DARING – to be DARING is to be bold, adventurous and a little nervy. It’s a quality possessed by people who tend to take risks. If someone says, “I dare you,” and you always do, you’re a daring person.
If you are DARING, you dare to do things that are risky and even dangerous. A daring mountain climber may go to the top of Mt. Everest, and a daring policeman enters the scariest houses to catch a crook. In comics and movies, superheroes are daring. Even quitting your job to start your own business is daring. The seafarers who first traveled across the globe were daring. DARING people are brave.
The bible gives us countless stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things for the cause of Christ. Exodus chapter 1 gives us an account of 2 such daring women; Shiphrah and Puah. They were Hebrew midwives to the Israelite nation.
If you’re not familiar with the story, let me backup a bit. Because of God’s promise to Abraham, to bless him with descendants that would outnumber the stars in the sky, and Abraham’s faithfulness, the Israelites multiplied so greatly that they became powerful and filled the land of Egypt. The Egyptian’s grew to fear the Israelites because of their strength and numbers and made them their slaves. Despite Pharaoh’s efforts to oppress the Israelites, they continued to multiply and spread. The harder the Egyptians treated the Israelites, the more God seemed to bless them.
In a way, this part of the story reminds me of how the church continued to grow and spread the Gospel against all odds during the most oppressing times of the Covid scare. The more the world became fearful and restrictions were put in place to guarantee isolation and control, the more the church found ways to be present in the lives of God’s creation and provide for needs in tangible ways beyond tradition. The harder the world treated God’s people; the more God seemed to bless them.
Pharaoh’s attempts to keep the Israelites from prospering weren’t working to his satisfaction so he
“gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah: “when you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch as they deliver. If the baby is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.”’
Exodus 1:15-16
Boom.
What better way to keep the Israelite nation from growing than to totally eradicate their ability to reproduce? But OUCH! Can you imagine the position this put Shiphrah and Puah in?
The single most powerful man in the land has ordered you to kill all the Hebrew boys as they are born in an effort to wipe out a nation of your own people. The reason behind the order doesn’t really even matter. What matters are these women’s responses.
The women are at a crossroads. Ensure their own life and obey the orders given or betray Pharoah and allow the male babies to live, and therefore, risk their own life to give those babies theirs.
Have you ever found yourself at a crossroad? Stuck between a rock and a hard place? Neither option is particularly easy. To go left may guarantee your status, financial gain and security, but includes the secret weight of sin and shame. To go right guarantees honoring God with your words, actions and life, although you may lose it. One choice offers familiarity. The other offers something unknown.
“But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king’s orders. They allowed the boys to live too.”
Exodus 1:17
Shiphrah and Puah feared God. They feared God more than they feared Pharaoh or anything he could do to them. They chose to be daring and honor God with their words, actions, and lives. Because they did;
“God was good to the midwives, and the Israelites continued to multiply, growing more and more powerful. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.”
Exodus 1:20-21
Shiphrah and Puah dared to do something that was risky and even dangerous. God honored their devotion to Him and blessed them as well as the Israelite nation. God’s promise to Abraham continues in part because of their faithfulness. Not only were their lives changed, but their family for generations to come are a part of the family of God.
What crossroads are you at today in your life? How is God calling you to be DARING for Him?
Mary Swafford is the founder of Shaken & Stirred, Meals that Matter, Coffee Talk, and a Co-Owner of Boulder Coffee in downtown Sand Springs. She is a wife, a mother of 3 beautiful children, but most importantly a daughter of the most high God. You are likely to find her chugging or serving coffee, sitting in a tattooist’s chair, or making friends out of strangers.
Photo by Maria Ballesteros on Unsplash