Welcome to today's Daily PBJ devotional. If you're reading the Old Testament with us this year, read Exodus 1, Job 18, and Psalm 49 today. This devotional is about Exodus 1. These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all, including Joseph, who was already in Egypt. Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died. But the Israelites were fruitful and increased rapidly. They multiplied and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them. Then a new king, who did not know Joseph, came to power in Egypt. Look, he said to his people, the Israelites have become too numerous and too powerful for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase even more. And if a war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country. So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Ramses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and flourished. So the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. They worked the Israelites ruthlessly, and made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields. Every service they imposed was harsh. Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shipra and Pua, When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them on the birth stools. If a child is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, let her live. The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had instructed. They let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live? The midwives answered Pharaoh, The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before a midwife arrives. So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live. This is God's word. A few years ago, Mary Dugan of Glasgow, Scotland, retired after 30 years as a midwife. During her career, she helped women deliver 5,000 babies. Her retirement, however, was not something she celebrated. It was forced by the hospital where she worked, which required her and other midwives to supervise abortions. The hospital did not require her to perform the abortions. but it insisted that she supervise others who aborted unborn babies. As a practicing Catholic, Mary felt like supervising abortions made her as guilty as the driver of a getaway car in an armed robbery. That's her quote. Although Mary fought legally for the right to follow her conscience, she lost. Having exhausted every means of following her conscience and keeping her job, she felt she had no choice but to retire. When I heard about Mary's story, I immediately thought of Exodus chapter 1, which we just read. While the midwives of Exodus were not forced to perform abortions, they were required to commit infanticide, killing Jewish baby boys, after they had been delivered. While abortion happens before birth and infanticide happens after, they're no different from each other, morally speaking. Killing a baby, born or unborn, is wicked in the sight of God, and worse than barbaric to any person who values human life. Pharaoh had political and national motives for requiring the midwives to kill those boys. He was concerned that the population explosion among the Jews would cause them to overwhelm the Egyptians, as we saw in verse 10. The midwives disobeyed Pharaoh's orders. They feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do. They let the boys live, in the words of the NIV. Although they were dishonest in the reasons they gave Pharaoh, according to verse 18, verse 20 told us that God was kind to the midwives. And the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. Again, that's verse 20 in the NIV. Was it wrong for the midwives to lie to Pharaoh? No. It is never wrong to use deception to stop someone's evil plans. God's blessing on the midwives shows that he was pleased by their moral choices. They did not use deception to take advantage of someone else, for their own gain, or to avoid accountability for their own sin. That's how deception is sinful. Their deception was a sincere attempt to obey God, rather than a human authority who is living in defiance to God's moral laws for his own selfish, sinful purposes. I hope you and I are never in a position where we are legally ordered to do something that is wrong. But if we are, may we have the same faith that these midwives had, and choose to obey God and trust him instead of allowing fear to coerce us into doing what is wrong. Think about that today, and I'll see you next time. May God bless you. I hope you have a great day.