Puah and Shiprah [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Probably it was just an outright lie. One of the few places in Scripture where God blesses people for lying.

I'm not suggesting it, but there are a few instances of this. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series titled, God Used Who?

And You May Just Be Surprised, as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news? There is a spiritual battle. The forces of darkness are real.

Fallen angels, just as real as those angels that are around the throne of God. And you and I are in that spiritual battle every day. But praise be unto His name.

The victory has already been assured by the finished work of Jesus. And you have within you the truth of the gospel which dismantles strongholds so that you can stand in the day of temptation. I want to talk to you about spiritual warfare today, and we're going to do so from an unlikely spot in the beginning of the book of Exodus where we learn about two hidden jewels. Two women who you may never have heard of but who very much were part of God's plan as He is unveiling a picture of His sovereign power over the enemy.

And this is in Exodus chapter 1, and I'll pick up reading at verse 8. Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph and he saw to his people behold the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come let us deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply and if war breaks out they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Ramesses. But the more that they were oppressed the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad.

And the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and all kinds of work in the field.

In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Ephra and the other Puah, when you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birth stool if it is a son you shall kill him but if it's a daughter she shall live. But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them why have you done this and let the male children live. And the midwives said to Pharaoh because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women for they're vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them. So God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew very strong and because the midwives feared God he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile but you shall let every daughter live.

And if we were to take time and read on into chapter two you would see it's about the birth of Moses one of those little boys who would have been thrown into the Nile but instead is placed in a little basket and eventually found by the daughter of Pharaoh and raised in Pharaoh's court to become the deliverer of the people of God. I have been accused I think wrongly of when there has been a week in which my beloved Carolina Tarheels have not been successful in a game against say Duke. I've been accused of not talking about Carolina those weeks only on the weeks where they've won and so today I end that accusation. I silence it by saying yes it is it is true Carolina did lose to Duke this this week and the reason I bring it up is because it's such a great segue into this matter of spiritual warfare. I mean if you think about it you got Carolina with their beautiful Carolina blue which is the color of the sky which obviously means God's favorite color and then you've got the blue devils got it devils over here so it's kind of God and the devil so we're going to just launch right into into this actually the subject of spiritual warfare might be new to some of you you might have never even heard anybody talk about this before I know as I grew up in my mainline church that nobody ever talked about spiritual battle and I would have probably thought that it offended my modern sensibilities to even think that there were unseen principalities and powers that were somehow waging war in the heavens and that the things that were taking place on earth were somehow related to all of that. I probably would have just earlier in my life just thought well sometimes you're just having a bad day or just feeling discouraged or you just feel kind of hopeless but now I come to recognize no there's a spiritual battle and we're in it day by day and what we're going to see today is how these two women these obscure Hebrew women are part of a picture really that was being painted on the landscape of the old covenant to demonstrate to us and show us that God is powerful and providential and he is able to bring his purposes about and this is the whole key to spiritual warfare is to know as a believer as to be as one who's a co-heir with Christ that in the spiritual battle you're the head not the tail and that you can be assured that though in this world we'll face trouble that God is absolutely victorious and it's very very important to understand this so let's talk about this story what is it about this Puah and Shiphrah these Hebrew midwives well on one level it's a story about the cleverness and bravery of these two women and it's inspiring it's inspiring to see anyone take on an empire and that's what they they do they risk their their lives really to disobey Pharaoh on another level it's I think about the sanctity of all human life it is about a worldview that says that human beings are made in the image of God and so even the littlest of ones even the unborn ones made in the image of God and that your value does not come because of certain qualities or skills or capabilities that you have but your value is that you're made in the image of God and so in some ways I could preach a message about how these women were intent on preserving the sanctity of all life and on another level it is about the potential for two seemingly powerless women to have a massive lasting impact in the midst of a of a culture that was against them and how you can have an impact when God uses you all of that is here but what I want to show you today I think is at its deepest level and that is it's a story that reminds us and informs of an invisible war that is taking place because if you look at it at its deepest level what this is a story of is a tyrant whose gnawing fear produces a burning hatred and how that seething hatred longs to destroy a people a fear that produces hatred and anger and how in the midst of an attempted genocide God brings forth a deliverer who will set his people free by the blood of the lamb does it sound familiar it is the backdrop for the story of moses the passover the exodus the red sea and the promised land and it is a story that is pivotal because it explains how the hebrew people were enslaved in the first place and what I'm saying is it all prefigures and points to the ultimate story of how there is an unseen tyrant who is called the accuser or satan the devil who seethes with hatred towards God's people and how those people apart from Christ are invisibly enslaved under law and sin and fear and condemnation and yet how God in his sovereign providence and unspeakable goodness brings a deliverer into the world a new moses who himself comes out of Egypt and who delivers his people his name is Jesus but I get ahead of myself let's talk about the historical landscape first of all this is a new king that is described here of a new dynasty scholars say that the Hyksos pharaohs who had reigned during Joseph's time had now been expelled from Egypt they were in a sense foreigners who'd come in and had reigned in Egypt and Joseph this Hebrew boy by the power of God's sovereign plan had been promoted to be prime minister in Egypt but now Joseph is gone new Egyptian rulers are in place and this pharaoh knew not Joseph it's a picture of what happens when there is no memory of the goodness of God that's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series God's love you've heard about it with your ears you believed it in your mind now experience it in your heart with Alan Wright's beloved book lover of my soul the Bible is a love story from beginning to end you were the spiritual bride of Christ the perfect bridegroom the Bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you to win you and to walk with you hand in hand for any man who has fallen in love with a woman you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like for any woman who has searched for true love what you long for can only be found fully in God Gary Chapman renowned author of the five love languages says the incredible reality that God pursues us and love comes to life and lover of my soul ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart accept Christ's proposal enjoy his embrace revel in his love after all it's a match made in heaven it's lover of my soul by Alan Wright the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support when you give today we will send you today's special offer we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor alan.org today's teaching now continues here once again is Alan Wright no memory of how God used Joseph to save Egypt from famine and to make Egypt prosper as they fed the whole known world the presence of the Hebrew people in Egypt should have been to Pharaoh and all of Egypt a living memorial to the mercies of God upon Egypt the very fact that the Hebrew people were there was a living memorial to what God did miraculously through Joseph but instead they had forgotten all of that and their presence the Hebrews that is had become the root of the Pharaoh's fears what irony it was a Hebrew that was sent into Egypt to save the people and now the new ruler wants the Hebrew people dead it was a Hebrew son that saved Egypt and now Pharaoh wants all the Hebrew sons killed perhaps we shouldn't be surprised because after all God would use Joseph to save his own brothers but his own brothers wanted to kill him it is the bent of broken humanity to foolishly conspire to murder the son who has come to save them he came into that which was his own the scripture says but his own received him not now this Pharaoh is one of the darkest genocidal maniacs of history we're not sure which Pharaoh it is there's much speculation about it it's a little tricky dating all these events but we're not given Pharaoh's name here and it's not important to us what is important to us is to know the dynamics of fear and hatred that fuels this genocidal spirit and it's also important to remember this is the backdrop of everything that will take place and if your modern sensibilities are offended when you think about God bringing ten plagues against Egypt and ultimately judging Egypt with the final plague of the death of the firstborn of the Egyptians you must remember this was a Hitler who was on the throne in Egypt at this time he needed to be stopped and God's people needed to be set free so ironic the prosperity of the Hebrews as they grew and flourished and their families grew that very prosperity resulted in their persecution had they not grown so strong and prosperous Pharaoh wouldn't have thought they posed a threat so what Pharaoh did was he wanted them to work so hard that they would become sick and die and exhausted and nobody really building their families but something supernatural was at work we see because the more the people are persecuted the more they grow the more they're persecuted the more they flourish the more they're persecuted the more they prosper the persecution of the people of God throughout history has not resulted in the banishment of the church but in the birth of the church the fact that they were so abused made them just ready to take their freedom when it came so it's the backdrop of the slavery of the people of Egypt a description of this tyrant why he was seething with hatred and how it was rooted in his fear and then enter these two women Puah and Shiphrah and he said to them I want you to kill these children well they were on the only two midwives they must have been leaders and Pharaoh was arrogant enough to think that these women these midwives would follow his command I guess everybody else did what he said but these women weren't about to he probably hoped that the evil that he was systematically perpetrating would not even be discovered that maybe these midwives what they do is they tell all the midwives to to kill the baby boys before the mother even knew what was happening and maybe ever would just assume that there was a higher infant mortality rate amongst the Hebrew boys and maybe they were just stillborn some period of years probably passed because what happens here is it becomes apparent to Pharaoh that is there is sort of a survey going on that there are just as many young Hebrew boys as there are girls and so he brings Puah and Shiphrah back in to question them about this can you imagine that day these two women seemingly absolutely powerless in their culture and they have been in direct violation of the command of Pharaoh himself who would have authority over their very lives and they probably knew this day would come and they probably had planned for it they are brought in in front of Pharaoh and what courage they have as they say to him well the problem is that the Hebrew women are just strong and they're they're vigorous and they they they tend to give birth very quickly and we can't seem to get there before the children are born they're not like the Egyptian women which is kind of got some humor in it also because it's sort of like they're saying Egyptian women are wimps and it's kind of you know it's just kind of a little throw that in there and you wonder is it an outright lie or is there some sense in which maybe there's partial truth here that perhaps they had just told the midwives let's all show up a little late maybe they told the Hebrew women don't even call us until the baby's born or maybe it was true maybe there was something about the Hebrew women but probably was just an outright lie one of the few places in Scripture where God blesses people for lying I'm not suggesting it but there are a few instances of this Pharaoh was a fool and his sense to think that these midwives were going to kill baby Hebrew boys midwives exist to bring life into the world they weren't going to start taking life out of the world and they never were going to do it when the plan fails Pharaoh orders all the citizens to be involved in open season on Jewish baby boys that they could take them snatch them and throw them and drown them in the Nile River it's unimaginable such an atrocity and when you see something that's that brazen in its in its nature of evil you might think well that's a worse evil but it's no worse than what Pharaoh had in his heart in the beginning it's just more visible when you see darkness that is darker than you've seen before and you pick up the paper and you read things and you say well this is worse than it's ever been it's not worse it's just more visible it's more tolerated but evil is evil and darkness is dark well all of this to me is a picture of this Pharaoh a tyrant who is so afraid of these baby boys that are being born that he's just got to kill them all of this is a picture of the spiritual battle that has always been if you want to understand spiritual warfare then you look in Genesis chapter 3 where it really all begins in Genesis chapter 3 we have the beginning of the battle because after Adam and Eve sinned and the Lord came and he spoke the consequences and the Lord spoke this is Genesis 3 verse 14 and the Lord spoke to the serpent that picture a metaphor of Satan and the Lord God said to the serpent because you've done this cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field on your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel now that's the English Standard Version but I want to suggest to you that a more literal translation would be much more helpful because what really the text says is I'll put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent and then what the text literally says is he shall crush your head and you shall strike at his heel the reason that's important is because it is consistent with the image of a serpent with fangs that strikes towards the heel can't get up to the head but strikes in the vicinity of the heel and that it's not a mere bruising but it is more of a devastating blow to the serpent that is prophesied here so please notice this about the spiritual battle that God is speaking of here and that is that the battle is not really between this woman and the serpent but between the seed of the woman that there is one who will come the seed of the woman not just referring to any offspring but ultimately to the ultimate seed of the woman which is Christ himself for there would one day be a new Adam there would be one who would come and would live a sinless life and he would represent us as a human being and he would take the punishment for us this seed of the woman the Messiah himself and everybody who is joined in with that Messiah and everyone who has accepted him who's in Christ is also part of the seed but that seed there's going to be enmity God just forecasted and he said this is what's now happened is that there is going to be a seething hatred from this serpent and the seed of that woman Helen Wright and that's today's teaching the series is God used who how God used unheralded women in astonishing ways in part one of today's teaching Pua and Shiphrah and we've got more coming up with Alan in the studio on this teaching today how it impacts our life and today's final word God's love you've heard about it with your ears you believed it in your mind now experience it in your heart with Alan Wright's beloved book lover of my soul the Bible is a love story from beginning to end you are the spiritual bride of Christ the perfect bridegroom the Bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you to win you and to walk with you hand in hand for any man who has fallen in love with a woman you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like for any woman who has searched for true love would you long for can only be found fully in God Gary Chapman renowned author of the five love languages says the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life and lover of my soul ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart except Christ's proposal enjoy his embrace revel in his love after all it's a match made in heaven it's lover of my soul by Alan Wright the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support when you give today we will send you today's special offer we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries call us at eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty that's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty or come to our website pastor Alan dot org all right Alan throughout this series we've been talking about how God used used unheralded women in astonishing ways and when you come to character names like Pua and Shifra we've got to know what's their story and you really dug deep here and found a really encouraging message well I tell you I have to admit that until I got into this myself I didn't know who Pua and Shifra were you know and I've been I've been doing this a long time the pastor stuff the pastor there you go but tucked away in this little part of the story of Exodus where God uses these women really for the preservation of Hebrew male children the king had said to them you've got to kill all that tell all the midwives you kill all these male children and these these head midwives they must have been the leaders sort of all the midwives they refused to do so it is an incredibly bold outstandingly bold thing to do but what we're seeing Daniel is it prefigures of a greater story of an unseen tyrant seized with hatred against God's people and yet how we in Christ so much authority so it's a really a it's a victorious message it's important for us to learn about today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries