Church Series-Civil Disobedience
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday November 29, 2016
The Church Series: Civil Disobedience
Lesson # 20
The Bible does teach that there are certain circumstances in which the Christian is justified in disobeying the governmental authorities.
This is called “civil disobedience,” which is the performance of an intentional act that is prohibited by the civil authorities or a refusal to perform an act that is required by the civil authority.
Christians are commanded to obey the Lord their God (Deuteronomy 13:4; Jeremiah 7:23; John 14:15) and they are also called upon to obey the governing authorities (Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-17; Titus 3:1).
However, civil disobedience becomes an issue for the Christian when these two claims upon the Christian come into conflict meaning when God commands us to do something like proclaim the gospel and teach the Word of God and the civil authorities prohibit this.
The solution to this conflict is that Christian is to obey God which is illustrated in Acts 5:27-32 when the apostles were commanded by the Jewish authorities to not proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and Peter told them “we must obey God rather than men.”
In Daniel 3, Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego refused to worship the image that Nebuchadnezzar set up and they were justified in doing so since God prohibited the Israelites from practicing idolatry (Exodus 20:4).
Also, in Daniel 6, the civil authorities prohibited Daniel from praying to the God of Israel and Daniel correctly disobeyed because obeying God is required if the civil authorities contradict God or prohibit the Christian from obeying God.
In Exodus 1, the Hebrew midwives disobeyed Pharaoh of Egypt’s command to murder infant boys who were born to the Israelite women since murder is against the law of God (Genesis 9:5-6).
Exodus 1:8 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we. 10 Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land.” 11 So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel. 13 The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously; 14 and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them. 15 Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah; 16 and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.” 20 So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty. 21 Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.” 15 Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah; 16 and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” (NASB95)
Moses records the names of two of the Hebrew midwives in order to honor them as heroes in Israel in the sense that they were obedient to God to the point of risking their lives by disobeying the edict of Pharaoh who could have put them to death for such disobedience.
Shiphrah and Puah were undoubtedly the senior midwives who functioned as leaders or administrators of an indefinite number of midwives in Israel.
Notice that in verse 18, Pharaoh summons the Hebrew midwives to enter his presence in order to question them directly face to face as to why the Hebrew boys were allowed to live.
This indicates that Pharaoh’s statement in verse 16 was a command that was not given directly to the senior midwives since it doesn’t say he summoned them into his presence.
Rather, it was given to them through his court officials since the text only says that he summoned the midwives to stand in his presence after his initial command did not produce the desired results.
Some argue that these Hebrew midwives were in fact Egyptian interpreting (ʿiḇ∙rî) (עִבְרִי), “Hebrew” as a genitive after the construct rather than an attributive adjective.
This would mean that these midwives would be “over” the Hebrew women, which leaves open the possibility that they were not Hebrew midwives which would solve the question of how Pharaoh could ever expect Hebrew midwives to kill their children.
So apparently Pharaoh did not believe at any time that these Hebrew midwives would disobey because he figured that they wouldn’t dream of disobeying out of fear for their own lives.
Pharaoh wanted to kill the boys and not the girls because first of all, girls do not fight wars in the ancient world, the men did and remember the motivation for this genocide campaign was the fear of losing a war.
Secondly, Pharaoh knew that if enough boys were killed, eventually women would decline in numbers because in the ancient world women were totally dependent upon men for survival.
Exodus 1:17 But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live. (NASB95)
Verse 17 says that the Hebrew midwives disobeyed the king’s edict because they feared God which means that they reverenced God in the sense that they honored Him because they had the conviction that obedience to Him was more important than obedience to the edict of a king, which in fact broke God’s law to not murder.
It means that they valued obedience to God’s command to not commit murder as more important than obeying Pharaoh’s command to commit murder.
It also means that they had the conviction that the consequences of disobeying God’s command to not murder would be much more severe than the consequences of disobeying Pharaoh.
The midwives’ disobedience to Pharaoh’s command to commit infanticide is an excellent example of when disobedience to a government authority is justified.
They lied out of obedience to God’s prohibition to not murder.
Exodus 1:18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.”
Some argue that there was some truth to the midwives’ statement to Pharaoh because they cannot believe that God would approve of lying.
However, He did approve of their civil disobedience out of obedience to His command to not murder innocent blood, thus God approved of their lying to Pharaoh to deceive him so to prevent the murder of innocent children and thus, there is a time when lying is justified!
Namely, it is justified to lie when the intent is to protect the life of a person whose life is being threatened by another and it is justified when it is done out of obedience to God’s command.
Why did Pharaoh accept the midwives’ explanation and did not kill them for their disobedience?
First of all, the midwives’ explanation indicated that there was a cultural difference between Egyptian women giving birth and Israelite women when they give birth.
Their explanation does not indicate a physiological difference between Egyptian women and Hebrew women but rather it points to a cultural difference.
Pharaoh would know that Egyptian women took a minimal role in delivering their own children whereas the midwives are saying that the Hebrew women took a greater role.
In fact, the widows are saying that before we arrive at the homes of these Hebrew women, they have already delivered the baby before we can kill the child.
When the midwives describe the Hebrew women as more vigorous they mean that they have an easier time of it in childbirth than Egyptian women.
Pharaoh and the Egyptians would have no way of verifying this was true because they had no contact with the Israelites since they totally segregated themselves from the Israelites because of racial bigotry.
Exodus 1:20 So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty. 21 Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them.
Verse 20 makes clear that God rewarded the midwives for their justified civil disobedience and verse 21 tells the reader how He rewarded them, namely, by protecting them from Pharaoh’s wrath and their explanation to Pharaoh was successful.
Furthermore, God gave these midwives their own families, which implies that they were childless and not married.
Consequently, because of the courageous actions of the midwives, the Israelites grew even more numerically and were innumerable, which was according to God’s will and the promises He made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to make a great nation out of their descendants.