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What’s Her Name



  Exodus doesn’t tell us the name of the pharaoh that Moses opposed. (Scholars have debated this riddle ever since.) Here is the most powerful man on earth at the time and it never uses his name.

  Yet it does tell us the name of the two midwives that refuse to listen to that pharaoh and put to death the baby boys of the Israelites.

Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah; and he said, "When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live." But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live.
Exodus 1:15-17 

 The nation was promoting these ‘late term abortions’ yet these women refused. And they were remembered for their courage.

 In our world today it tend to work the other way. Sex selective abortion, especially in China and India, have led to an estimated 23 million less girls being born[1]. Abortions are mandated as a way to control population and families often want to choose a son to carry on the family line.  Even when child limits aren’t mandated, abortion are promoted. Abortion is hailed rather than abhorred. We may think this is a new issue but it one that been around since the days of Moses.

 Maybe we need some women like Shiphrah and Puah who will fear God above the head of the nation.   

[1] tps://www.newscientist.com/article/2199874-sex-selective-abortions-may-have-stopped-the-birth-of-23-million-girls/

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