WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:05.519 Today's passage comes from the book of Exodus, chapter one, verses fifteen through twenty-two. 00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:20.640 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shifra, and the other Pua, When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live. 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:28.320 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but the let the male children live. 00:00:28.559 --> 00:00:34.640 So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, Why have you done this and let the male children live? 00:00:34.880 --> 00:00:43.039 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. 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:48.479 So God dealt well with the mill midwives, and the people multiplied and grew strong. 00:00:48.719 --> 00:00:52.399 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 00:00:52.640 --> 00:01:01.679 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live. 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:02.960 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:03.119 --> 00:01:04.239 You may be seated. 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:12.879 Thanks for joining us this morning. 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:14.159 My name is James Rathman. 00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:17.120 I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver. 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:19.519 Uh looking forward to gathering with you all today. 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:25.359 Uh all your uh afternoon plans, I'm sure, were cleared up once you heard the Daytona 500 was rained out. 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:28.959 So I don't know what I'm doing for the rest of the day. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:51.599 But uh this is our second week in Exodus, and we are in this early sort of prologue stage, and this story that we're engaging with this morning is one of the most heartbreaking in scripture and perhaps one of the most cruel acts accomplished by a king in world history. 00:01:51.920 --> 00:02:06.959 It is the story in which Pharaoh uh seeks to execute all of the sons of the Hebrews, and ultimately it results in him commissioning all of the people of Egypt to participate in that project. 00:02:07.439 --> 00:02:16.400 Uh, it's uh a story that we are familiar with, and of course, it's the prologue to Moses being placed into the basket in the Nile. 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:21.439 Um, but there's something that's sort of sentimental and wonderful about Moses in the basket. 00:02:21.520 --> 00:02:31.120 When our newborn son uh was born, we purchased a Moses basket uh to have next to our bed, and never once did we place it in any rivers. 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:51.680 But right before that wonderful sentimental story of the Moses basket is this terror of the firstborn or any of the sons born to the Hebrew women uh taken from them and murdered, and in the entire nation being commissioned to participate in such cruelty. 00:02:52.319 --> 00:03:28.319 So we are looking today at how something like this could happen, why Pharaoh could feel justified in doing this, why an entire culture could be called upon to participate in this, but shining in the midst of this terror are these two women, Shifra and Pua, names immortalized because of their heroism, that in the face of Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the world, they stand up against him and they see to it that many lives are saved. 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:32.240 It is a great risk that these midwives take. 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:47.680 And so this morning, this is uh we see the terror that unfolds in Egypt, but we will also see the terror or the wonder of these two women shining out against it. 00:03:47.919 --> 00:04:01.599 Now, you can see the analogue that our culture has, because our culture also has uh a practice that we justify of infanticide, which is of course abortion. 00:04:01.919 --> 00:04:15.520 And the differences between infanticide as demonstrated here by Pharaoh and abortion as it is being practiced in our in our state uh are merely technological differences. 00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:19.680 There is no ethical distinction that we could make between the two. 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:24.959 Had Pharaoh had the technology, of course, he would have just seemed to abortions taking place. 00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:36.399 But since he didn't, he got as close proximally as he could and sought to weaponize the healthcare providers. 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:41.759 So today we are looking at all of these facets in this very heavy topic. 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:44.160 So let's pray before we enter into our text. 00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:53.920 Holy Father, pray that you would give us wisdom this morning and a sense of the weight of the narrative that we are looking at. 00:04:54.319 --> 00:05:05.920 Lord, we understand that there is a uh uh a tendency towards towards terror in our world and in our hearts. 00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:14.959 Lord, let us keep fresh in our minds your justice, which you will accomplish. 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:21.439 And Lord, let us see the shining example of these midwives. 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:30.560 Let our hearts be inspired by their courage, and let us let us see the narrative of their lives, Lord, and Lord, let our lives be like theirs. 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:32.399 We lift this up in Jesus' name. 00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:33.279 Amen. 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:46.639 So, in order to understand the the heroism of these two women, of Shifra and Puah, we have to understand the shape of the terror that is shown by Pharaoh. 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:52.720 So, Pharaoh, as we saw last week, is in fear of the Egyptians. 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:56.319 He's in fear of them because they have multiplied so greatly in the land. 00:05:56.959 --> 00:06:20.639 And they he's also in fear of them because this Pharaoh has it did not know about Joseph, which means that the very glory of Egypt, which was accomplished by Joseph, that narrative of Joseph accomplishing the glory of Egypt has been forgotten among the Egyptian elite. 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:24.319 And at the highest office there is no memory of Joseph. 00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:30.720 So that means that Pharaoh thinks of himself as the source of his own glory. 00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:43.519 He does not realize that the glory and authority that he has has really been given to him by the faithfulness of God to God's people, and that he is, in a sense, just sharing in that glory. 00:06:43.759 --> 00:06:52.160 He thinks that he is king of the most powerful empire in the world, probably because of his own shrewdness or capability. 00:06:52.319 --> 00:07:06.399 And so because he thinks of himself as his own God, because he is the one who created himself, and he is the source of his own glory, he leads from a very vulnerable place. 00:07:07.360 --> 00:07:21.600 Because consider, if you are the source of your own glory and power, then anyone else could at any moment become just as glorious and powerful as you are. 00:07:22.399 --> 00:07:30.639 So the whole world becomes threatening, and any other goodness that you see in the world becomes immediately threatening to you. 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:43.120 The opposite of that would be: you see, I am merely participating in the glory that the Lord has given to me, and I share in it by his good will for his glory. 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:59.920 That is an extremely secure place to lead from, where you would see the glory of others and you would be able to, uh you'd be able to celebrate it, and you would seek to enliven the glory of or of others because it would be no threat to you. 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:10.959 But Pharaoh had forgotten Joseph, and Pharaoh thought of himself as the source of his own glory and his forgetfulness of Joseph, and therefore all other glory becomes threatening to him. 00:08:11.279 --> 00:08:14.959 So he lives in fear of the Egyptians. 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:25.040 But it is a strange sort of shape of fear because he is fearful of them, but he's also dependent upon them. 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:39.200 Because he's fearful of them because they have this self-identity as Hebrew people within his nation, but he's dependent upon them because he they are within his nation. 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:43.200 And more people is more glory for a king. 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:48.639 The greater a king's body of people, the greater the king's glory is. 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:57.519 So there's this strange sort of contradictory push-pull in Pharaoh's, uh in what Pharaoh thinks about the Hebrew people. 00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:03.519 In one sense, he wants rid of them, and in another sense, he can't let go of them. 00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:07.519 So there's a fear and a dependence. 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:19.039 And this fear and dependence from his own forgetfulness places him in precise opposition to the promise of God for the Hebrew people. 00:09:19.519 --> 00:09:27.360 Now, as we move through the past couple of years, we move through the story of Genesis, and we traced the promise of God to his people. 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:31.600 And the promise is this that they would multiply. 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:37.120 So this one man, Abraham, is given this promise, and he has promised that from you will come a nation. 00:09:37.279 --> 00:09:39.039 You will be a nation of people. 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:44.720 It number the stars in the heavens, number the dust on the ground, and such will your offspring be. 00:09:44.960 --> 00:09:47.039 So they will be a multiplied people. 00:09:47.519 --> 00:09:49.200 But they that's the first promise. 00:09:49.279 --> 00:09:52.240 And the second promise is that they will be given the promised land. 00:09:53.200 --> 00:09:59.600 So they will be a people, and they will have a place to call their own, a place that is their home. 00:09:59.759 --> 00:10:03.840 And then they will be a people in a place under God. 00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:06.399 They will be God's own people. 00:10:06.799 --> 00:10:10.559 You can see this is a restoration of what Adam and Eve had lost. 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:22.639 Adam and Eve were told that they would be fruitful and multiply, and that the whole world would be some they'd be able to cultivate into something like Eden, this temple of God where God dwelt with them. 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:27.200 And so the promises to God's people is this restoration of what had been lost by sin. 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:29.919 And it is given to the Hebrews. 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:35.759 And so we trace this promise: a people in a place under God. 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:41.120 I almost want us to say that together, but then we're like almost a cult. 00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:44.799 A people in a place under God. 00:10:45.039 --> 00:10:47.919 This is the promise to the Hebrew people. 00:10:50.799 --> 00:11:14.159 Pharaoh stands in precise opposition to it, because he desires to see them stop multiplying, so they would not be fruitful and multiply as God promised them, and he wants to prevent their escape from Egypt, so that they would not be able to go to the land of promise. 00:11:14.399 --> 00:11:17.840 Ultimately, this is because he desires to be their God. 00:11:18.480 --> 00:11:21.600 In Exodus 1.10, let's hear Pharaoh say it in his own words. 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:29.919 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, so we don't want them to multiply. 00:11:30.639 --> 00:11:38.879 And if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:44.159 Do you see this sort of strange internal contradiction? 00:11:44.559 --> 00:11:46.240 Lest they multiply. 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:49.039 So there's something where it's like, I want rid of them. 00:11:49.440 --> 00:12:00.799 He later on, actually, he'll even use the word disgust to describe how he had felt towards the Egyptians, how they wanted to treat the, excuse me, the Hebrews, that they they found them disgusting. 00:12:00.879 --> 00:12:02.879 So he doesn't want them to multiply. 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:06.879 So let's deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply. 00:12:07.120 --> 00:12:15.840 And then this other, the second clause, and if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:17.440 Isn't that strange? 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:23.919 He he doesn't want them and he can't lose them. 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:31.840 It's like an addiction or something, the way that Pharaoh is operating with the Hebrew people. 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:38.720 He wants them to not multiply, but part of the threat of their multiplication is that they could be lost. 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:44.320 You see, he hates them and is dependent upon them. 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:55.519 So Pharaoh, of course, enslaves the Hebrew people and he deals shrewdly with them, but despite their oppression, they continue to multiply. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:13:09.120 Because Pharaoh, as much as he tries to, in practical terms, become God over this people and make his word over them the final word, there is a word that is higher than Pharaoh's. 00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:10.879 That word is the word of God. 00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:16.159 And so even as he oppresses them, they are fruitful and they multiply. 00:13:16.399 --> 00:13:19.360 And so Pharaoh thinks, okay, well, nothing I'm doing is working. 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:23.840 And he ramps up the level of cruelty to almost unimaginable stakes. 00:13:23.919 --> 00:13:30.960 And that's where our story, that's where we enter our story this morning, which is a shame to hear a preacher say, like 15 minutes in. 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:32.960 Now let's begin. 00:13:35.519 --> 00:13:37.759 Exodus 1, 15 to 16. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:56.639 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shifra, and the other Pua, When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live. 00:13:57.440 --> 00:14:03.279 This is the next step in Pharaoh's cruelty towards the Hebrew people. 00:14:03.519 --> 00:14:12.159 So he calls together these two midwives, Shifra, that means beauty, and puah, that means splendid. 00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:20.240 And so he seeks to capture that which is beautiful and that which is splendid and turn it towards his own tyrannical designs. 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:23.679 Why just these two women? 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:25.600 There are a couple of theories. 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:28.080 The answer is we don't know, we don't know. 00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:34.399 Uh perhaps they are like overseers of a of like a guild of midwives. 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:40.559 And so in speaking to them, he's he's actually sending a command to like all of the Hebrew midwives. 00:14:40.720 --> 00:14:45.759 Um, I don't know if that sort of thing existed. 00:14:46.320 --> 00:14:52.320 Um you can ask Megan and I our the birth story of our first son. 00:14:52.879 --> 00:14:56.000 We were with a guild of midwives once and it did not go well. 00:14:56.320 --> 00:15:02.720 The that place is no longer um in business. 00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:08.639 Uh not because of us. 00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:13.840 Um I called it the witch's coven. 00:15:14.399 --> 00:15:24.480 Um my my sister is a doula, midwives are wonderful. 00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:27.919 They've helped us with lots of this is a celebration of midwives. 00:15:34.639 --> 00:15:39.120 But this could also just be something like a clandestine command to two women. 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:46.559 You know, it's almost like Pharaoh is testing whether he could accomplish this in secret. 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:59.679 And uh I that one seem there's something that seems pretty likely about that, because it the the there's this first command to just these midwives, and then when that doesn't work, he goes public. 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:09.679 And so it seems like that's the move that the text is making, that this is like a clandestine sort of operation that he's testing with these two women. 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:20.559 Certainly, with the power that I have, I could simply command them to do this, even to their own people, because they know what I could do to them. 00:16:23.039 --> 00:16:25.440 It is an unthinkable decision to command. 00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:36.320 Especially to those who have committed themselves to being the ones who deliver these young children into the world. 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:46.000 And he commands them Shifra and Pu'ah, I want you to hear splendid and beauty. 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:56.480 He commands to, at this point where they are meant to be ushering life into the world, to kill the sons, these newborn sons. 00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:13.519 In seeing the shape of Pharaoh's opposition to the people of God, we can actually see that this sort of command was inevitable from Pharaoh. 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:34.880 If he had positioned himself, as he says he had positioned himself, to prevent their multiplying and to prevent their escape, if he had positioned himself in precise precisely opposed to the promises of God, then this command to kill the sons was inevitable. 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:36.079 Why? 00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:47.599 The sons are the future name and authority of the Hebrew people. 00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:56.319 It is when they were born from who they could trace their tribes through their fathers. 00:17:57.039 --> 00:18:00.400 So if they kill the sons, they cut off the fathers. 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:02.319 And there's no name. 00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:05.680 There's no name left for the Hebrew people. 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:43.680 And so you can think of this in another sense, in which Pharaoh is also harvesting the women of the Hebrews for himself and for his own nation, that he might cut off the head of the Hebrew people and gather for himself the body of the Hebrew people, so that they might be married into Egypt, and they would therefore be just for his own glory, no longer under another name, this name Hebrew, but just under the name of Pharaoh. 00:18:44.720 --> 00:18:52.240 And so he's you can see in killing the sons, he's he's accomplishing perfectly this contradictory intention. 00:18:53.599 --> 00:19:00.160 The contradictory intention is he's disgusted by these people, but he's dependent upon them. 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:14.720 So we can maintain the number of these people, and I can remove the identity of these people so that when they are multiplied here, they will just be Egyptians. 00:19:14.960 --> 00:19:17.599 They will no longer be Hebrews. 00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:20.960 I can cut them off from this future. 00:19:21.200 --> 00:19:34.960 And of course, there are pragmatic concerns as well, because we might consider, well, why is it if he wanted to eliminate the masculine presence among the Hebrews, that he didn't just go to war with them? 00:19:35.200 --> 00:19:40.720 You know, he could have killed all the living fathers and it would have accomplished the same thing. 00:19:42.799 --> 00:19:57.359 But as we had heard how much the Hebrews had multiplied, it seems likely that the Hebrew people were a legitimate oppos a legitimate oppositional force to the Egyptians. 00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:03.759 That it would have been almost like a like match if just the Egyptians were to go to war against the Hebrews. 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:21.519 And so instead of doing that, he does this secret operation that he is willing to kill the sons of the Hebrews in order to prevent them from multiplying, but to keep them present, so he spares the women. 00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:28.480 See, so I can get rid of the Hebrews, but I can keep them from escaping. 00:20:28.960 --> 00:20:33.519 I can remove from them anything that might be oppositional to me. 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:45.440 I can remove from them anything which I can that which helps them preserve this name and identity as a people separate from me and preserve their body. 00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:50.960 And their body will just be used for me, the body of people. 00:20:52.720 --> 00:20:57.599 So they would no longer multiply as Hebrews, but multiply as Egyptians. 00:20:57.839 --> 00:21:08.799 So the sons of the Hebrews to Pharaoh simply become a necessary sacrifice for the building up and future preservation of his own glory. 00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:15.680 I can eliminate a threat, but I can also use the Hebrew women to build up my own body. 00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:20.319 But Pharaoh's plans are thwarted. 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:22.799 Exodus 1, 17 through 18. 00:21:22.960 --> 00:21:32.079 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. 00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:35.759 The stakes. 00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:40.400 It's their very own lives at stake. 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:59.759 And so a child would be born, and they would see that it was a boy, and beauty and splendor would hold the child and say, It might cost me money. 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:03.200 Life, but you will live. 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:09.039 Who knows how many sons they provided this for? 00:22:09.279 --> 00:22:14.400 How many sons they thought I would exchange myself for you to continue living? 00:22:14.559 --> 00:22:18.079 This child, this infant who had given nothing. 00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:25.920 Beauty and splendor in that moment. 00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:38.559 Now, why is it that they were able to live so courageously in defiance of the most powerful man in the world? 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:42.319 It was because they feared God. 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:49.680 Shifra and Pua had this understanding that Pharaoh is a very powerful man. 00:22:50.880 --> 00:22:54.559 There is a power that is greater than Pharaoh. 00:22:55.920 --> 00:23:03.119 There is a real justice that is beyond just the commands of Pharaoh. 00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:06.559 A justice that even Pharaoh himself is under. 00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:10.480 And we will honor that. 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:16.960 We will live in the fear of God, not in the fear of Pharaoh. 00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:39.039 And Sifra and Puah, therefore, these two Hebrew midwives stand fearlessly before the most powerful man in the world, and they expose the fear of the most powerful man in the world. 00:23:40.880 --> 00:23:47.440 So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them the king of Egypt called the midwife. 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:49.680 That's funny, you know. 00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:52.640 Because of the show. 00:23:53.440 --> 00:23:55.200 You guys didn't watch that show. 00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:03.519 I guess after Doubt and Abbey, you just had enough of that type of thing. 00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:14.480 So the king of Egypt called the midwives, they hopped on their bikes, and said to them, Why have you done this and let the male children live? 00:24:15.519 --> 00:24:17.920 Pharaoh, why? 00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:21.279 Why have you disobeyed me? 00:24:22.400 --> 00:24:30.079 Like he he I love I love this image of Pharaoh flummoxed by Shifra and Pua. 00:24:31.839 --> 00:24:40.160 These midwives who have who have done this absurdity of delivering children. 00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:44.240 Why have you done this? 00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:46.799 Do you see the insanity of Pharaoh? 00:24:52.240 --> 00:25:01.359 In verses 19 through 20, they answer, the midwife said to Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:05.839 For they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them. 00:25:06.400 --> 00:25:08.480 Men, even kings, we don't know anything about birth. 00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:11.200 You could tell us this and be like, oh, maybe. 00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:43.759 So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very strong. 00:25:44.079 --> 00:25:56.880 Now, is it true that the Hebrew women are of a particular stock, that they are more vigorous in labor than the Egyptian women? 00:25:57.119 --> 00:26:03.519 Now, this has been very contested, but we actually have some archaeological evidence recently that shows I'm just kidding. 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:07.680 No, there's a that we have no reason to believe that this is true. 00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:09.359 It's certainly false. 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:15.839 Um they are they are deceiving, they are lying to Pharaoh, to Pharaoh's face. 00:26:16.160 --> 00:26:22.240 Now, lots of folks, lots of commentators are like, now they're lying. 00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:29.839 So you shouldn't shouldn't look up to these midwives too much because of the way that they're lying to Pharaoh. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:31.359 John Calvin takes that position. 00:26:31.440 --> 00:26:34.480 I'm not one to differ from Calvin very often. 00:26:35.119 --> 00:26:38.319 Um God'll chuckle, but it's true. 00:26:38.559 --> 00:26:39.119 I'm not. 00:26:40.480 --> 00:26:47.200 And this and uh he I think he's just perfectly wrong in his interpretation of this. 00:26:47.359 --> 00:26:50.559 He thinks that, you know, look, they are wrong. 00:26:50.720 --> 00:26:54.000 What they did was wrong fundamentally, but God still used it. 00:26:54.240 --> 00:27:03.599 Um and that's uh I think that that's not what the Bible teaches here because God so blesses them. 00:27:05.279 --> 00:27:18.000 What we see here is something like Rahab, when she deceives the king of Jericho, his men, when they come to in order to protect the spies that she is hiding. 00:27:18.319 --> 00:27:36.880 Another example of someone in scripture who, in a wartime context, deceives someone in order to, deceives a potential murderer in order to preserve the lives of the innocent. 00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:50.960 And scripture deals consistently very well with such people, which we ought to let God have the final judgment there. 00:27:51.039 --> 00:28:02.160 And I think the principle that we see taking place is that deceit is something like killing in a wartime context. 00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:09.599 It is permissible, and sometimes in situations like this, even necessary and the right thing to do. 00:28:09.839 --> 00:28:16.559 And so when they deceive Pharaoh, they are doing the right thing in preserving the lives of these people. 00:28:16.640 --> 00:28:22.000 And you can see why they're doing it in such a way to stop the whole project. 00:28:22.559 --> 00:28:30.000 Look, you can't ask us to do this because the thing that you've asked us to do is impossible to accomplish. 00:28:30.240 --> 00:28:40.079 There, by the time I get the call, they were much more technologically advanced than we give them credit for. 00:28:40.160 --> 00:28:42.079 I don't know if you guys listen to Joe Rogan, but they were. 00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:50.160 And we I will I wouldn't even have time because it would be accomplished long before I would I would be able to arrive. 00:28:50.400 --> 00:28:53.200 So, Pharaoh, this whole project needs to be stopped. 00:28:54.240 --> 00:28:56.319 And it diverts the whole scheme. 00:28:56.960 --> 00:29:04.960 God deals so well with these midwives for their courage before Pharaoh and for their attempt to prevent this whole project of Pharaoh. 00:29:06.559 --> 00:29:13.519 In Exodus 121, it says, And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 00:29:14.799 --> 00:29:18.960 He continues to build and multiply. 00:29:20.559 --> 00:29:36.000 Under the oppression of Pharaoh, he builds and multiplies them, and then God attends the courage of his own people, and he uses that to fulfill his promises of building and multiplying them. 00:29:36.880 --> 00:29:42.799 God attends the courage of his people when they are faithful to him. 00:29:43.200 --> 00:29:46.240 God attends Shifra and Pua. 00:29:46.880 --> 00:29:49.119 We should know their names. 00:29:49.599 --> 00:30:05.759 We should consider their splendor and beauty shining in the court before Pharaoh, more beautiful than anyone Pharaoh had gathered to himself, as they were willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the innocence. 00:30:08.240 --> 00:30:17.359 They were willing to stand with the justice of God when the most powerful man in the world had stood against it. 00:30:19.039 --> 00:30:24.000 See, the Bible gives us these stories, not just because they happened. 00:30:24.079 --> 00:30:28.240 There are lots of things that happened that the Bible doesn't tell us. 00:30:29.359 --> 00:30:48.240 The Bible gives us these stories so that our own hearts might be encouraged by the courage that we see here, so that we might be strengthened in remembering their stories, so that we might be able to interpret our lives and see where there is injustice, where there is oppression, and even where it's being imposed on us. 00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:57.359 And before we try and do these strange gymnastics, we remember, you know, Schifra and Pua, they could have done some strange gymnastics over against Pharaoh. 00:30:59.039 --> 00:31:02.640 And yet they preserved the lives of these children. 00:31:05.440 --> 00:31:07.200 We have to remember these stories. 00:31:07.359 --> 00:31:08.880 They are the source of courage. 00:31:09.039 --> 00:31:11.680 And Christianity requires courage. 00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:14.640 My wife's reading this book called Mothering by the Book. 00:31:14.720 --> 00:31:16.400 It's a book about reading to your kids. 00:31:16.559 --> 00:31:17.519 It's all very meta. 00:31:18.319 --> 00:31:21.759 And it's by this woman named Jennifer Papito. 00:31:23.759 --> 00:31:27.119 And my wife had me read this excerpt, and I thought it was excellent. 00:31:27.200 --> 00:31:41.759 And she describes how it she was at this point in her parenting and felt just fruitless and overwhelmed, and like she was just living in the space of constant chaos. 00:31:43.519 --> 00:31:46.799 And she would read these parenting books that were like, okay, here's what you do. 00:31:46.960 --> 00:31:48.799 And then after that, it's this next thing. 00:31:48.880 --> 00:31:51.680 And she would just find herself just like, okay, thanks. 00:31:51.759 --> 00:31:53.519 Now I feel more guilty and worse. 00:31:53.680 --> 00:31:57.680 And uh I ru I really am just in this terrible world of chaos. 00:31:58.160 --> 00:32:04.720 But she was reading books to her children, and they were reading these adventure stories. 00:32:04.960 --> 00:32:09.440 And so one of the books that she had read to her children was um Endurance. 00:32:09.680 --> 00:32:11.759 Any of you read that about Ernest Shackleton? 00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:20.240 The voyage across the across Antarctica, um, the doomed voyage, the daring escape. 00:32:20.400 --> 00:32:22.799 It's a great, great story. 00:32:23.519 --> 00:32:35.200 And in reading these like adventure stories and hearing of these people, she would think, you know, this is a pretty hard day, and I haven't gotten much sleep tonight from with my kids, and I've got to face this. 00:32:35.519 --> 00:32:47.519 But if they could make it on those ice flows after the ship went down, living on just seal blood, I can probably make it through the morning. 00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:53.359 And then the story becomes the source of encouragement. 00:32:54.240 --> 00:32:58.000 This story is like food for our hearts. 00:32:58.319 --> 00:33:01.519 Shifra and Pu'ah remember them. 00:33:02.079 --> 00:33:05.200 You're wondering, how can I be courageous? 00:33:05.680 --> 00:33:07.599 How could I be like them? 00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:13.119 I I I the Bible does not just give us methods or something to do that. 00:33:14.319 --> 00:33:18.960 Look at splendor and beauty in the court of Pharaoh. 00:33:19.359 --> 00:33:30.400 These midwives who earlier were like, I don't know, doing that thing where they flip the flip babies and stuff and surrounded by women bouncing on those balls, you know. 00:33:33.039 --> 00:33:36.079 Made of reeds and bull rushes. 00:33:38.799 --> 00:33:43.200 And then suddenly they're called to this point of incredible courage. 00:33:44.400 --> 00:33:47.599 Remember, look at their splendor and beauty. 00:33:49.119 --> 00:33:52.960 They were they feared God before they feared Pharaoh. 00:33:53.119 --> 00:33:55.119 Remember that for your heart. 00:33:57.119 --> 00:33:59.759 Pharaoh makes a catastrophic turn. 00:34:00.720 --> 00:34:10.719 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live. 00:34:12.480 --> 00:34:20.000 This clandestine command to two Hebrew midwives becomes national. 00:34:21.920 --> 00:34:27.039 So that Pharaoh says, commanded all his people. 00:34:27.519 --> 00:34:30.320 This is now the command goes out. 00:34:30.960 --> 00:34:32.239 You hear the news. 00:34:32.400 --> 00:34:34.559 Have you heard what we're responsible for now? 00:34:35.440 --> 00:34:37.599 Have you heard Pharaoh's new thing? 00:34:38.719 --> 00:34:48.000 All the Hebrews, any of their sons, we need to throw into the Nile to kill their infant sons. 00:34:48.079 --> 00:34:52.320 We've we've all been commanded this. 00:34:54.480 --> 00:34:56.880 But let all the daughters live. 00:34:59.039 --> 00:35:10.719 How is it that Pharaoh was confident that he could turn the nation of Egypt into this death cult? 00:35:13.360 --> 00:35:24.159 How did he feel so sure that I would be able to roll this out, this command like this out, and it would be sensible to the people of Egypt? 00:35:25.599 --> 00:35:29.519 How could this possibly resonate across an entire culture? 00:35:30.159 --> 00:35:36.320 That we all must work together to seek the murder of the Jews. 00:35:37.679 --> 00:35:56.000 Of course, our memories are not so short that we don't remember it was only the last century that something like this was able to be accomplished, where an entire culture of ordinary people was made to work together for the murder of the Jews. 00:35:56.239 --> 00:36:01.519 There are ways that that took place when the Nazis accomplished this. 00:36:02.159 --> 00:36:05.119 They made this work across a number of spheres of life. 00:36:05.280 --> 00:36:11.039 One Nazi propaganda film was called Dasign on Leben, which needs no translation. 00:36:12.639 --> 00:36:14.960 It means being without life. 00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:19.039 Being, being, you gotta think about it the way Germans would. 00:36:19.360 --> 00:36:22.159 Being without life. 00:36:24.880 --> 00:36:31.199 It was about children that were born with disabilities. 00:36:33.039 --> 00:36:37.920 They have being, but they have no life. 00:36:38.559 --> 00:36:41.840 Do you hear the distinction that is made? 00:36:43.119 --> 00:36:45.679 Therefore, they ought to be euthanized. 00:36:45.760 --> 00:36:46.960 And so they were. 00:36:48.639 --> 00:36:57.199 And so the distinction that is made is they they have no being, but they they have being, existence, mere existence, but they have no life. 00:36:58.079 --> 00:37:02.880 There's no intrinsic humanity in them. 00:37:05.519 --> 00:37:12.159 So what does this teach us about how this is able to be accomplished? 00:37:18.239 --> 00:37:25.760 A culture is able to define life when it defines the purpose of life. 00:37:27.280 --> 00:37:36.159 Nazi culture had defined the purpose of life as the self-creation of the next stage of humanity. 00:37:36.559 --> 00:37:40.960 We are creating the transhumanist movement. 00:37:41.119 --> 00:37:48.159 We are creating a race of super people, of ubermenses. 00:37:49.519 --> 00:37:56.880 And so in order to create that race, we must call the herd of weakness and strengthen the strength. 00:37:58.559 --> 00:38:03.519 A life which does not fit that ultimate end is not a life. 00:38:07.119 --> 00:38:09.119 It's counter-life. 00:38:11.360 --> 00:38:15.039 And so we see this principle. 00:38:20.960 --> 00:38:30.320 Children can be shamelessly sacrificed to whatever is defined as a culture's highest aim. 00:38:32.639 --> 00:38:42.639 Whatever is defined as that culture's highest aim will ultimately, I'll say it more strongly, will ultimately require the sacrifice of children to it. 00:38:47.519 --> 00:39:01.920 Our culture's highest good is individuals' immediate psychological states of well-being. 00:39:04.000 --> 00:39:07.199 This is our culture's highest good. 00:39:08.239 --> 00:39:11.679 Immediate psychological states of well-being for individuals. 00:39:13.679 --> 00:39:20.079 We will shamelessly sacrifice children to this highest good. 00:39:20.639 --> 00:39:39.440 And we will define the legitimacy of existence based upon their opportunity to experience immediate, like present, states of psychological well-being. 00:39:39.599 --> 00:39:53.840 And we will say a life that does not is not able to perhaps consistently experience present states of psychological well-being, we might say that is being, but it is not life. 00:39:54.239 --> 00:39:56.400 Pharaoh could have said something similar. 00:39:56.719 --> 00:40:03.199 Pharaoh, the highest good in Egypt is Pharaoh's glory. 00:40:04.079 --> 00:40:12.320 So Pharaoh understands, the whole nation understands that what holds us together is the God man at the top, who is Pharaoh. 00:40:13.280 --> 00:40:17.840 His glory is what preserves our nation and our identity. 00:40:19.679 --> 00:40:29.039 So when they were, when Pharaoh says, we will kill all of these Hebrew sons, this is the very preservation of us as a people. 00:40:30.079 --> 00:40:34.559 Of course we would kill all of the Hebrew sons. 00:40:34.880 --> 00:40:38.400 We might even think of this as preserving the health of the nation. 00:40:38.960 --> 00:40:50.239 And Pharaoh could have said things, the people, the Hebrews, excuse me, the Egyptians could have said things like, look at the lives that the Hebrew sons would have been born to. 00:40:51.440 --> 00:40:56.079 Lives of slavery, bitter hard service. 00:40:56.239 --> 00:40:59.840 We could certainly say these are not lives worth living. 00:41:02.800 --> 00:41:14.639 You see, it's built into the cultural language that Pharaoh would be able to recruit them all, because we must get this principle. 00:41:17.199 --> 00:41:23.840 That which is defined as the highest good, a culture will shamelessly sacrifice its children towards. 00:41:24.239 --> 00:41:25.840 Shamelessly is important. 00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:28.480 Because can you imagine sacrificing your children? 00:41:28.960 --> 00:41:29.280 No. 00:41:32.320 --> 00:41:40.320 Is the phrase abort is the phrase abortion is health care sensible to us in our culture? 00:41:44.400 --> 00:41:48.639 It's we'll say it, I'll say it like this, it's within the Overton window. 00:41:50.320 --> 00:41:56.800 It's it uh it it is sensible in good company. 00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:21.840 So we might do something like cringe at the tyranny of Pharaoh, but Pharaoh is operating in the same principle that our culture is willing to operate. 00:42:22.079 --> 00:42:25.519 How could ancient Egypt be such a death cult? 00:42:27.360 --> 00:42:30.559 Well, it must have been the tyranny of the one man at the top. 00:42:30.880 --> 00:42:31.199 No. 00:42:32.719 --> 00:42:34.960 Our culture doesn't have that shape. 00:42:36.480 --> 00:42:40.880 And in the most polite of company, it is willing to operate as a death cult. 00:42:43.440 --> 00:42:44.639 So what is it? 00:42:46.320 --> 00:42:48.320 We've got a highest principle. 00:42:49.199 --> 00:42:51.440 And our highest principle isn't God. 00:42:52.719 --> 00:43:00.880 Whatever your highest principle is, if it is not God, you will shamelessly sacrifice your children to it. 00:43:03.760 --> 00:43:06.800 I was taught by multiple professors in schools. 00:43:07.280 --> 00:43:12.719 CU Boulder is like, they like invented the trash cans with different that you where you throw away different things in them. 00:43:14.800 --> 00:43:25.360 And I had multiple professors teach me that the state of our environment demands that we not have children. 00:43:28.159 --> 00:43:33.920 It is it is necessary to stop the procreation of humanity. 00:43:35.679 --> 00:43:46.880 If the highest good is the repristination of our natural ecology, you will shamelessly sacrifice your children to it. 00:43:52.880 --> 00:43:59.760 This is why it is it's it's hospitals that we use to sterilize children for the sake of promoting immediate. 00:44:00.239 --> 00:44:02.159 States of psychological well-being. 00:44:04.880 --> 00:44:10.480 If that is a culture's highest good, we will shamelessly sacrifice our children to it. 00:44:11.440 --> 00:44:15.840 Pharaoh is not so strange. 00:44:17.599 --> 00:44:22.639 This pattern is ordinary. 00:44:23.920 --> 00:44:25.840 This is what it's like out here. 00:44:27.519 --> 00:44:29.679 We're moments away from being death colts. 00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:31.599 We participate in them. 00:44:43.039 --> 00:44:50.639 If you function with no God above you, the tyrannical death cult is inevitable. 00:44:57.519 --> 00:45:10.400 Now, in our story, the story in Exodus, a just response to the tyranny of Pharaoh is coming. 00:45:13.119 --> 00:45:17.039 It will come from an authority that is higher than Pharaoh. 00:45:18.800 --> 00:45:22.559 The justice will be clearly demonstrated. 00:45:23.039 --> 00:45:26.880 It is almost a poetic justice, we might say. 00:45:28.159 --> 00:45:47.039 Because as Pharaoh commanded that all the sons of the Hebrews will be born and he transforms his nation into a death colt, the liberation of the Hebrew people will be at the price of all of the sons of Egypt. 00:45:48.480 --> 00:45:51.599 All the firstborn sons of Egypt. 00:45:54.239 --> 00:46:06.239 And as for the ones whom Pharaoh intends to toss into the waters, these Hebrew people, with their name and identity, they will be. 00:46:24.159 --> 00:46:40.079 And after he walks through, it is the glory of Pharaoh and the wonder of his army that will go into the waters after them, and they will be washed away by that higher authority. 00:46:40.320 --> 00:46:44.079 Pharaoh will find his own glory washed away in the waters. 00:46:44.239 --> 00:46:49.440 And the Hebrew people will be saved by the judgment against Pharaoh. 00:46:50.320 --> 00:46:54.320 So clearly for these particular crimes. 00:46:54.719 --> 00:47:02.320 When they are saved through the waters, they will know their name, ones who are named by God. 00:47:04.159 --> 00:47:09.360 God is the one who is above them, and God is the one who is above Pharaoh. 00:47:10.480 --> 00:47:15.039 Through the judgment against Pharaoh will come the salvation of God's people. 00:47:15.360 --> 00:47:23.360 But listen, this is not the final act of God's judgment, and this is not the final act of God's salvation. 00:47:27.840 --> 00:47:40.239 There will come a time later on in this same story in which God's own Son will come into the world. 00:47:42.880 --> 00:47:49.840 And the Son of God will receive the judgment of God. 00:47:52.239 --> 00:47:57.280 The judgment of God that belongs to all of the death cults of the world. 00:47:59.840 --> 00:48:06.719 And the Son of God will receive the final verdict of all of these death cults, and he himself will be put to death. 00:48:07.599 --> 00:48:16.559 And on him, God will pour his absolute judgment against these death cults, the very ones that we participate in. 00:48:17.920 --> 00:48:26.079 And in the punishment of the Son of God, in the judgment of the Son of God, we are saved. 00:48:28.400 --> 00:48:35.119 As he receives this justice, we receive his mercy and his forgiveness. 00:48:37.039 --> 00:48:39.840 So that there's this offer that stands. 00:48:42.239 --> 00:49:00.800 No matter your participation in our own world's death cults, there's an offer which says the death which you thought would bring you salvation didn't. 00:49:01.119 --> 00:49:02.639 It was just murder. 00:49:04.880 --> 00:49:06.480 But there is a death. 00:49:15.280 --> 00:49:17.039 It is freely given. 00:49:19.679 --> 00:49:21.679 A sacrifice freely made. 00:49:26.400 --> 00:49:36.320 So that you might come in and be saved, be forgiven, be washed clean, find grace and mercy. 00:49:39.119 --> 00:49:45.199 Be able to participate in things like beauty and splendor. 00:49:47.119 --> 00:49:50.400 That's what we see in the story of Jesus Christ. 00:49:52.239 --> 00:49:59.119 The Son who is truly murdered, the judgment that is truly shown and in which we are saved. 00:50:01.199 --> 00:50:03.280 There are any questions this morning? 00:50:04.239 --> 00:50:05.840 I thought there might be. 00:50:07.039 --> 00:50:16.000 From the story in Exodus, and then again in the Nazi state, there are sublyers, possibly foundational, that have hidden heads prior to being public. 00:50:16.960 --> 00:50:21.599 What are looming terrors in our world that have yet to become public? 00:50:23.599 --> 00:50:31.440 The idea that like there's okay, so like the film being without life. 00:50:32.559 --> 00:50:36.159 You run the story forward and it's like Auschwitz. 00:50:36.480 --> 00:50:37.840 Is that the idea? 00:50:38.079 --> 00:50:42.480 I'm looking for someone to nod so that we're tracking. 00:50:42.639 --> 00:50:53.599