Exodus 1:19-22

"And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwife come unto them. And God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them households. And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive."

"Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women ..." Although the entire testimony of these midwives must be considered false, because the primary purpose of it was to deceive Pharaoh, it is also evident that essential elements of fact were included in their reply. It was true that the Hebrew women were unlike the Egyptian women, as attested by pictures excavated from the ancient tombs and dated about 1400 B.C., showing that the Egyptian women were more delicate and essentially smaller in stature. The big-boned Hebrew female slaves are depicted wearing heavy garments and obviously possessing much more vigor than the Egyptians. It was false, of course, that the Hebrew women were delivered before the midwives could assist them.

"And God dealt well with the midwives ..." It is amazing that some students find it hard to understand how God could have rewarded such liars! However, we find no difficulty with such a question. God rewarded those midwives, not for their falsehood to Pharaoh, but for their fear of God and for their aiding his purpose of multiplying the Israelites. In this first encounter between God and Pharaoh, God was gloriously victorious, just as would be the case in all subsequent phases of the conflict. Langley thought that the midwives made a fool of the king:

"Don't miss the humor in this passage. The midwives made clever use of wit and excuse. Pharaoh comes off as a ludicrous fathead. The joke is on the king, and everybody knows it but him! So, while they laugh the king right out of his court, God wins another round and moves victoriously on."[16]

"Because the midwives feared God, he made them households ..." The meaning of this is that, "He blessed them with marriage and many descendants."[17] Exactly this same phrase is used with reference to David's house (2 Samuel 7:11).[18]

"Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river ..." The commandment, in context, means merely that all of the Hebrew males are thus to be destroyed. Nevertheless, interpreters have struggled with the passage. The Hebrew rabbis explained the general nature of the order thus:

"Pharaoh purposely stated the order in general terms, for it would have been improper for so highly civilized a nation to discriminate so openly against the Hebrews, but the officials had been told in confidence that it was applicable to Hebrew infants only."[19]

"Ye shall cast into the river ..." Some have inferred from this that the order to exterminate Hebrew males applied only to that portion of the Hebrew population living near the king's residence and in that vicinity along the Nile. Josephus relates an interesting tale in connection with this event, and, while unprovable, there appears to be merit in it. We include Jamieson's comment on it:

"Josephus tells how Pharaoh had been forewarned by one of his magi, that a Hebrew boy about to born would inflict a fatal blow upon the glory of Egypt and raise his own race to liberty and independence. It is quite possible that the apprehension of such a danger might have originated the cruel edict."[20]

Josephus was not very likely to have been influenced by the N.T. record of Herod's slaughter of the innocents, so it is evident that this tale of Pharaoh's motivation for slaughter of innocents could be authentic. That it so nearly parallels what happened in Matthew 2 is amazing to say the least of it. Robert Jamieson was impressed by this, stating that:

"Thus, by the conduct of Pharaoh, the ancient church (Hebrew) in its infancy was opposed by persecution and peril precisely similar to that which, at the commencement of the N.T. church, was directed by Herod against the children in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16)."[21]

The most astounding thing about this event is that the very action which Pharaoh took in his purpose of destroying Israel was exactly the thing that placed a Hebrew man-child in the very bosom of the king's family, making him, at last, the heir to Pharaoh's throne! How past finding out are the ways of God! Where in the literature of any nation, or of all nations, is there anything to approach the inspired drama of what leaps up before us in Exodus?