11-17-2021

 Good Morning All!

Exodus 1:15; “Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,”     

    If I were to give you a quiz about current events, how would you do? Who is the President of the United States? Who is the Prime Minister of England? Who is the President of Russia? Who is the head of the North Korea? Who is the head of China? Who is the Speaker of the House?

    These are some questions which you can answer or, given the time, could find the answer. Google will get you a long ways. These represent the movers and shakers in our world. These are the people who seem to be in the news almost all the time and their opinions and comments are carefully weighed and measured.  We end up not only listening to what is said but how it is said and who specifically says it. If the President of the United States says something but the Speaker of the House says something else; well, we measure it and consider it carefully. We look at the phrasing, the timing, and the force of the statement.

    Now here is a different quiz. Who is the teacher for the Prime Minister’s children? Who is the maid for the President of Russia?  Who is the cook for the leader of North Korea? I am not even sure Google will help you much with some of those. These people slip on by us. Anyone of a thousand people could fill those tasks. We do not hang on the word of the cook who says that the soup was watery today or that the children had the sniffles. This just does not garner our attention.

    Now, one more quiz. Who was your first Sunday School teacher? Who confirmed you? Who had the most lasting impact on your faith development? Who showed you how to live as a Christian?

    In our verse, the two women mentioned disobeyed the king of Egypt who was trying to kill the male sons of the Israelites in an attempt to control the Israelites and to thwart God’s plan.  These women displayed great courage and remained faithful to God. Their faithfulness is rewarded by God. Later on, they have their own families but here we know their names, their own personal names but what was the personal name of the king of Egypt?  We are not told. The mover and the shaker of the time is forgotten; yet two humble servants of God, faithful to his Word, are remembered. The same is true for us. In another 100 years, only those who are faithful to God and trust in his promises will matter; the rest will be put to shame as unnamed souls. God, in his mercy, calls you by name at your Baptism and calls you his own and even the hairs on your head are numbered and watched by him. You are redeemed by God and saved. How the world viewed you will not matter, only the blood of Jesus, which saves you, will ever matter.

Dear Father, you know all there is to know and you choose to reveal what you want. Give us the faithfulness of these midwives that we too may faithfully serve you in whatever situation that you place us. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret