Exodus 1:15 - Meaning and Application

The Egyptians were angry that Israel kept growing, even though they had already burdened them with hard labor. In the end, that anger drove them to the most brutal and inhuman way to hold Israel back, the murder of their children. It is striking that they did not first look for excuses to attack the grown men, where they might at least have found some pretext. To turn that violence against helpless infants, who all must admit were innocent, shows a sin they had to cover up.

This shows how much cruelty lies in the sinful human heart, more than we usually imagine (Romans 3:15, 3:16). The hostility that belongs to the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman strips people of basic humanity and makes them forget pity. No one would think it possible for men to become as savage and bloodthirsty as the persecutors of God’s people have been (Revelation 17:6). Even clear innocence is no protection against that old hatred. What blood is more innocent than that of a newborn child? Yet such blood is often spilled carelessly, as if it were nothing.

Pharaoh and Herod both showed themselves to be agents of that great red dragon, who waited to destroy the male child as soon as he was born (Revelation 12:3, 12:4). Pilate handed Christ over to be crucified, even after saying he found no fault in him. We should thank God that, though man can kill the body, that is all he can do. Here we are told of two cruel orders aimed at destroying all the Hebrew male children.

The first order was directed to the midwives. Pharaoh told them to kill the boys when they were born (Exodus 1:15, 1:16). This made the plot even more wicked, because he turned the women who should help life into murderers. It would have made them not only cruel, but false and faithless, since they were being asked to betray the trust of those they were supposed to protect. He must have thought either that their sex could be pushed into such cruelty, or that their work would make them willing to behave in such a base way.

People who are cruel themselves often think they can find, or make, others just as cruel. Pharaoh wanted the midwives to secretly smother the Hebrew baby boys as soon as they were born, and then blame it on a hard delivery or some common mishap (Job 3:11). The two midwives he dealt with are named here, and perhaps at that time, more than eighty years before Israel left Egypt, two women were enough for all the Hebrew women near the court. The fact that Pharaoh was especially suspicious of the women near the palace fits what we later read (Exodus 2:5, 2:6). They are called Hebrew midwives, probably not because they were Hebrews themselves, for Pharaoh could hardly expect Hebrews to murder their own children, but because they usually served Hebrew women. If they were Egyptians, that would better explain why he thought he could win them over.

The midwives refused his command because they feared God, honored his law, and dreaded his anger more than Pharaoh’s (Exodus 1:17). So they saved the boys alive. When any human command goes against God’s command, we must obey God rather than men (Acts 4:19, 5:29). No earthly ruler can authorize sin, much less require it. And where the fear of God rules the heart, it keeps a person from the trap that comes from fearing people too much.

When Pharaoh accused them, they defended themselves with a reason that seems to have come from God’s gracious help (Exodus 1:18). They said they could not carry out the order because the children were often born before they arrived (Exodus 1:19). There is no good reason to doubt what they said. Israel was under an unusual blessing of growth, and that may well have meant very quick and easy labors, with mothers and children both strong and healthy, so midwives were seldom needed. The women noticed this and understood it to be God’s hand, which gave them courage to disobey the king in favor of the people whom heaven was blessing. Some of the older Jewish writers explain it this way, that before the midwife came, the women prayed to their Father in heaven, and he answered them, so they gave birth quickly.

God is a swifter help to his people in trouble than any other helper, and he often meets them with his blessings before anyone else can help. Such rescues should bind them to him all the more. God also rewarded the midwives for their kindness to his people. He dealt well with them (Exodus 1:20). He never owes anyone for kindness done to his people, because he receives it as done to himself. In particular, he “made them houses” (Exodus 1:21), meaning he established and blessed their families, gave them children, and prospered all they did.

This reward matched the good motive that guided them. Because they feared God, he made them houses. Religion and godliness are good friends to outward prosperity. When the fear of God is in a home, it helps build that home up and keep it firm. Dr. Lightfoot thought this may mean that, because of their piety, they were married to Israelites, and so Hebrew families were built up through them.

When this plan failed, Pharaoh gave open orders to all his people to drown every male Hebrew child (Exodus 1:22). We may suppose he made it a serious crime for anyone to know of a Hebrew son’s birth and fail to report it to those appointed to throw him into the river. The enemies of the church have often kept trying to wear out the saints of the Most High (Daniel 7:25). But the one who sits in heaven will laugh at them (Psalm 2:4).