Breaking The Law

Breaking the Law

Puah And Shiphrah

Read: Exodus 1:11-21

Denise gripped the steering wheel tightly as she drove home from work. Being a nurse had been her dream since childhood, but now it had become a nightmare. She had been devastated to learn that her hospital performed late-term abortions, leaving the babies who survived the procedure to die alone on a table. Now, a change in policy required all nurses to assist doctors in the abortions, regardless of their beliefs. Denise faced a tough choice. Her family desperately needed her income, and if she refused to obey the ruling, she would certainly lose her job.

Today’s Bible passage focuses on two women who faced a tough choice about obeying the law. Alarmed at how the enslaved Israelites kept multiplying, the ruler of Egypt commanded the two principal Hebrew midwives to kill any boys they helped deliver. Puah and Shiphrah knew that if they were caught disobeying an order from Pharaoh, it meant certain death; they also knew that God forbade murder. Their decision may have required soul-searching to reach the point where they were willing to risk their lives in order to follow God. He protected Puah and Shiphrah and rewarded them for their choice.

God instructs us to respect the government and obey its laws even if we don’t agree with them. That loyalty ends, however, when an earthly law requires us to do something contrary to God’s commandments. Our first allegiance belongs to him. It meant that Puah and Shiphrah might be forfeiting their lives, but they recognized God’s authority above that of the powerful tyrant who ruled their people. If following God means that we have to disobey human authority, we must be prepared to accept the consequences of those choices and trust our lives to the One who protected two Hebrew midwives so long ago.

Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.”

Acts 5:29