Dr. Ed Young - Unseen Heroines
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Our Scripture is found in the book of Exodus. In Hebrew, the first word in chapter one of Exodus is and, and all this happened in Genesis, and. And then we move into Exodus, and I want you to notice what's going on. Beginning with verse number 8. "Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to the people of Pharaoh, Look, the people of children are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, war, and they also join our enemies and fight against us, and to go up out of the land".
Exile. "Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens". Slavery. "Then the King of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives". What did he say? "He said the midwives feared God, and did not do as the King of Egypt had commanded". What did he command? "When you do your duties as a midwife for the Hebrew women, see them on the birthstool, the rocks in which they use to bring birth, and if it is a son, you shall kill him". Infanticide. You'll find at the last verse. "So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, 'Every son who is born you shall cast into the Nile, the river, and every daughter you shall keep alive.'"
Sound familiar? Those words, we look at ancient Egypt, and we say what a horrific land that is. Infanticide. Child is born, throw him in the river. Can you imagine such paganism? Can you imagine such heartlessness? Can you imagine such racism? Can you imagine such extremity that went on in a land that did not know the Lord God and set about killing and destroying a people. Putting down or people, eliminating a people, stagnating their growth. Can you imagine? Such a place ever existing on the earth is that? Egypt was a sane and sensible land, ladies and gentlemen, compared to the United States of America.
Since 1973, Roe v. Wade was passed, in America, we have seen through abortion, which clearly defined is a child's murder in the womb of the mother. That's what it is. Sixty-three million children have been killed in the place where they should be safer than any other place throughout their life. You say, "That's a lot of people". Of all the people who are being slaughtered in Afghanistan, all the people who are now being slaughtered in war, take all of this number, and all of those who are victim of genocide in Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, all the people that Joseph Stalin murdered. All the people that Mao in China murdered through genocide, and add them to everything that's happening in Ukraine today, and 63 million that we have legally murdered in the mother's womb is a greater number than all of them added together.
Before I get into. Roe v. Wade a little further. Let me say something parenthetically over here. To those females, who, probably at an early age, not understanding the ramification of pregnancy in life, had an abortion. By way of confession, and witness when I married, I was a virgin. Even back in those antique days, I was not sort of one of the guys. That's a fact. Now, but if a girl, let's say 14 or 15 had gotten pregnant, whether I was a part or not and that girl would have come to me and asked for advice, and if at that time, which it wasn't, it was legal and reasonably safe to keep from that life being disrupted, I, a Christian, quote, "Christian," end quote in that area of immaturity, would have advocated abortion. That's my confession.
So let me say that a lot of young people have given up the life of a child, an unwanted, an unexpected, undesired pregnancy and they did not know what most of us know today, and they did not have the maturity to understand the sacredness of life. God forgives, God cleanses, and that was a mistake of the past. Let me say that without thinking I'm standing up here as some super pious clergymen pronouncing judgment of those who, at a young age, made a tragic mistake. As far as God is concerned, and as far as life is concern, okay? And I will show you what's happened today in our world. We know there has been supposedly a leak from the Supreme Court that evidently a ruling will come down, which Roe v. Wade will be overturned.
As someone who is on the side 100% of life, I am thrilled and pray that will become a reality. Unapologetically. In the process of this, a group called Cure in cooperation with the CDC, in cooperation with the African American Pro-Life group, they have presented a paper to Congress in this whole area of abortion, which is mind boggling to me, and it's heartbreaking to all who know God and believe in the sacredness of life. Let me give you an overview of what has been revealed.
Out of the 63 million abortions, 40% of those abortions, 19 million, have been African American children in the mother's womb. Of those 20 million was there another Martin Luther King killed? Was there another Thomas... killed? Was there someone there who could have let us out of the bondage, we find ourselves in as Americans today? Was there someone there who could made such radical difference in medicine, in research, in the political air. There's 20 million. You know how many people 20 million, 20 million is roughly the population of the state of New York killed before the life left the mother's womb.
Planned Parenthood, Oh, it's a great title. You know who founded it? Margaret Sanger. She is the philosopher of eugenics. What is eugenics? It is the fact that you suppress different races. That's what Hitler did with the Jews, suppressing unwanted group people, and that's exactly what has happened today to a whole fabulously gifted group of people who are part of our America. Do you realize what that means? It means that there has been a hidden racism operating in America to suppress a whole racial group of people.
Where is... parenthood located in America? Right up next to the minority areas. It is the hidden racism that's 1973 in America, and it has been carried out under the banner of civil rights, as if it is a civil right for any mother, oh, I can roll my own body. Ladies and gentlemen, let me remind you of something, life then and life now is sacred. It belongs to God, and when conception takes place, it no longer is under our auspices.
I didn't want to say this. Very hurtful for me because I'm a patriot. I love this land. I have sung from the top of my voice for a lot of years. Hard for me to say this. Listen to it carefully. Take it home. Think about it. I'm having a hard time singing "God Bless America". Oh, why should God bless America? He has blessed us and we used our blessing to exploit those who were most down and most needed a leg up and help and love. And that's an indictment upon you and me. But the great tragedy is, In America, we are voting on life, ladies and gentlemen. We're voting on life. Human being voting on life. May there be a wake up call all over America as we in this church stand for life. Say it with me. We stand for life. Life. Life. And we do not apologize for it because life is a sacred gift of Almighty God.
What happened in Egypt? Five heroines changed history, five women whose name, I dare say, most of us even though our church people will know only one of the names, five names, five names. You ever heard of somebody named Shiphrah? Ever heard somebody named Purah? Ever heard of anybody named Jochebed? Ever heard anybody named Miriam? Ever heard anybody named Bithra? Five women. They're in Egypt. When they were faced with infanticide with slavery, with prejudice, with bigotry because the Israelites were growing, they needed to be suppressed. Let's look at those five women rapidly. You're goin' to see five tremendous women. We don't even know their names.
Looked back and say Hebrew midwives of whom the name of one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other was Purah. And he said when you do the duties of the midwife, or a Hebrew woman and see them on their birth stools, if it's a son, you shall kill him. It says, but the midwives feared God. What did they do? They had faith in God. He said they feared god more than they feared the government. How important that is today. But the midwives feared God, verse 17, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but saved the male children alive. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, Why have you done this thing and saved the male children alive?
Now they had faith and that gave them courage, right? Faith gives us courage, faith in a living God. And the midwives said to Pharaoh because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are lively and give birth before the midwives can come to them. Therefore, God dealt with the midwives and the people multiplied and grew very mighty, and so it was because the midwives feared God that he provided households for them. You see, the pattern here of this verse? Watch this. First woman we're honoring. She had faith in God, because of that faith, she had courage to stand up against Pharaoh and his edict. And then she had what? Creative thinking. Creative thinking. She told Pharaoh, look these babies were born before. Some was true. Some was not true.
You see how God used these two unnamed women who were midwives, and look at the next one we come to it. And it says and a man was born in the house of Levi, and when he took his wife, a daughter of Levi, and the woman conceived and had a son. Here's two believers, tribe of Levi. She was pregnant. They were married. Nuclear family. And can you imagine during that pregnancy when the edict of Pharaoh was, if a male child is born, throw him in the river? Can you imagine what they prayed for, O Lord, give us a female, not a male, O Lord, give us a female, but a male child was born. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, the word beautiful there means sort of a special gift, and she hid him three months while she nursed him, but when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes and the child, put the child in it, and laid in the reeds by the river banks.
A woman of faith had courage, planned for this baby, and she did exactly what Pharaoh said. Throw the child in the river, and she did. She had faith. She had courage, and she had creative thinking, this mother did, and then we have another fabulous, fabulous woman. That's Miriam. Miriam was, in all probability, the older child, already born. Aaron was another child of hers. And the sister Miriam from afar off to know what should be done. The sister followed that little ark into the Nile. Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the river and her maidens walked along the riverside and when she saw the ark among the reeds and sent her maid to get it. And when she opened it, she saw the child.
Here's Miriam. Watch it now, ten to twelve years old. She goes down... for her. Three-month old brother that's been born. Knowing that if they find out, he would be drowned in the river. And she watched, and Miriam had to discern from Bithiah. Who was that? That was Pharaoh's daughter. That was a princess. How she would respond to this unwanted death sentence pronounced on this Hebrew child, she had to read, read, the princess to see how she responded, and when she opened up and the princess responded positively, knowing it was a Hebrew child. That's when Miriam... what faith she had in God, what courage, she had a 10- or 12-year-old, and what wonderful creative thinking she involved. She went down there and then, and as the princess must have held the baby, she said, "Do you want me to get a woman to nurse this child"?
Yeah, and, Bithiah, the princes said yes. And Miriam went back home and said, Jochebed, Mom, come down we've got an assignment. You're gonna have to nurse the baby. And by the way, the princess said really carefully, "I'm going to pay you for it". What a deal. How God works in this world. And so, Jochebed went down, got the child, took it home for about probably five years, and the child was weaned. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he's old, he will not depart from it. In those five years, that mom built, principles of God in that little baby boy, and then what about Bithiah? Hey, somehow the understanding of the sacredness of life from the Hebrews and their God, who she'd seen all their life, they worship and how they were blessed because they were true worshipers.
She had faith in God, and then she had courage to go and wait those four or five years until the child was weaned and then the mother. Gave up to the princess knowing, she could not bring up the child in Egypt. And so the courage of Jochebed to give the baby to the princess, and then the princess had the courage to (with some critical thinking, navigate between this) Pharaoh, who pronounced a death sentence, and then Moses was taught the highest form of education, the highest form of military strategy. He got a background in Egyptian culture, which was second to none at this moment in history, and by the way, It was Bithiah, the princess who named Moses, and the name Moses mean to be brought out of, to be brought out of the river, and Moses later on lived up to his name and he brought the children of Israel out of exile into life and the Promised Land.
How God works in the world, ladies and gentlemen. These five women had courage, had faith, in God, and had faith in God gave them courage, and that courage gave them creative, critical thinking, and all of a sudden, what is the result? You have Moses who was the most important person on this earth between Adam and in the garden, all the way to Jesus in Bethlehem. Moses was the number-one person to all humanity. And see, how God preserve life through these five individual women who had faith in God. They had courage and they became creative thinkers. Motherhood, the feminine world, the giftedness that is here.
Victor Hugo tells a story of a vicious battle that took place. It lasted almost four days. At the end of the battle, a captain and a sergeant was leading out of the battle a platoon of soldiers. They were in heavy woods. The captain looked over and saw some bushes moving. And he says, Sergeant, see what's behind those bushes. The Sergeant goes over there, and goes into the woods and brings out a shivering mother holding two little children. For days, they'd been there during the battle in hiding.
The children were fearful and they were cold and they were all obviously starving. The captain said, "Sergeant, give them something to eat". The sergeant reached into his pack and pulled out a little loaf of bread and handed it to the mom. And the mom took the bread and divided two pieces and gave one part to one child and one part to the other child and stepped back. The sergeant watched that and looks at the captain and said, "Could it be that she is not hungry? Could it be that she is not hungry"? And then the captain in a husky voice says, "No, it's because she's a mother".