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Daily Devotions

Exodus

Exodus 
Day 
Day 8

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:10

Text: Exodus : 1: 20-22

 THE BLESSING OF THE LORD UPON THE MIDWIVES

Some have wondered if the midwives had told the Pharaoh the truth! There is little need to question the declaration of the midwives. One thing was certain, the Lord approved of their fear of Him. He blessed them for not obeying the Pharaoh in putting the male babies to death.

“Therefore God dealt well with the midwives,
and the people multiplied and grew very mighty.
and so it was, because the midwives feared God,
that He provided households for them.”
EXODUS 1:20-21

1. “Therefore God dealt well with the midwives”

Their lives could have been forfeited if the Pharaoh had suspected that they had lied to him! God was present with the midwives and preserved them from the wrath of the Pharaoh.

2. “He provided households for them”

God blessed the midwives in an obvious way! He gave them “households”. That was an appropriate blessing indeed. In that they preserved households, through saving the male babies, they too were blessed with good households!

3. “The people multiplied and grew very mighty”

The Pharaoh had issued three powerful decrees, yet they proved impotent! There was no stopping the Hebrews from growing mightier and mightier!

THE MOST WICKED DECREE YET

Let us take time to ponder the first three decrees:-

1. Enslavement of the Hebrews

2. Serving with rigour

3. Surreptitious slaying of the male babies by the Hebrew midwives

When these three decrees failed miserably, the Pharaoh issued an order that he felt could not fail to produce results. The fourth decree was the cruelest yet.

“So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying,
‘Every son who is born you shall cast into the river,
and every daughter you shall save alive.”
EXODUS 1:22

This decree demanded that all sons should be killed by the family itself! The veiled threat was death to the family if this order was disobeyed!