The first chapter of Exodus is filled with intrigue and, iterestingly, doesn’t feature the Jewish people except as background for the story. Instead it features God, the Pharoah and the midwives. In this way we have a juxtaposition about those who live in fear of the Lord and those who don’t. As was the case in the book of Genesis, there was no official Hebrew nation. There was only the descendants of Abraham. It was this event that gathered them and pulled them out to be counted before God and formed into his people. Nonetheless, we can clearly see that the choice to follow God is blessed despite your ethnicity. Here we see that Hebrew impact on midwifery stayed, despite the Hebrew impact on government fading. This is not unlike many social services of western culture, which continue to function on their Christian origins, despite the government distancing itself and even mocking them or pretending they didn’t exist at all. It is telling that God blessed the midwives, even in their deception, because their actions were born out of proper fear of him. It was an attempted genocide that their god fearing hearts could not abide. It would follow that God blessed others who sacrificed this way as well in history, such as Schindler or the TenBooms. This is a Romans 2 passage, in that it demonstrates that faithful service, even without the law, is pleasing to God and is salvific in nature. It is as simple as living by a morally clean conscience. If life is lived this way, even the pagans could live in God’s blessings.