Exodus 1:8-22

⁸ Then a new king — who did not remember Joseph — began reigning over Egypt,. ⁹ And he said to his people, “See, the people of the sons of Israel are too many and too strong for us. ¹⁰ Cooperate!, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will keep multiplying, and, when war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” ¹¹ Therefore they set rulers over them to force heavy burdens upon them. They built store cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses. ¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they permeated the country. And the Egyptians detested the people of Israel. ¹³ So they callously made the people of Israel work as slaves ¹⁴ and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they callously made them work as slaves. ¹⁵ Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ¹⁶ “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you will kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” ¹⁷ But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. ¹⁸ So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” ¹⁹ The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are strong and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” ²⁰ So God treated the midwives well. And the people continued to multiply and grew very strong. ²¹ And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. ²² Then Pharaoh ordered all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

a bad turn within God’s will

The Israelites were doing exactly what God had called them to do, and it turned the Egyptians against them. I can imagine a community worker within the Israelite community bringing the elders together and saying “We have to do something about this overpopulation problem because it is causing bad intercultural relations!” That did not happen, apparently, but that seems to be the attitude many take in the church today. Any time somebody complains about us, there seems to be someone within the church who champions their cause. Sometimes their criticism is valid. But the story of the Exodus shows us that when the world complains about God’s people it can be because we are getting something right, not wrong. When life seems to take a bad turn for us, it may be because we are in the center of God’s will, and he has a plan that involves the conflict.

LORD, give us insight into your plan, and the courage to follow that plan, even if it means facing conflict with others.