Sermon for August 23, 2026: They Let the Boys Live based upon Exodus 1:8-2:10

Exodus 1:8-2:10 The Israelites Are Oppressed (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, 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.” Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians subjected the Israelites to hard servitude and made their lives bitter with hard servitude in mortar and bricks and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and allowed the boys to live?” The 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.” So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became 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 throw into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”
Birth and Youth of Moses
Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.
The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it.  When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

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     Today’s reading is about an insecure, powerful man who becomes a danger to refugees. Israelites, also called Hebrews in this part of the Bible, have been in Egypt for a while. They are integrated into the community as neighbors. They came to Egypt as climate refugees fleeing a famine. Joseph, who had ended up in a place of power, despite his brothers’ attempts to destroy him, had opted to use his power to save the people who had wanted him gone. We should remember how Joseph chose mercy and care rather than retribution. He was able to save his family. Within the narrative, the descendants of Israel, the man, begin to become known not just as one family, but as a nation. That national identity is deeply shaped by living under and then escaping an insecure, powerful man who controls a nation capable of great violence.

     In her notes on the book of Exodus, Judith Sanderson talks about God’s purposes in liberating Israel. They are primarily relational. God will claim these people as God’s own (ch 6 vs 7). God will set them aside as a unique nation with particular relationship to God (19:5-6). God will also commit to dwell among them (29.46). The foundation of the covenant that will later be agreed upon in the wilderness is these acts of liberation and connection. According to Sanderson, because God offered liberation, the people will be expected to act in a particular way in response. Religious law and communal practice will be a response to the liberative acts described in the stories we call Exodus. Liberation begins in the actions of competent, dedicated women responding to actions of the violent, powerful man.

     In her book called Womanist Midrash, Dr. Wil Gafney notes that while undoubtedly countless women are among the Israelites, Exodus only names a handful of them. The first two are in our reading for today: Shifrah and Puah, the midwives. “Midwives are uniquely built for chaos,” is one of my favorite lines in Dr. Kimberly Russaw’s commentary on this text. “Midwives are uniquely built for chaos.” This might go for anyone who works in labor and delivery. Anything can happen at the hours leading up to, during, and the time shortly after birth. It is no small thing to carry life into the world. It is dangerous. It is exciting. It is hard, and it can be beautiful. The people who train to support those who are pregnant and the little ones they bring into this world train for chaos. They train for the harrowing and the awe-inspiring. They don’t usually train to cause harm, which is what the Pharoah demands of them.

     The disobedience of these two midwives likely feels familiar to any of us who are acquainted with people who have chosen not to comply with wicked demands. Within the story, we have a counter example to them: the taskmasters or overseers Pharoah appoints. In her commentary on this text, Mary Alice Mulligan points out how they clearly go along with the new oppressive treatment of the Israelites, apparently without question. Verse 13 says, “The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites.” This whole story could have been different had people chosen not to be cruel to their neighbors. We have seen what happens when neighbors opt for love and organizing over cruelty and fear-mongering. It’s powerful. It is too bad that the overseers opted to abandon the Israelites. We don’t have to make choices like they did.

     In her commentary, Russaw wrote, “Pharaoh commands the two who wake up every morning prepared to craft birth announcements to write obituaries.” Their orders are so clearly antithetical to their calling and training that, even with danger at hand, they disobey the ruler. They let the boys live and come up with a wild explanation that the Pharaoh believes (because he is foolish). “These Hebrew women are strong and get their babies born before we can even get there!” It appears that his order was to happen secretly, so the parents didn’t know what was happening. Dispatching a child that has been born would have gotten them more attention that Pharoah initially wanted. Their quick assessment of the kind of story that would work on him bought them time to save more kids and also have their own children.

     Those who use power for control will not always stop when initial attempts are thwarted. Once the midwives outsmart him, he shifts tactics and demands all Egyptians partake in violence, commanding people to throw any Hebrew babies that they learn are boys into the Nile. He wants to implicate not just an overseer class, but an entire nation in violence. Again, he found everyday people willing to do violence against their neighbors. Again, imagine how the story could have been different had the people stood up for their neighbors... had they come up with a smart plan... had they hidden children... had they helped people escape... had they joined up with the Hebrews and together overthrown the Pharoah. The story shows a majority populace largely willing to do harm in a way that I’ve seen several scholars describe as genocidal.

     While stories of the tactics of survival of oppressed people are not always shared outside of their circles of care for safety reasons, one story of the women in one family’s brilliance becomes a vital part of the history of the Hebrew people. A man and a woman marry and conceived a child. We learn in chapter 6 that their names are Amran and Jochebed, though they are unnamed in today’s scripture. Jochebed would go to extraordinary lengths to save her son. Dr. Gafney, in Womanist Midrash, notes that within her very name is a connection to her God. The first syllable, “yo” is the same as the beginning of the Hebrew word for their God. Gafney says that her name means something like “the honor or weightiness of God.” Given that she is a descendant of the refugees, born in Egypt, she has likely watched, in real time, the change of treatment of her people. What she saw and experienced made her committed to living a life beyond that which Pharoah planned for her.

     She opted to bear children, even under the shadow of violence. Her daughter Miriam, introduced in 2.4 and named in 15.2, would grow up seeing adults constructing meaningful lives despite the hatred from Pharoah. She would be inspired to help her mother save her baby brother born after common Egyptians were ordered to kill Hebrew baby boys. First, she hides and cares for the baby for three months. Can you imagine hiding a whole baby successfully for that long? Babies are so loud! But she does it successfully. But, she can’t hide him forever.

     Scripture does not tell us that she knew that someone would find the baby and take care of him. We could imagine that she knew that the Pharoah’s daughter frequented this part of the river. Or, maybe she knew of Egyptians who’d had mercy on babies they’d found. Wil Gafney points out that there had been a well-known story of a hero king of Assyria who was said to have been placed in a basket in the river by his own mother. He survived to become a leader. Whatever her inspiration or justification, Jochebed put the baby in a basket and Miriam kept an eye on him from a distance.

    Pharoah’s daughter is kinder than her father. She found a baby and opted to care for him, even though he was Hebrew and her father had ordered her to harm him. Miriam, smart as can be, pops out of the reeds where she’d been hiding and offers to find her a Hebrew woman to nurse the child. In this moment, Jochebed is restored to her son. We don’t know how long she had with him. Nursing can go on for a while- four, five, or six years. Did she get all of that time with him?  We don’t know if anyone but Jochebed and Miriam knew what their connection truly was.  We don’t even know what Amran thought about this. No men play any part in this story of salvation. Eventually, Jochebed turns her son, who is called Moses, over the princess to be raised as young prince, grandson of the murderous Pharoah.

     We don’t know when Moses learned the truth of his ancestry. Maybe he carried it with him from childhood. Kids can tell us the truth about who they are from a young age, if we listen. Jochebed could have worked every day to make sure he knew as much as he could soak up by her side.  Or, maybe his adopted mother told him the truth when she felt he was ready. We know she’s brave. Maybe she was that kind of brave. Or, maybe he heard it through gossip and conjecture. After all, the princess’s attendants saw him be drawn out of the water. However he comes to know this truth about himself, it will shape his whole life. It will become the foundation of his calling as an adult.

     When we read this story, it’s clear who the heroes are, and it’s clear that we are supposed to act like them. When told to do harm, they show us the correct response: let the vulnerable live. Do not follow wicked rules. Do not be a tool for the hateful. Use all of your wit and wisdom to outsmart the evil systems that surround you. When governments turn to fear-mongering to prop up their power, this story reminds us that 1) wicked and unserious leaders have been doing that for a long time and 2) it is possible to survive in spite of them. May we be the Midwives, the Mothers, and the Big Sisters who take the first steps towards God’s Liberation.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
​Sara M. Koenig: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-21/commentary-on-exodus-18-210-2
Kimberly Russaw: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-21/commentary-on-exodus-18-210
Wil Gafney, Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of Torah and the Throne. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017.
Judith Sanderson’s notes on Matthew in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)
Mary Alice Mulligan, “Proper 16,” Preaching God’s Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year A featuring 22 New Holy Days for Justice (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013)