Today, we are launching our summer worship series on Moses by looking at the events that led up to Moses’ birth.

The story we find in the first chapter of Exodus is a story of the contrast and the potential inherent in every one of us. On the one hand, we have the most power man in the world at that time, the Pharaoh. He had all the wealth, soldiers, weaponry, and power. Yet he was afraid of a powerless group of people, the Israelites, who were at the bottom of the social ladder.

Pharaoh’s fear, left unchecked, easily turned into hate. His Hate, left unchecked, turned his mind to irrational behavior. His irrational behavior turned to violence toward the Israelites because the Israelites were seen as less than human, having less value.

This fear-to-hate and hate-to-violence is part of not only our world but of all of us. We are all broken. We lack the ability to trust God completely enough to live without fear. We are frightened by the things we hear, read, and see in our world. We must recognize that because we are sinners there is a bit of Pharaoh in each of us.

Fortunately, while every one of us has a bit of Pharaoh in us, we also have the potential of Shiphrah and Puah. Their task was to deliver babies into the world. They showed remarkable courage when they refused to obey Pharaoh’s command to make sure that Israelite sons died at birth. They were willing to risk death, because they feared the Lord more than Pharaoh.