Two midwives with faith

I began reading in Exodus 1 today. I was going to read more about Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea, but I didn't make it. Something once again caught my eye and I had to stop. Beginning in chapter 1 we there is a new king in Egypt. A king that did not know David. He is fearing for Egypt because the Israelites are growing in number. Might they overtake the Egyptians? In his fear he calls for every Hebrew baby boy to be killed at birth.

Now in Egypt there were midwives to care for those women in labor. Lets begin in verse 15. "Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah." Their names mean, "Beautiful One and Splendid One." The king is telling them they must kill the baby boys, but these women of faith choose to obey God and not the king. Their lives were in danger for disobeying the king, but they knew it meant more to obey their God.

In standing in their faith, the king blesses these women. (verse 21) "And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them." Now, because he could not count on these two midwives to carry out his wishes, he no longer used them for this, but asked this of the Egyptians to carry out his orders.

What I found amazing is, the "Important people" of this story are not mentioned by name. It is the midwives who carry faith that are mentioned my name.  Because of their faith, the Lord wants us to know them here. He wants us to understand the meaning of their names. In obeying the Lord we are beautiful and splendid.

How is it I missed this before? We have situations we face everyday that we must make the decision, "Will I obey my God or will I follow the world?" Many times it is simply decisions of following self or God. Our decisions not only effect us, but all those around us. Each choice is the doorway for another.  I think more and more we are leaving God out of our decisions and simply doing what is best for us. We find here that in their decision they not only obeyed God, but lives were saved because of their faithfulness to God. In faith He will bring us through each situation. He isn't going to leave us stranded as we try to figure out what is best. We have His word that leads us in our walk daily. We have His Holy Spirit that guides us in everything. Don't make light of any choice in front of you. Pray about each one, for each one is just as important as the one before and after.

Although the world might not understand our choice to follow God in everything, blessings will flow from faithfulness and obedience.