(Introduction/point of contact: Newspapers this week: Napalm victim from one of the most memorable pictures from the Vietnam War, Kim Phuc, now a resident in Canada says ‘Stop the killing’.

Oppression is ghastly and our news papers and TV screens report plenty of it. In our story, the Egyptians ‘set taskmasters over time to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharoah. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites…’

Why are we surprised when people oppress other people? It’s right there in the beginning of the biblical account. The king of Egypt told the midwives, Shiphrah and Puah to kill the boys as they are born but allow the girls to live. It then goes on to recount how the midwives feared God and didn’t do what the king of Egypt told them to do but rather let the boys live. So the king summoned them and asked them why. The midwives’ response was that the Hebrew women gave birth so swiftly that the midwives got there too late. And the story says that because they feared the Lord, God gave them families of their own.

The enigma of oppression is all about the oppressor fearing those who are being oppressed. This pattern seems to be built into human experience. You could go all around the world today and exegete this passage. In Sudan, in Zaire, in Burma, in parts of S America, and in Afghanistan etc etc and you find the oppressor comes to fear the one who is being oppressed. Then the screws are tightened and the oppressor moves from ruthless injustice to attempted genocide. And it’s common for the genocide to be carried out by persons from within the oppressed community – in the Exodus story two ordinary women.

I am indebted to Dr. Roberta Hestenes and others who tell us that midwives in Israel were barren women, and in a culture where building a family was the way to build respect and to know the blessing of God, these barren women were rather marginalised. They found a place in the community by helping to ‘bring forth life’. And then came the order from the authorities to ‘kill the boys’. The girls could be used as house servants, but the boys must be destroyed in such a way that it would not look as if they were killed’. But these two ordinary women who were probably illiterate said ‘No’.

That sure took courage. Where did it come from? Well, they ‘feared God’. They had a fundamental conviction that while there was a Pharoah there was a God over Pharoah, and while they knew they had to give account to the human authorities and powers, they also had to give account to the One supreme over the human authorities and powers. So, they feared God and they said ‘No’.

Then, Pharoah summoned them. Can you imagine what it must have felt like to have the soldiers march to your little hovel in the slave quarters, push their way in and say, ‘Hey, you, come!’ And then to stand before the Pharoah and hear him say ‘Why did you not do as we commanded?’ They had carefully framed an answer, ‘Because the Hebrew women are vigorous and give birth before the midwife gets there’. I reckon we’re allowed a little joke at Pharoah’s expense. There’s no doubt that because of the slave culture the Egyptian women were pretty pampered and the Hebrew women were hardworking slaves, tough women who were able to deliver with few problems. But if they always had their babies before the midwives arrived why were there midwives?

How did God respond? Because they were God-fearers, God gave them families of their own. Now I think it is important to say that in our secular culture we are inevitably increasingly secular ourselves, even when we are open to the transforming power of God, simply because we are part of the culture. Sometimes even our Christian culture plays down ‘the fear of God’. God is our Friend. God loves us.

I want to say that we do need to fear God. God is holy, just. God is the judge. God is no less our judge because of God’s love.

Notice that these midwives were not the spiritual professionals -not engaged in full time ‘spiritual’ service. They had jobs right in the middle of society, and in their jobs they were governed by the fear of God.

What happens if there is no fear of God? If there is no fear of God our horizon shrinks and our measurement of right and wrong becomes utilitarian. ‘What’s in it for me? What will I gain? Can I get ahead? Will this make a difference?’ Or we may even ask what we can get away with or ‘Who will know?’ On my way to Sydney several years ago with our youngest daughter and a few of her friends, we stopped at a roadhouse and while eating our snack we commented on the provision of food, pharmacy, petrol, restrooms and newsagency, but one girl said ‘Yes, but did you see the magazines they are selling?’ I went to investigate and was disgusted, so boldly approached the manager and said ‘This is a fantastic set up you have here, but why do you spoil it with those offensive magazines?’ His response was that that was what people wanted so he supplied them.

What a difference if he had the courage to say ‘No’ to that sort of literature. When the fear of God is gone we too easily become focussed on our own gain. When the fear of God is absent the decisions of daily life are threatened. When the fear of God is gone we too easily become vulnerable and susceptible to pressures to conform to the wrong values, to give in to power even when it is used for destructive or evil purposes, to live a lie, and to deny our calling. When we are called to be helpers we turn into hurters because power told us to.

These women had courage. Where did it come from? It came from a conviction that there was a God, to whom we give an account, a God who honors us when we are obedient, a God who means good for people. This courage came from another source too. There were two of them, and I think each took courage from the other. At least if they had to go before Pharoah they’d go together.

In our witness in our work place, in following through your theme here to ‘Make Christ known through friendship’ you all need support. Some of you are in prayer triplets, but if you are not you need another person to pray for you in your work place, someone whom you can phone with good news about progress or hard news about struggle. None of us can do it alone.

The ‘NO’ of these two ordinary women resulted in life for many. It is obvious that God used them in their place of daily work.

But there is a sense too in which we need to say ‘YES’ to God -‘YES’ to the prompting of the Spirit of God, and this involves being close to God so that we can be aware that God is saying something to us.

I’d like to read a heart-warming story to you by a lady by the name of Eva Booth. It shows the uplifting power of love, and I trust it will grip your heart as it did mine.

One morning I stood outside the large iron gates of a local police court and temporary prison. There were people waiting there, some out of curiosity, and some because they had a relative inside. I waited expectantly for the opening of the gate. I heard the shuffling of heavy feet. They came close; then I heard the sounds of loud voices, and one especially that got louder and louder and more shrill. It was the voice of a woman.

The gates opened wider, and I witnessed a sight which, time will never erase from my mind. It was a woman. Two policemen walked in front, two behind. One stalwart man firmly held the right arm and another the left. Her hair was uncombed, matted and disheveled. Her right temple was blackened with bruises; clots of dry blood stood upon her left temple. Her clothes were torn and bloodstained. She tried to wrench her arms from the grasp of the police. The very atmosphere of the morning was laden with her curses and her oaths. She tossed her head wildly as the six policemen dragged her down the passageway.

What could I do? One more moment and the golden opportunity to be of help would be gone. Could I offer prayer? No, there was no time. Could I sing? It would have been absurd. Could I give her money? She couldn’t take it. Could I quote a verse of Scripture? She wouldn’t listen. On the impulse of a burning desire which filled my heart as she passed, I stepped forward and kissed her on the cheek.

Whether the police were taken off-guard by my extraordinary action and had relaxed their grasp I do not know, but with one wrench she freed her arms, and clasping her hands, as the wind spread her matted and disheveled hair, she looked toward the grey skies and said ‘My God!’ She looked around wildly for a moment and then said, ‘My God, who kissed me? My God, who kissed me? Nobody has kissed me since my mother died.’

Lifting her tattered apron, she buried her face in her hands, and like a little lamb she was led to the vehicle which took her to the prison.

Later I went to the prison in the hope of seeing her, and at the door stood the warden. When I approached the warden she said, ‘We think her mind has gone. She does nothing but pace up and down her cell, asking me every time I go in if I know who kissed her.’

‘Would you let me go in and speak to her?’ I asked. ‘I may be her only and best friend. Would you let me go right inside her cell? ”Yes, of course.’ She opened the door and I slipped in. Her face was clean, her eyes were large and beautiful, and she said, ‘Do you know who kissed me?’ And then she told me her story:

‘When I was a little girl, seven years old, my widowed mother died. She died very poor although she was of gentle birth. She died in a back basement in the dark. When she was dying she called me to her, took my little face and kissed it, and she said to me, “My poor little girl. My defenceless little girl. Oh God have pity on my little girl, and when I am gone protect her and take care of her!” From that day to this, nobody has ever put a kiss upon my face until recently.’ Then again she asked ‘Do you know who kissed me?’

Then I said, ‘It was I who kissed you.’ Then I told her about Jesus whose love was so much more tender than mine could ever be, and how he went to the cross and bore our sins upon himself and was wounded for our transgressions, that he might put the kiss upon our brow.

In Jesus she found light and joy and comfort, and salvation, healing and love. Before she was released from prison the wardens testified to the change in her life, and to its beauty. She was able to encourage numbers of others who were down as low as she had been.

So I’ve been asking you to say No and to say Yes. ‘No’ to the ease of conforming to what society says and does, and to follow the example of the Hebrew midwives in their courage derived from their fear of God, their awe of God, and ‘yes’ to the prompting of the Spirit of God to show love and compassion to those whose path in life has been rough. Who knows what God might achieve in your life if with the prayer support of another you were to have the courage in your workplace of those two midwives, and the trust in the Spirit of God that will help you to love the unlovable. Well?

Rowland Croucher