The Women Who Were Named

Different renderings of Shiphrah and Puah (first from here and second from artist BBB).

Exodus 1:8-21

⁸Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. ⁹He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. ¹⁰Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” ¹¹Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. ¹²But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. ¹³The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites. ¹⁴and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.

¹⁵The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ¹⁶“When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” ¹⁷But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. ¹⁸So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” ¹⁹The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” ²⁰So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. ²¹And because the midwives feared God, God gave them families.

Sermon: “The Women Who Were Named”

One of my good pastor friends once had a dog named Hallelujah.  He decided, finally, to simply call her Halle for short, partly because people kept thinking he was a bit odd, roaming down his street shouting “Hallelujah!”  The shortened name also came in handy when the dog would have an accident on the carpet, so he didn’t have to say, “Dang it, Hallelujah!” (or worse).  Another friend has a dog named Five Miles, so she can say she walks Five Miles twice a day.

Names matter.  Our names are the first thing we hear as infants, as we discover that our identity is found in that word.  Names matter in scripture, too.  But scripture was compiled from many oral histories and then written down by male scholars in a time when including women wasn’t as important. 

This is why we do not hear women’s names in the Bible nearly as often as we hear men’s names.  We see women described simply as concubines, servants or daughters.  We hear of the woman caught in adultery, the woman with a flow of blood, the woman at the well and the Caananite woman.  We never learn their names.

And so, when this group of men compiling scripture took the time and effort to name women, it mattered.  These were women of great significance: Ruth, Naomi, Esther, Mary, Mary Magdalene and Phoebe.  And Shiphrah and Puah.  Perhaps these aren’t the most beautiful of names (they kind of sound like a sneeze, don’t they?) but it seems their story is worth remembering.

Let’s look at why they might have been worth naming.  Here’s their story:  In Egypt, there’s a new Pharaoh in town and this guy’s never even heard of Joseph.  So, he doesn’t know a thing about the Israelite people—except that they multiply quickly.  In the beginning of today’s text, we find that Pharaoh decides to respond to the growth of this people with cruel and shrewd slavery.  Why does he feel the need to oppress these people?  (I’m so glad you asked.) 

In this text where words matter, his motivation centers around the tiniest of them: IF.  “"Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country."

Pharaoh is terrified that the Israelites, in their great numbers, would, in the event of war, join his enemies and ultimately escape from him, making his economy collapse.  Pharaoh decided that the only way to prevent this IF from happening is for him to have total control over the Israelites and enslave them.  Broken with heavy labor and oppression, surely they would stop increasing and never be able to rise up against Pharaoh.  But this is not what happened. 

According to our text, the more the Israelites were oppressed, the more they increased in numbers.  This filled the Egyptians with what in Hebrew means “a sickening dread” and this dread of being oppressed themselves led the Egyptians to oppress the Israelites even more.  It seems Pharaoh’s actions are fueled by dread of them.  And remember, Pharaoh did not know Joseph or the ways of the Israelites, and so his dread is fueled by ignorance about this great booming people. 

He doesn’t understand them, so he fears them. 

Tragically, oppression turns to genocide, as Pharaoh’s dread takes even greater hold of him and he asks Shiphrah and Puah to kill all of the Hebrew males born in his realm.  But Shiphrah and Puah’s actions are not fueled by dread, or even by Pharaoh for that matter, but by their God, Yahweh. 

They did not fear Pharaoh—they feared God.  And this fear, we learn from the Hebrew, has nothing to do with dread and everything to do with reverence and honor.  Their righteous fear of God led them to resist the greatest power of their time, and to preserve the lives of the Israelites even if it meant risking their own.  It turns out, Shiphrah and Puah’s fear of God multiplied and increased an entire people. 

The courage of these two women paved the way for courageous acts by other women.  In the very next chapter of Exodus, we find this same courage to preserve life in Moses’ mother and in Pharaoh’s own daughter.  Moses’ mother saves his life by desperately sending him away in a basket on a river, hoping for a new life for him, and that new life is realized as Pharaoh’s daughter fishes him out of the river and adopts him as her own child.  Without the risky and resistant action of these women, including Shiphrah and Puah, there would be no Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.

So yes, these women’s names are certainly worth remembering.  Their legacy of liberation and courage lives on here in scripture, but also in all places where women and men are doing extraordinary things to preserve life and follow God. 

What will our legacy be?  When our names are said…each one of us, what will we be remembered for?  Will we be remembered for being nice, polite Christians, who dutifully attended church each week?  Or will we be remembered for taking church to places of fear and oppression, showing the love of Christ when it risks all we are to do it, and trading niceness for authenticity, and safety for salvation for all? 

What will our name mean?  The answer to that question is quite simple, really.  Our name will mean what we make it mean.  What we decide to risk in following God above all lesser powers, in preserving life and proclaiming God’s salvation in our everyday acts of compassion and liberation: that is what our name will mean.  We only have this one name.  We only have this one life.  Like Shiphrah and Puah, let’s make it count. 

Thanks be to God who was and is and will be, to Jesus Christ who is Lord of all creation and to the Holy Spirit who inspires us with courage and bravery today and all our days, amen.