When we come to passages like the 1st chapter of Exodus, we are reminded that God’s law always comes before man’s law. the truth is, there’s a time to submit, and there’s also a time to withstand. Before we run with that principle too far a note of caution might be in order. But the passage does make one thing clear : submission to civil authority has boundaries. As Peter once informed the Jewish ruling council, “We must obey God instead of men” ( Acts 5:29 ).

To explain, when the king’s announcement at once violates God’s obviously stated will, we ought to be afraid of God, even as 2 brave women named Shiphrah and Puah feared God. Scripture tells us that God honored the religion of these midwives. It is saying, “The folks multiplied, and became very mighty. As the midwives feared God, he created homes for them” ( 1:20–21 ). The midwives valued God’s favor more than this of Pharaoh. Inspired by a deep and abiding appreciation for the living God, they declined to obey the king’s evil declaration. When that king ordered them to violate God’s basic principle, the protection of life, they declined to do so. Pharaoh’s directive, barbarous as it was, has its modern equivalent.

In Red China today, couples are authorized only 1 kid. When many ladies learn the sexes of their babies, they either carry them to term or instantly cancel. If it is a baby girl, she’s often ended. The date on the calendar might have modified since the times of the Exodus, but man’s instinct hasn’t. Aside from the saving work of Christ, our hearts are despairingly evil.

Tyrants ruled in the traditional world, and tyrants rule in our day. Injustice hurt the trusting in Pharaoh’s time, in Herod’s time, and still in our classy twenty-first-century world. But in the times of Exodus there also lived women and men ready to stand alone for goodness, even in the face of death, just as there are today.