A Good Time to Disobey

At one point in their history, the Israelites were held captive as slaves in Egypt. The king of Egypt, who was a wicked man, saw that the Israelites were growing in numbers, and was afraid that they might try to rebel against his rule. So, the king came up with a plan. Egyptian women often went to help the Israelite women when they had their babies. The king knew this. So, he told the Egyptian women to do this: whenever an Israelite woman gave birth to a baby girl, the child was to be allowed to live. But, if the child was a boy, he was to be killed. The king of Egypt thought he could keep the Israelite nation from growing if he did this.

But, the Egyptian women did not like the king's plan. They knew it was wrong to kill the babies. So, they disobeyed the king. If an Israelite woman had a baby boy, the child was allowed to live. This story is told in Exodus 1:1-22. Was God pleased that the Egyptian women disobeyed the evil king? Yes! Exodus 1:20 says that "God dealt well" with these Egyptian women. Is there a time when it is good to disobey? Yes! Anytime someone tells us to do something wrong, we should not do it.

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