"God is Radical"

In the first chapter of the book of EXODUS, the Bible gives us the first instance of organized worker resistance to the authority of the Boss. The midwives Shiphrah and Puah are ordered by Pharaoh to kill all the male Hebrew children born to Jewish women. They don’t, because as the story says,

“The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.” (Exodus 1:17-18)

But my favorite part of the story is when Pharaoh discovered the midwives were allowing male children to live he summoned Shiphrah and Puah before him to explain themselves. Shiphrah and Puah flat out lie to him. “Pharaoh, listen,” they say too the King (in my words), “these Hebrew woman, they’re tough….the babies are born before we get there. There is just nothing we can do!” HA!

Now imagine the scene: Pharaoh is the most powerful man in the world. He is sitting on his throne probably surrounded by sycophants, advisers, yes-men, and most certainly armed guards. Nobody tells him NO. He can have anyone he wants tortured and killed for the pettiest insolence and here come these two slave women….. nobodies and nothings….property in every sense of the word….. before him after defying an order…..and they lie straight to his face. What does God think of this lie? He loves it! He rewards the women workers with the blessings of large families…..the most valuable reward possible to a people living under oppression. He gave them people to love them…to protect them…and to carry on their struggle!

What do I learn from this story?

1. The power of authority seeks to serve only the power of authority. Remember why Pharaoh wanted the boys killed: he was protecting his own power over the Jewish slaves. He needed a compliant workforce and he needed fear to keep his workers in order.

2. Freedom is born through the power of organized workers. They are called midwives, but Shiphrah and Puah are “just” workers. Their organized act of defiance, the first such act against the earthly authority of a Boss in the Bible, gives freedom a chance to survive among oppression. And their action is supported through their solidarity. Either one of them could have ratted out the other one when they were standing their before the King but they stuck together and through their defiance saved their people.

3. God loves people who stand up to the Boss. God rewarded the defiant act…and the lie told to cover it up….with the best blessing a slave people could have on earth…families.

Could Shiphrah or Puah been so defiant if they had acted alone? Maybe…but would one of them alone been as successful? Who knows, but I doubt it. What I do know is the power of organized women workers is something to be celebrated because it is the pathway to freedom and justice. It is organized women workers standing up and defying their Boss that God loves, not the power of the Boss to decide for all what is right and wrong.