Don’t Be Satan’s Flunky
This week’s Tidbit Text comes from Exodus 1:17: "The midwives, however,
feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let
the boys live." (NIV)
Many of us can probably recall times when we were asked to do things that we
knew were wrong. But in the midst of those situations, how many of us had the integrity
to say "no, I won’t do that." Well this is what we find in our text.
Pharaoh commanded the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, to kill every male
Hebrew baby, but guess what?—-They didn’t do it!!!! Put yourself in their
situation. The king of Egypt [your boss, co-worker, friend] summons you to his
palace [office, home] and commands [or asks] you to kill your own race [do
something that goes against the body of Christ–against the word of God].
Knowing that you will probably be punished [fired, demoted, imprisoned, dissed]
if you don’t comply, you still decide to obey God and "let the chips fall
where they may." That’s true obedience to God.
While these midwives didn’t come right out and say, "Pharaoh, we fear
the God of Israel, so we’re not going to do as you have commanded," their
actions spoke much louder than their words. And God rewarded them with
"families of their own" (Exodus 1:21)— and He will reward you too.
Because the Hebrew midwives obeyed God instead of Pharaoh, Pharaoh was
forced to go to Plan B; he had to use his own people, the Egyptians, to do his
bidding (Exodus 1:22). You might ask, "Why didn’t Pharaoh command the
Egyptians in the first place? That should have been Plan A." Let’s not be
naive. That’s exactly how Satan works. His first plan is to get God’s people to
do his dirty work. Then he can thumb his nose up at the Lord and say,
"See, I told you. They don’t really fear you; they don’t really love
you."
Don’t be Satan’s flunky!!! Let him use his own folk and LET GOD USE YOU!!!