You may have noticed, I talk about the Bible A LOT in my blog. It is the one book I could not live without. And while many people prefer the New Testament, I love the Old Testament. There are so many neat stories in the Old Testament. I know, there are stories in the New Testament as well, but I love the contrast in the Old Testament of stories like Jacob falling in love with Rachel and being in conflict with Laban at the same time. Seriously, who needs reality TV? Second, I am a people person. I am very relational, and the Old Testament is all about God relating to people, which includes the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of relationships. Lastly, God related to people so differently in the Old Testament. Moses is described as a friend of God and spoke with him face to face. How cool is that!
One thing I sometimes forget while reading the stories is that they were about real people. The stories give us facts of a story, but it is easy to forget that there were people and feelings behind the facts. Sometimes we pick up instinctively on the feelings behind the facts, like the fear Queen Esther felt before approaching King Xerxes, or the sadness Abraham felt when commanded to sacrifice his long-awaited son. Other times, the facts are given with such brevity that their meaning can be lost. Take, for example, Exodus 1:21 which says, “Because the midwives respected God, He blessed them with families of their own.” I have come back to this verse again and again over the course of several years. It always makes me wonder, what was the story behind it?
I have to imagine these midwives were girls/women not unlike myself. Perhaps they were unmarried and realized they weren’t as pretty as some of the other girls. Did they wonder if something was wrong with them? Did they pinch their cheeks to make them pinker or bite their lips to make them redder? Did they look for ways to lose or gain weight? Was there someone they wished would notice them? Did they have to suffer through the pain and humiliation of watching him pick someone else to marry and hope that no one guessed how they felt?
These midwives were obviously not weak women. When Pharaoh questioned them as to why they had disobeyed him and allowed the boy babies to live they answered the most powerful man in their world. They may have been afraid, but they still answered him. Maybe, the fact that these girls were strong and pursued some kind of profession was a deterrent to their desire to be married.
Perhaps the women were married and were unable to have children. They were trained to help; their job and their commitment to God required that they pour their effort into helping women give birth and ensure healthy moms and babies. Did they feel as I have felt – asked to give to others what they desired for themselves? Were they sad and discouraged as they watched not only what Pharaoh was doing to their people, but also saw that their prayers for others were answered even as their prayers for themselves were not?
You see? If we don’t stop to wonder about the feelings behind the story we miss the message of the verse. Behind the facts of the story were real people – real women with real feelings. The times and the customs may have been different, but feelings transcend culture and time. These women, single or married, were missing something in their lives, something that probably hurt. To gloss over their feelings or treat them lightly is to miss the point of Exodus 1:21. God saw their need and He heard the cries of their heart. God cared!! God cared and God answered.
This verse is one small verse crammed in the middle of a HUGE story. While scholars disagree on the actual number of Israelites, there is no argument: there were a lot of them. All of the adult population must have been crying out to God for relief and deliverance. How is it that in the middle of handling Pharaoh and rescuing His people, the desires of a couple of women got God’s attention? How can it be that in a world full of troubles and difficulties, with billions of people crying out to Him for deliverance and relief, God knows the pain I feel and hears the cries of my heart?
