. Psalm 42 for example even quoted by Jonah in his whale of a problem. Like the parting of the Red Sea, Psalm book 2 shifts to a praise with the love song, the wedding song in Psalm 45 following a bleak song significantly about persecution. Psalms book 2 (psalms 42 - 72) is poetically like Exodus. The writers include many by 'The Sons of Korah' are levites ( but there is also many 'of' David and at least one for the choir director and one 'of' Solomon). Like Exodus there is a shift in the name of God used. Psalms Books 1, 3, and 5 mostly use Yahweh like Genesis, Numbers, Deuteronomy and books 2 and 3 mostly use Elohim (going along with Exodus and Leviticus. Priestly Levitical books )
MS

Michael Scaman

Some archaeological evidence from the Brooklyn Papyrus for slaves with Hebrew sounding names in Egypt https://apxaioc.com/?p=21 Slaves being warned of beatings with rods and slaves used for making mud bricks and agricultural tasks These seem consistent with Exodus.
SB

Sue Bohlin

Thanks Niki! My friend Hugh beat me to it, but my favorite part of this chapter is that the pharaoh isn’t named—in a culture that built huge monuments to its leaders—but the midwives are. That tells me something essential about God’s heart and how He defines who’s REALLY important in the kingdom economy.
AL

Amy Lowther

1. God wants you valuing him, knowing him, and desiring to know him. God doesn’t want you just using him disrespectfully or believing in materialistic things. 2. Fearing God for me looks like attending Women’s Bible Study, going to service, participating in devotionals while serving for Frontlines, and applying Christian Values in daily life. I usually try to learn more or help improve something if the fear of God occurs in me. 3. If I have a pile of work to do, my fear of God helps me to do better quality work and to get it done versus giving up and not completing the entire pile.
TB

Tina Brown

1. I think fear here is to be close to him and hold on to this teachings and place Him before anyone. 2. Fear of God in my life is reading the Bible, praying and talking to Jesus and just being close to him all day. Listening to praise music also. The emotions it brings out of me is I am humbled by His love, ashamed of my sins and blessed that He loves me. 3. I try to have obedience by coming to Him with my mental illness. I try really hard but sometimes I lack faith.