Free to Rise: Women in God's StoryMuestra

THE PROTESTERS 

In the first chapter of Exodus, we are introduced to a pair of midwives named Shiprah and Puah. Although scholars aren’t totally sure whether these women were Egyptian or Hebrew, we do know that these midwives had a lot of work to do!  

At the start of their story, the Israelites were living under Egyptian captivity, and they were having a lot of babies. As the Pharaoh exploited their labor and denied their God-given dignity, the Israelites were well on their way to outnumbering their enslavers.  

But Pharaoh knew he could not let this happen. Determined to keep a grip on his power and wealth, he devised an evil plan. He believed that by getting rid of all newborn boys, he could keep the captive Israelites from rising up against him, and he believed that Shiprah and Puah would help him. 

But this plan failed on two accounts:

1. The women he tasked to carry out his evil bidding, Shiprah and Puah, weren’t ultimately accountable to the laws of earthly kings - but to the laws of God. 
2. He sorely underestimated the power and influence Shiprah and Puah had, especially within their sphere of influence among other midwives.

Some scholars believe that Shiprah and Puah were actually the head midwives among all the others in the land. If this was the case, Pharaoh would have expected them to share the orders he gave to all of the midwives beneath them. In other words, Shiprah and Puah may have held a position of power and influence. Depending on how they responded to the Pharaoh’s commands, they had a lot to gain or lose: If they obeyed, they may have been rewarded and honored. If they disobeyed, they risked their position, privilege, and even their lives. 

It’s important to recognize that Shiprah’s and Puah’s ultimate decision to disobey Pharaoh wasn’t just because they didn’t like his plans or his politics. They resisted out of respect toward God and his laws. This was probably an attitude that had been cultivated over time. Each day, as they supported laboring mothers, encouraging them to keep going and bringing them through the danger of childbirth, they had been practicing for the moment they would be called before Pharaoh: Would they turn their back on their people when things got tough? Or would they continue to protect the Israelites in their most vulnerable moments? 

In the end, their disobedience led to the protection of God’s people, and eventually, their deliverance into the promised land.

Centuries later and thousands of miles away, a woman named Rosa Parks also refused to follow the law of the empire. She entered into a lineage of powerful women who’ve pledged their highest allegiance to the God of Justice.

On a December night in 1955, Parks boarded a city bus in Birmingham, Alabama. She was riding home from another shift at work, but this trip would change the country forever. Fortified by righteous conviction, Parks, a black woman, refused to yield her seat on the bus to a white rider. At the time, the law required black passengers to give up the front seats to white passengers and move to the back.

"From my upbringing and the Bible, I learned people should stand up for rights just as the children of Israel stood up to the Pharaoh,” Parks wrote later in her autobiography.

As she remained in her place, she had broken the law of the city, but upheld the law of the Kingdom of God. Despite the risks to her life and safety, Parks remained rooted in what she knew to be true: every person is created by God with equal dignity and worth. She was arrested that night and faced threats for years afterward, but she never wavered.

Long before she became famous for the bus incident, Parks had been an activist for civil rights. Like the Hebrew midwives, Parks was well-practiced in obedience to God and prepared to protect her people. 

When the time came and the pressure was on, these women knew without a doubt that their loyalty lay with the King of Heaven, not their earthly emperors. Despite the risks, their minds were fixed on God’s justice.

“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear,” Rosa Parks said. 

Thankfully, we don’t have to summon this courage on our own. God promises us his Spirit to strengthen and encourage us to do what must be done for the sake of his Kingdom. 

By Corie Colliton, Digital Communications Manager at Tearfund USA