As Christian parents, we are called of God to raise godly children, and there is no challenging time than our time when this task seems difficult. Media advancement, governmental influence over family life sometimes makes this task unfruitful. The scriptures in Exodus 1:1-4, 15-17, 22 may help us to take our position as we journey in this ministry (parenting) God has called us into.
Verse 1 to 4 of this Exodus Chapter 1 shows us the names of people just like you and me. We all have a name, don’t we? These lists of names are names of those who came to Egypt during the famine in Joseph’s day with Jacob.
These group of people dwelt in Egypt and the Bible says they were fruitful. They were growing in strength and in number as they gave birth. This created a kind of fear in the heart of the king. The king was challenged by the fruitfulness of the Israelites.
In verse 15, we now begin to see a fretful king taking actions against the Israelites. He did not ask that they be killed, but he purposed to use the midwives as instruments to terminate the coming generations of Israelites.
He worked with 3 targets which are:
- Entered an alliance with the midwives
- He targeted the birth stage
- He demanded the deaths of the sons
I believe it is crucial for us to closely consider these 3 targets of this King of Egypt if we will successfully fulfil our call of parenting, particularly at this crucial time.
He entered an alliance with the midwives
The king made alliance with the midwives. Who are midwives? Midwives are trained nurses who take care of pregnant women and see to the birth of every child. How does this affect us as parents? I believe every parent after giving birth to a child still carries a pregnancy; this pregnancy is that of keeping in her womb the plan and the purpose of God for her child. Remember the scriptures said of Mary the mother of Jesus that she kept many things in her heart concerning our Lord. (Luke 2:19) She kept prophecies in her heart.
Every godly parent carries the destiny of their children daily in the place of prayer. They are treasures to her. She would not go about spreading the news but she’ll incubate it, for when it’s properly incubated it will bring forth that which will be made manifest in the child’s life.
Every single child is destined for something in the sight of God. No child is a waste, even the one you called mistake is not a mistake in God’s plan. This is a mistake some parents make; they look at their circumstances and thinks that the child has no part to play in life. Even the one you call ‘disabled’ is not disabled in the sight of God if only you seek His mind concerning the child.
On the contrary, the enemy knows the weight of our children’s destinies and the impact this will have on his kingdom, hence the reason why the king of Egypt went and employed the midwives to help him to accomplish his plan concerning the children that were about to be given birth to.
Even in our contemporary times, do you know that the enemy still uses that principle of the midwives in order to terminate the destiny of many children? I’m not just talking of the midwives in the hospital. Midwives could be their teachers at school, Sunday school teachers, etc.
He targeted the birth stage
The king sought for the services of these midwives in order to kill the sons. Like I said earlier, ‘the midwives’ the enemy seeks their services, in order to kill Christian children are at times teachers, friends etc. He knows that these people are in a more privileged position to carry out his plan at this particular stage. These are crucial stages that if the child can survive it, then the rest will be history. Therefore, as Christian parents, we ought to be discerning and wise in the academic pursuit of our children.
This blog is an excerpt from our mini books page under resources.