Midwives and Ushers: Preserving Life Against Oppression

Devotional

Day 1: When Fear Distorts the Image of Others

Fear reshapes how we see people, turning neighbors into threats. Pharaoh’s fear of Hebrew strength birthed policies of dehumanization, mirroring ideologies like Mussolini’s racial hierarchies. Oppression rarely begins with violence—it starts with distorted narratives that reduce humans to problems. Exodus 1 warns that systems of death often grow from small seeds of fear. To see others as God sees them requires resisting fear’s whispers. [36:31]

“Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said 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.’”
(Exodus 1:8–10, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you seen fear distort how individuals or groups are perceived? How might you actively choose to see others through God’s eyes this week?

Day 2: Midwives at the Threshold of Life and Death

Shiphrah and Puah stood where empire demanded death but chose to protect life. Their quiet defiance—lying to Pharaoh about Hebrew women’s vigor—mocked his fear of Israel’s strength. These women feared God more than power, using their limited influence to preserve futures. Their courage reminds us that small acts of resistance can dismantle systems of death. [39:10]

“Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ‘When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is 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.”
(Exodus 1:15–17, ESV)

Reflection: What “Pharaoh-like” pressures demand your compliance? Where is God inviting you to protect life despite fear?

Day 3: Arks in the Storm of Empire

Moses’ basket, like Noah’s ark, was a teba—a vessel preserving life amid destruction. Pharaoh’s decree to drown boys became the very means Moses survived, floating toward Pharaoh’s daughter. God subverts oppressive systems through ordinary objects and unlikely rescuers. The same word that saved Noah now cradles Israel’s future deliverer. [41:11]

“When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.”
(Exodus 2:3, ESV)

“Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.”
(Genesis 6:14, ESV)

Reflection: What “arks” has God placed in your care to shelter hope? How might you trust His subversive plans in chaotic times?

Day 4: Ushering as Sacred Resistance

Black church ushers historically guarded sanctuaries as spaces of refuge amid violence. Like Shiphrah and Puah, they stood at thresholds—welcoming, protecting, and preserving life. Ushering is not about seats but stewarding holy ground where fear cannot enter. Their silent gestures declared, “This place matters.” [45:13]

“For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”
(Psalm 84:10, ESV)

Reflection: What “doors” has God placed you near to guard or open? How can you cultivate spaces where others encounter safety and dignity?

Day 5: Women Who Ushered in Liberation

Moses’ mother, the midwives, and Pharaoh’s daughter—each woman’s act preserved life through subversive obedience. Jochebed “obeyed” Pharaoh by placing Moses in the Nile, yet her ark defied death. Pharaoh’s daughter claimed the child meant to drown. Their collaboration birthed deliverance, proving God works through unlikely allies. [42:34]

“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.”
(Exodus 1:20–21, ESV)

Reflection: Who are your unexpected allies in God’s liberating work? How can you join Him in “subversive obedience” today?

Sermon Summary

Exodus one sets Pharaoh before the people as a king who “knew not Joseph,” a king cut off from memory, gratitude, and truth. Pharaoh sees the Hebrews not as neighbors, not as people who have blessed Egypt through Joseph’s story, but as a threat. Fear changes the way Pharaoh sees, and once fear gets in his eyes, fear gives Pharaoh permission to exploit, separate, silence, and finally destroy.

Pharaoh’s fear does not stay private. Fear becomes prejudice, prejudice becomes ideology, and ideology becomes a system of oppression. Mussolini’s racial fear and fascist Italy’s violent policies show the same dangerous progression, even though Pharaoh and fascist Italy are not identical. The warning is sobering, because distorted views of human beings still show up in dominant culture, in headlines, in anxious talk about birth rates, and in the constant breathing of fear.

Exodus one refuses to let Pharaoh have the last word. Shiprah and Puah stand right in the middle of empire’s death dealing plan, but they fear God more than they fear the king. Pharaoh uses power to crush life, but the midwives use the little power they have to preserve life. Their holy disobedience shows that unjust commands do not deserve obedience when obedience would make a person an agent of death.

Pharaoh escalates when his first plan fails, but God is already moving through women who know how to usher life into dangerous places. Moses’ mother places her child in the Nile, yet she does not surrender him to death. The basket, the teba, echoes Noah’s ark, because God again provides a vessel to preserve life through waters meant for judgment. Pharaoh’s daughter also refuses death by drawing Moses out instead of throwing him back in.

The women of Exodus stand like ushers at the door between death and life. Shiprah, Puah, Moses’ mother, and Pharaoh’s daughter all act in nonviolent ways, and all of them make room for what God is bringing forth. Ushering is not merely finding a seat. In the black church tradition, ushers are doorkeepers, guardians, ministers of hospitality, people who protect the sanctuary so life can continue. Faithfulness may mean standing at a door between fear and faith, despair and hope, what has been and what God is bringing forth, making sure the new thing God is birthing has a safe place to land.

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Key Takeaways

1. Fear changes the way people see [38:17] Pharaoh’s violence begins before the command to kill children. Fear first reshapes his imagination until Hebrew people become a threat instead of human beings. The danger of fear is that it starts to feel reasonable while it quietly trains the soul to accept cruelty. [38:17]
2. Holy disobedience preserves threatened life [39:10] Shiprah and Puah refuse to let Pharaoh’s command become their conscience. Their fear of God is not private sentiment, but public resistance to a death dealing system. Faithfulness sometimes means refusing an order because obedience would betray the God who gives life. [39:10]
3. God hides deliverance in fragile vessels [40:38] Moses’ basket looks small against Pharaoh’s empire, but the teba carries the future of liberation. The waters meant for death become the place where God preserves a deliverer. God’s rescue often comes wrapped in something that looks too vulnerable to matter. [40:38]
4. Ushering is a sacred responsibility [43:07] The image of the usher turns preservation into ministry. An usher stands at the threshold, welcoming, watching, guarding, and making room for life to continue. God places people at doors where the choice is not neutral, either fear gets protected or new life gets welcomed. [43:07]
5. New life needs protected space [45:55] Faithfulness is not only dramatic confrontation with empire. Faithfulness also looks like nurturing what God has placed close by, protecting it until it can breathe, grow, worship, and become. The question is what God has entrusted to someone that needs a safe place to live.

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Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[22:49] - Midwives, Midwives, Future
[33:57] - Fear Turned Into Ideology
[36:14] - Pharaoh And Fascist Italy
[37:13] - A King Who Knew Not Joseph
[38:17] - Fear Gives Permission
[39:10] - Shiprah And Puah Resist Pharaoh
[40:38] - Moses In The Ark Basket
[42:04] - Women Preserve Life Nonviolently
[43:07] - What Are You Ushering In?
[44:42] - Ushers As Guardians Of Sanctuary
[45:55] - Standing At The Door
[46:41] - Preserving What God Entrusted
[47:22] - Living As Midwives Of The Kingdom

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Exodus 1:8-22
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said 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 Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, 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 in 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 Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is 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?” 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 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.” [37:13]

Observation questions

What steps does Pharaoh take in Exodus 1 after he begins to see Israel as a threat, and how does his fear grow into harsher actions? [38:17]
What do Shiphrah and Puah actually do in response to Pharaoh’s command, and what reason do they give when Pharaoh confronts them?
What details in Exodus 1 show the contrast between Pharaoh’s use of power and the midwives’ use of their limited power? [39:10]
Which women in the Exodus story are shown preserving life, and what forms does that preservation take? [42:04]

Interpretation questions

Exodus says the king “did not know Joseph.” What does that suggest about memory, gratitude, and the way power can forget the people it once benefited from? [37:51]
Fear can become prejudice, prejudice can become ideology, and ideology can become a system of oppression. How does that progression help explain what Pharaoh is doing in Exodus 1? [36:31]
The midwives feared God more than they feared Pharaoh. What does their response show about when obedience to authority becomes disobedience to God? [40:11]
Moses is placed in the Nile in a basket like an ark. What does that image suggest about the way God preserves life in the middle of a death-dealing world? [40:38]

Application questions

Fear changes the way people see. Where has fear recently tempted someone to view another person or group mainly as a problem, a threat, or a burden instead of as human beings made in God’s image? [37:46]
Shiphrah and Puah preserved life with the little power they had. Where might someone feel small or powerless right now, and what would it look like to still choose courage, mercy, and protection there? [39:15]
Some doors stand between fear and faith, despair and hope, death and life. What door might God be asking someone in the group to stand at right now? [45:28]
New life needs protected space. What has God entrusted to someone here that needs guarding, nurturing, or making room for in this season? A relationship, a calling, a child, a healing process, a ministry, a fresh start? [46:41]
Ushering is a sacred responsibility, not just a task. What would it look like for this group to become a safer place where people can breathe, grow, tell the truth, and be formed by God? [43:07]
Pharaoh’s system kept escalating when life was preserved. When pressure increases, what usually happens in a person’s heart: compromise, anger, silence, withdrawal, prayer, clarity, courage? What helps someone remain faithful under pressure? [40:38]
These women ushered in life nonviolently. What are some specific ways someone could resist what is harmful without becoming harsh, cruel, or destructive in return? [42:37]

Sermon Clips

46s

“Pharaoh does not begin by saying, I'm going to destroy all these people. He begins by essentially saying, these people are a threat. And once human beings are reduced to a threat, it becomes easier to justify exploiting them, separating them, silencing them, and eventually destroying them. And Exodus one reminds us oppression often begins with distorted views of other human beings. Before Pharaoh ever orders the killing of Hebrew children, He has changed the way he sees Hebrew people.”

42s

“Shiprah and Huah stood at the threshold between life and death. They were positioned where they could either participate in pharaoh's death dealing systems or they could protect the life which god was bringing forth. Ushering then is more than a function, it's a ministry. It's more than a position, it's a mission. And maybe God has placed some of us at doors today. A door between fear and faith. A door between death and life. A door between despair and hope. A door between what has been and what God is bringing forth.”

72s

“How are you preserving what God has placed in front of you to care for? What has God entrusted to you that requires you to stand at the door to protect it, nurture it, and help it come to life? Even in the midst of fear, there are shippers and puas out there defying odds, resisting empires, and ushering something new into the world. And the hope, the prayer, the desire is that we too will be part of the mission, that we too will live our lives as midwives, bringing forth what God is declaring, what God is pushing through, what God has declared as new, what God is bringing as the kingdom, the kingdom of God.”

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