When God Seems Silent: Lessons from Exodus 1 on Faithfulness, Fear, and Trusting God's Plan

It can be easy to wonder if God is working when life feels hard, uncertain, or even unjust. The opening chapter of Exodus offers a powerful reminder that God's purposes are always moving forward, even when we cannot see them. Here is what Exodus 1 teaches us about trusting God, facing fear, and doing the next faithful thing.

Is God Working Even When I Can't See It?

Exodus 1 opens with the Israelites growing into a massive people group over roughly 400 years. What looks like ordinary population growth is actually something much bigger. God had made a covenant with Abraham, promising that his descendants would become a great nation and be a blessing to all people. That promise was quietly being kept, generation after generation, even when no one was paying attention.

The Israelites had no idea that Moses was coming. They had no idea freedom was on the horizon. They simply knew they were in Egypt, and God was keeping his word.

It is easy to overlook God's faithfulness when it shows up in ordinary ways. Every breath is a miracle. Every new day is a gift. God is not limited to the part of the story you can currently see. You might see a delay. God sees preparation. You might see an ending. God may be writing a new beginning.

John Wesley called this "prevenient grace," the idea that God's grace goes before us, drawing us toward him even before we are aware of it. God is often working in your life long before you recognize what he is doing.

What Happens When Life Gets Harder Even Though You're Doing Nothing Wrong?

Everything shifts in Exodus 1:8 with one sentence: "Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt."

Joseph had saved Egypt from famine. His family had been honored and welcomed. But now, none of that mattered. The Israelites went from welcomed guests to perceived threats. Pharaoh looked at a blessed and growing people and saw danger, competition, and a security problem. So he enslaved them.

Fear has a way of turning blessings into threats. Political systems, relationships, and communities can all be shaped by fear of what someone else has or represents. It is worth asking: what fear has begun to run your life? Name it before it becomes another Pharaoh.

Here is the important thing: the Israelites had not rebelled. They had not done anything wrong. And yet life got harder. Some of you know exactly what that feels like. Suffering and struggle do not mean God is gone. Your difficulty is not evidence that God is absent.

What Does It Mean That the More They Were Oppressed, and More They Multiplied?

Exodus 1:12 says, "But the more they were oppressed, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread."

Pharaoh was pushing down against an eternal covenant of God without even knowing it. He was trying to crush a people whose growth was rooted in a divine promise. Every time he pushed down, God kept growing his people forward.

God's purposes are not stopped by human opposition. Pharaoh's plan was no match for God's covenant.

Who Were Shiphrah and Puah, and Why Do They Matter?

When Pharaoh's oppression was not enough, he escalated to something horrifying. He commanded the Hebrew midwives, Shipharah and Puah, to kill every baby boy born to a Hebrew woman. These two women faced the most powerful man in Egypt with a direct order to participate in evil.

And they refused.

"The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do. They let the boys live." - Exodus 1:17

Pharaoh had armies, authority, and the power to command an entire nation. But he was losing this battle to two women. That is worth sitting with. Our world measures greatness by power. God measures greatness by faithfulness.

What Does It Mean to Fear God More Than Your Circumstances?

The phrase "fear of God" appears throughout Scripture. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." But this does not mean being terrified that God will strike you down. Here is a definition worth remembering:

To fear God means to take God more seriously than whatever else is threatening you.

Shiphrah and Puah did exactly that. Pharaoh said, "Fear me." They said, in effect, "We fear God more." And that is where freedom begins, when you start taking God's voice more seriously than the loudest voice in the room.

Ask yourself: who has the loudest voice in my life? Whose approval am I living for? Sometimes following Jesus means deciding that God's voice matters more than the culture, more than someone's disapproval, more than comfort or reputation.

What Does Faithfulness Actually Look Like in Everyday Life?

Shiphrah and Puah did not overthrow Egypt. They did not rescue all of Israel. They did not know how God was going to solve the problem. They simply did the next faithful thing. They delivered babies. They protected life. They refused to cooperate with evil.

That is often what faithfulness looks like. It is not spectacular. It is not headline-worthy. It is telling the truth in love, keeping a promise, protecting someone who needs it, and refusing to participate in what is wrong.

There is a real danger in becoming passionately concerned about people and causes far away while growing increasingly irritated with the people we actually live with. It is easy to love people in theory. It is harder to love the person right in front of you. But that is what faithfulness calls us to: close, small, consistent obedience.

You do not have to solve Egypt. You just have to do the next faithful thing.

Does God Remember the People Who Feel Small and Overlooked?

Here is something striking about Exodus 1. Pharaoh commanded an empire. He enslaved an entire people. He ordered the deaths of children. And yet the Bible never gives us his name. Scholars can only guess based on archaeology and history.

But we know the names of two midwives: Shiphrah and Puah.

Pharaoh thought history was about him. But God was writing a story about liberation, and it featured two women who feared God more than they feared the most powerful man in the world.

You may feel small. You may feel forgotten or overlooked. You may feel like what you do day in and day out does not matter much. But God sees. God remembers. And God knows your name.

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." - John 10:10

What If the Chapter Ends Badly?

Exodus 1 ends with Pharaoh isssuing a horrifying command: throw every Hebrew baby boy into the Nile. No rescue yet. No Moses. No Red Sea. Just a grim, gut-wrenching order.

The Bible does not sanitize suffering. It does not pretend evil is not evil. It does not offer cheap answers to hurting people. Suffering is real. But here is what we know: Pharaoh does not get the last word. God does.

The chapter ends badly, but the story is not over. And neither is yours.

Life Application

This week, your challenge is simple but not easy: do the next faithful thing. Not the big dramatic thing. Not the thing that gets noticed. Just the next right thing God has placed directly in front of you.

Maybe it is a hard conversation you have been avoiding. Maybe it is forgiving someone, even if it does not lead to reconciliation. Maybe it is protecting someone who needs it, telling the truth when it would be easier to stay quiet, or simply showing up consistently for the people in your own home.

Stop waiting until you can see the whole plan. Shiphrah and Puah could not see the whole plan either. They just delivered babies and refused to cooperate with evil. And God remembered their names.

Ask yourself these questions as you go into your week:

• To fear God means to take God more seriously than whatever else is threatening you. What does that definition stir up in you, and how does it compare to how you have previously understood the phrase ‘fear of God’?

• Shiphrah and Puah did not overthrow Egypt or rescue all of Israel. They simply did the next faithful thing right in front of them. What does faithfulness is small, close spaces look like practically in your own life right now?

• The chapter ends with Pharaoh’s horrifying command, and Pastor Matt noted that the Bible does not sanitize suffering or give hurting people cheap answers. How does it help or challenge you to know that Scripture is honest about the reality of evil and pain?

• Pharaoh’s name is never recorded in Scripture, but the names of two midwives are. What does it mean to you personally that God remembers and honors faithfulness even when the world overlooks it?

God may be quiet in your situation right now. But his purposes are not. Keep going. You do not have the whole story yet.