Here is a devotion to start your day!
Also available now at Power, Love & Miracles:
Unassuming Heroes of the Bible: The Empty Tomb. Introduction
The Women Who Stayed. The Bible Unplugged podcast, episode 70
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The Heroes: Shiphrah & Puah
Quiet civil disobedience that preserves a nation
Scripture: Exodus 1:15–21
But the midwives feared God, and didn’t do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive.
Reflection
Shiphrah and Puah lived under a king who feared losing power. Pharaoh looked at the growing Hebrew population and felt threatened, so he issued a command that still chills us: kill the baby boys.
He tried to hide his cruelty behind the hands of midwives—women whose calling was to bring life, not death.
Imagine the pressure they felt. The most powerful man in the land expects obedience. The system is aligned against these Hebrew families. There is no court of appeal, no protest march, no public platform where their voices can be heard.
But Scripture gives us a clue: “The midwives feared God, and didn’t do what the king of Egypt commanded them.” Their reverence for God outweighed their fear of Pharaoh. So, they quietly resist. They protect the babies. They “forget” to follow orders. They craft careful answers when questioned. Their quiet “no” becomes God’s loud “yes” to a future generation.
Most of us won’t stand before a literal king. But we know what it feels like to live in systems where the pressure runs the wrong direction—toward dishonesty, disregard for the vulnerable, or decisions that harm rather than heal.
Sometimes being a hidden hero is not about a dramatic speech; it’s about drawing a line in your soul and saying, “I will not participate in what destroys.”
You may be the one in your workplace who refuses to cut corners, the family member who will not pass on the cruelty, the neighbor who will not be indifferent. Your “no” may never be recognized in a headline, but heaven remembers. God “dealt well with the midwives,” and their names are still spoken thousands of years later.
When you fear God more than you fear people, your quiet resistance can protect lives you may never meet.
Centering Prayer
God of Life,
I come to you with my mixed fears and desires. You see where I feel pressured to go along. Center my heart in holy reverence. Give me courage to say a quiet ‘no’ to what harms and a steady ‘yes’ to your ways of life and mercy. – Amen
Practice for Today
Notice one situation—large or small—where you’re tempted to compromise what you know is right. Decide in advance how you will respond and ask God for courage to follow through.
Journaling Prompt
Where am I feeling pressure to “go along” with something that doesn’t align with God’s heart? What might quiet, faithful resistance look like there?
Closing Blessing
Stand as one who fears God more than human opinion.
Hold fast to what is true, even when it costs you.
Refuse participation in harm, even in small, hidden ways.
Live as a quiet midwife of life in a world of pressure.
Pray as You Go
Breath in: Strengthen my heart…
Breathe out: … to do what’s right
