Introduction: Read Exodus1.

The passage can conveniently be dealt with under five headings: (1) A promise fulfilled, (2) A change in circumstance, (3) A foolish policy, (4) Two brave women and (5) The final solution.

(1) A promise fulfilled. See vs1to7.

God made a promise to Abraham: "I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore." Gen22v16. This would never have happened if Abraham's offspring had remained nomads grazing their flocks on marginal land in the Middle East. They would have split up even as Abraham and Lot parted company when their herdsmen began arguing over grazing rights. See Gen13.

Pharaoh gave Jacob and his sons the land of Goshen in the eastern part of the Nile delta to live in. This well watered land provided excellent grazing and also allowed the Israelites to both grow crops in irrigated gardens and catch fish. See Numbers11v5. It was an area that could support a large population.

So we see how in the providence of God Jacob's descendents became a distinct and populous people in their own territory. It could not have happened without Joseph being sold as a slave into Egypt, his experiences in prison and a prolonged famine. It is never easy for God to keep his promises and he sometimes uses most unexpected means to do so.

One of the big problems posed by Exodus is to reconcile the likely rate of population growth with the narrative. According to Malthus population doubles every 25 years if there are no famines, wars or epidemics. 70 of Jacob's male descendents settled in Egypt. If we assume the same number of women this makes a total of 140. So the population would increase at 25 year intervals like this: 280, 560, 1120, 2240, 4480, 8960, 17920, 35840.

Now according to Exodus6v18 Moses was Levi's great grandson. Levi's son, Kohath, was one of the original settlers in Goshen. If we assume he was only a young child when he was bought to Goshen and had Amram his son, Moses' father, late in life and that Moses was a son of Amram's old age perhaps 150 years could have passed since Goshen was settled by the Israelites. So by the time of Moses birth the population was approaching 8960. In the next 25 years it would increase enormously to 17920.

If the population was somewhere between 4480 and 8960 leading up to Moses' birth it would be small enough for two midwives to manage and yet large enough to worry Pharaoh.

We must remember that another 80 years pass before the Israelites leave Egypt. If the population kept doubling during this period the population at the time of the exodus would be between 35,840 and 71,680. However, it is possible that population growth did begin to slow down as the Israelites were oppressed by hard labour.

A big problem is posed by the statements in Exodus12v37to42 that the Israelites lived in Egypt for 430 years and that about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children as well as many other people took part in the exodus. There is a note in the NIV that according to some ancient texts the 430 years included the time spent in Canaan by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as well as the time spent in Egypt. This is much more compatible with the information that Moses was the great grandson of Levi. However there is no way the numbers of Israelites could have increased in something over 200 years to between 2 and 3 million. If there was six hundred thousand men, the same number of women and a couple of children per family this would amount to 2.4 million people. It is just not feasible for Moses to have led such a vast horde into the wilderness. They would have been unmanageable. There is no easy solution to the unrealistic total of men said to have left Egypt in Exodus 12. I will leave a consideration of the problem to later.

(2) A change of circumstance. Then a new king who did not know Joseph came to power in Egypt. v8.

Circumstances changed a few years before the birth of Moses. Only 125 to 150 years had passed since Jacob and his family were welcomed into Egypt. Joseph lived until he was 110 and so probably spent 70 to 80 years with his brethren in Egypt. He had only been dead at most about 70 years before Moses birth. He and his Egyptian wife lived to see their great-grandchildren. It seems hardly likely that Joseph would have been forgotten so quickly unless there was a change in the ruling dynasty. It is possible Joseph came to prominence during the rule of a Hyskos king. The Hyskos were a Semitic people from Western Asia who invaded Egypt and ruled for 75 or so years from 1620 BC to 1545 BC. When the Hyskos were driven out of Egypt and a new Egyptian dynasty founded it is understandable that the new Pharaoh would know little about Joseph. The Israelite cause would not be helped by their association with the Hyskos.

I cannot be sure of the facts given above! For whatever reason there was a change in circumstance and it was:

(a) Ominous. A new ruling dynasty resulted in a massive change in fortune for the Israelites.

Changing circumstances are often ominous for the church - especially when people come to power who do not know Jesus. This happened in the 1930s when the Nazis came to power in Germany. It happened in Russia during the dictatorial rule of Stalin. He put hundreds of thousands of Christians to death. It is happening slowly and by stealth in Western Europe today. Fifty years ago when I was a young man at university there were not many Christian students but I was treated with respect by my fellow undergraduates and lecturers. Increasingly in Britain Christianity is perceived to be a bad thing! People find it distasteful and repellent. They are becoming Jesus-phobic. Christians have good cause to be concerned.

(b) Sad. It was sad that a great man like Joseph - the saviour of the nation - should be so quickly forgotten.

We are quick to forget! I expect the prodigal son in Jesus' parable forgot all about his father while he was enjoying himself in the far country - living it up without sparing his dad a thought.

It is incredibly sad when men and women forget about Jesus. Many brought up in Christian homes grow apart from Jesus and turn against his followers. It happens in our own families. I know a young man who is so hostile to Christ that he will not sit at the table while his mother says grace.

The chattering classes in Britain are very protective of gays but they couldn't care less about the persecution of Christians in so many different countries.

Dangerous. The new dynasty in Egypt by forgetting Joseph and turning against the Israelites was storing up trouble for itself. A Pharaoh found out eventually that it did not pay to oppose God's people.

Nor will it pay today! Paul wrote: Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. Rom12v19.

(3) A foolish policy. See v11to14.

The growing number of Israelites in the Nile delta posed a problem for the conquerors of the Hyskos. It is likely that the Israelites were sympathetic to the Hyskos - although there is no evidence that they fought with the Hyskos against the Egyptians. Nevertheless the Pharaoh considered that the Hebrews posed a security risk sharing more in common with nomadic Semitic groups to the north and east than with the indigenous Egyptians. However, he did not want to be rid of them altogether because they were a valuable source of forced labour.

It seems that Pharaoh decided to break the spirit of the Israelites and check population growth by conscripting them into forced labour gangs. They were used to build the garrison towns of Rameses and Pithom, to make bricks and to maintain the irrigation system.

This was a stupid policy. It alienated the Israelites and must have reinforced a strong sense of identity - of being different from the Egyptians. An oppressive and unjust strategy was bound to create a burning desire to leave Egypt at all costs and fuel a bitter resentment of the authorities. A much better policy would have been to treat the Israelites well, to intermarry with them and gradually absorb them into Egyptian culture. Something like this must have happened many centuries later to the 10 lost tribes taken into captivity by the Assyrians.

Mankind never learns! There are countries today where power resides in a religious, ethnic or tribal majority. Often minority groups are perceived as a threat and persecuted. Iraq is case in point. Political stability is problematic because of tension between Kurdish, Shia and Sunni Muslims. In South Sudan, three years since independence, there is tribal warfare between the Dinka and Nuer.

Jesus teaches that the way to win over opponents and potential enemies is to love them. See Mt5v43to48. Paul writes to the Romans: Do not repay evil for evil. ...... If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals upon his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Rom12v17to21.

I think that one of the reasons Japan has been a staunch ally of the United State for nearly 70 years is because after the Second World War ended the United States showed the defeated Japanese a considerable degree of mercy.

In spite of what Jesus taught the church is characterised by numerous splits and festering animosity between believers of different persuasions. In the long history of the church dissenters have invariably been treated with suspicion. It has been easier to expel them than embrace them!

(4) Two brave women. See v15to21.

It seems likely that Shiphrah and Puah were Hebrews. Their names are supposedly Semitic and they feared God. If the population was about 8000 at the time Moses was born two midwives would be able to cope with all the births and others beside.

Shiphrah and Puah:

(a) Made a brave stand. The two midwives were given a very unpleasant instruction. Pharaoh ordered them to kill baby Hebrew boys at birth. All they would have to do was exert a little pressure on their throats. Pharaoh was prepared for girls to survive at birth because women could do most of the jobs done by men and were less likely to participate in an armed uprising.

Pharaoh's policy appears ill conceived. It would not take long for the Israelites to realise that baby boys were dying at birth and it would not require much detective work to realise why. In such circumstances the Israelite mothers would dispense with the services of midwives - if they hadn't already been disposed of by irate fathers.

But, perhaps, this was Pharaoh's plan all along. I heard on the BBC news today that South Sudan has the highest infant mortality rate in the world because of a chronic shortage of midwives. If the Hebrews mothers gave birth without the help of midwives and lost many of their babies, population growth would be checked.

The midwives received their instruction from Pharaoh. It must have sickened them but I also expect they were angry. Pharaoh wanted them to do his dirty work. I think they were wise not to protest! This would have provoked the king to take even more ruthless action and they would doubtless have lost their lives.

Shiphrah and Puah feared God. They knew he did not approve of murder. The rapid increase in the number of Abraham's progeny was in God's will and purpose. It was not for Shiphrah and Puah to check this growth. The two midwives had absolutely no intention of implementing Pharaoh's policy. They had the courage of their convictions.

There were many brave men and women in the Bible who disobeyed the authorities over a matter of principle. Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego did not tell Nebuchadnezzer that they would not bow down to his golden idol - they just didn't - and nor did they although threatened with the burning, fiery furnace into which ultimately they were thrown. Daniel did not tell king Darius that he would not abide by his decree to desist from prayer for 30 days. We read: Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened towards Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God just as he had done before. Dn6v10. When King Uzziah broke God's law by offering incense in the temple, Azariah and eighty other priests told him he was in the wrong and that he would not be honoured by the LORD God. When the Jewish Sanhedrin instructed Peter and John not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus they replied: "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." Acts4v19.

The fear of the Lord still makes men and women strong enough to defy the authorities - whether over the closure by local councils of old people's homes or the prohibition of evangelism by intolerant and oppressive Muslim regimes.

(b) Were called to account. Eventually Shiphrah and Puah were called to account by Pharaoh. It became clear after a year or two that there was no decrease in the number of little Hebrew boys. Pharaoh wanted an explanation. The midwives said, in effect, that Hebrew women were more robust than the Egyptians and could give birth successfully without any help from them. The absence of midwives at a birth hadn't noticeably increased the rate of infant mortality as, perhaps, Pharaoh hoped. Pharaoh accepted Shiphrah and Puah's explanation because they were not punished.

We cannot be certain exactly how the midwives responded to Pharaoh's order. They may have let it be known what they had been told to do so that they were not called to assist at many births. If they were called to a difficult birth of a baby boy they would let him live.

There are a surprising number of commentators who criticise the midwives for not telling Pharaoh to his face that they would not do as he ordered. Why should they risk their lives unnecessarily? Such defiance might well have been counterproductive. He might have sent in a death squad to kill every boy under the age of five. Sometimes truth has to be suspended for a higher good. Rahab lied to protect the spies sent by Joshua into Jericho. In the epistle to the Hebrews she is commended for her faith! In Nazi occupied Europe there were brave families who hid Jews. If they were asked if they harboured Jews it would defeat their purpose if they answered, "Yes." I have a lot of sympathy for Obadiah, king Ahab's right hand man, who managed to hide 100 prophets of God in a cave. Elijah of Mt Carmel fame reckoned he was the only true servant of the LORD left in Israel - quite discounting the contribution of Obadiah. Elijah put to death 400 prophets of Baal but as far as I know he didn't save a single prophet of the LORD.

We need to remember that a day is coming when we shall be called to account - not by some earthly Pharaoh - but by God himself. If in this life we stand firm as good soldiers of Jesus Christ we have nothing to fear.

(c) Were honoured. We do not know the name of the Pharaoh who turned against the Hebrews but we know the name of the two midwives who feared the Lord and refused to obey him. They became matriarchs of large families - the ultimate blessing for a Jewish mother.

It is not inevitable that God's servants will be blessed in this life like Shiphrah and Puah. If we act in our own interests and not God's we shall be empty people lacking integrity and resolution. If we honour God and display the fruit of the Spirit then a day will dawn when God will honour us and crown us with blessings.

In Westminster Abbey there is a monument to Lord Lawrence a former Viceroy of India. On it is inscribed these words: His devotion to public duty was ennobled by the simplicity and purity of his private life. "He feared Man so little, because he feared God so much". The same could be said of the two Hebrew midwives - and would that it could be said of us.

(5) The final solution. See v22.

Pharaoh ordered all his people to throw Hebrew baby boys into the Nile but let the girls live. This strange dictate seems to be prompted by the desire to:

(a) Reduce the threat of an armed uprising but to maintain a large labour force. Women were quite able to make bricks and do field work.

(b) Involve everyone in the murder of Jewish baby boys. Pharaoh didn't create an elite force of baby exterminators (as we have in Britain today!). This would be efficient and effective. However, such a force would be known, hated and subject to reprisals. Much better to empower every Egyptian to throw a baby boy in the river. It could be done on the sly, in the dark, anonymously. Everyone would be suspect but no one person accountable. It made retaliation difficult. It would create a terrible spirit. Who could you trust? This is the sort of society that existed in Stalinist USSR where children informed secretly on their own parents.

Pharaoh's policy failed. All he succeeded in doing was to bind the Israelites closer together and foster a determination to leave Egypt. God was preparing his people for the great exodus and march toward the Promised Land.