The Courage to Say “I Cannot”

Standing Firm in Shifting Sands: The Cost of Discipleship in Hostile Institutions – Day 3

“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, NIV)

Good morning, friends! Most of us will never be summoned before a king. We will not face a royal decree, a throne room, or a public confrontation that ends up recorded in Scripture for all of history to read. But many of us will face a supervisor, a HR policy, a professional requirement, or an institutional expectation that quietly asks us to do something our conscience simply will not allow. The setting is different. The question is the same: what do we do when obedience to the one above us requires disobedience to the One above all?

When Obedience Means Refusal

The story of Shiphrah and Puah is one of the most remarkable acts of quiet courage in all of Scripture. They were Hebrew midwives, working women serving in an occupied culture under the shadow of a hostile empire. Pharaoh commanded them to kill every Hebrew baby boy at birth. It was not a suggestion. It was a royal order from the most powerful man in the ancient world. And they simply did not comply.

Exodus 1:15-17 gives us the account in plain, unhurried language: “The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, ‘When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.’ The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.”

Notice what Scripture does not say. It does not say they staged a protest. It does not say they drafted a petition, organized a movement, or gave a speech. They did not denounce Pharaoh publicly or call for his removal. They feared God, and in the quiet of the delivery room, they simply could not do what they had been told to do. Their refusal was not rage. It was reverence.

This is a pattern we see quietly threaded through the whole of God’s story: ordinary people in institutions who reach a moment when they recognize that what they are being asked to do falls outside the boundary of what they are able to do in good conscience before God. The choice is rarely dramatic in the way we imagine. It usually comes not with trumpets but with a form on a desk, a policy in a meeting, a checkbox on a screen, a directive from above. And in that moment, God’s people face what Shiphrah and Puah faced: the simple, costly question of whom they ultimately fear.

Peter speaks to exactly this internal experience in his first letter. He writes in 1 Peter 2:19-20: “For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.” The phrase that anchors this passage is stunning: conscious of God. Suffering that flows from a conscience formed by the fear of God is commendable in the eyes of heaven, even when it is painful, even when it costs something real, even when the institution above us does not understand and does not care.

The Source of Our Courage

Here is the honest truth: saying “I cannot do this” in a professional or institutional setting costs something. It can mean lost opportunities, strained relationships, a reputation for being difficult, and in some cases, the loss of a position entirely. We do not minimize that. The two women in our text knew the risk they were taking. Defying Pharaoh was not a small thing.

What made it possible for them was not their own resolution or natural boldness. It was the thing Scripture names plainly: they feared God. And the fear of God is not terror or anxiety; it is a deep, anchoring awareness of who holds ultimate authority over all things, including us, including our futures, including the outcomes of every hard choice we make in His name.

Jesus addresses the fear that tempts us toward compliance directly in Matthew 10:28: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” This is not meant to frighten us toward paralysis; it is meant to reorder our fears so that the fear of men, however powerful, is relativized by the fear of God. When we truly grasp that God holds our eternity and no institution does, the calculus of courage changes entirely.

God speaks this same reordering through the prophet Isaiah with extraordinary tenderness: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10, NIV) The command not to fear is grounded not in our own courage but in His presence and His strength. We are not told to manufacture boldness from within ourselves. We are told to receive it from the God who upholds us.

After the early church faced its own institutional pressure and threats, the apostles did not pray for the pressure to be removed. They prayed for something better. Acts 4:29 records their prayer: “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” Not relief from the threat. More courage to face it. This is the posture of people who have learned that the source of their strength is not their circumstances but their God.

And Paul reminds us of what ultimately makes all of this possible in 2 Timothy 1:7: “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” The Holy Spirit dwelling within us is not a spirit of fear or timidity. He is the Spirit of the living God, who strengthens us precisely in the moments when we need to hold a line we did not draw ourselves. The courage to say “I cannot” in an institutional setting is not a personality trait. It is a fruit of the Spirit working in people who have anchored their fear in the right place.

Like Shiphrah and Puah, we may never be remembered in the history books for what we quietly refused to do. But Jesus Christ, who faced the ultimate institutional pressure in Pilate’s courtroom and did not waver, walks with us into every difficult conversation and every policy meeting and every moment when a conscience formed by Scripture simply cannot comply. He knows what it costs to stand firm. And He stands with us.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank You for the example of Shiphrah and Puah, two ordinary working women who feared You more than they feared the most powerful man in the world. Thank You that their story is in Your Word, a quiet testimony that faithfulness in obscure places matters to You. I confess that I often fear the wrong things. I fear what people will think, what I might lose, what the cost might be. Forgive me for the times I have let that fear lead me to small compromises of conscience.

Today, I ask You to reorder my fears. Remind me that You hold my future, my reputation, and my provision far more securely than any institution ever could. When I face a moment that asks me to do what my conscience before You will not allow, give me the quiet courage of those two midwives. Give me power, not timidity. Give me love and self-discipline. Uphold me with Your righteous right hand, just as You promised. Let me leave every outcome with You and simply remain faithful where I stand. In Jesus’s name, I pray. Amen.

The moments that test our institutional faithfulness are rarely announced in advance. They arrive in ordinary conversations and unremarkable emails and routine meetings, and suddenly we are standing where Shiphrah and Puah stood. The good news is that we do not arrive at those moments alone or unprepared. We carry with us a conscience shaped by God’s Word, a Spirit who does not make us timid, and the memory of a Savior who endured the ultimate institutional betrayal with His eyes fixed on the Father. As we move through this day, we can hold all of that. And when the moment comes, we can speak the simple, costly, faithful words: I cannot do this. And God will be there.

We praise You, Father, for honoring the faithfulness of ordinary people in invisible places! We praise You, Lord Jesus, for giving us the ultimate example of what it looks like to obey God rather than men. We praise You, Holy Spirit, for being the Spirit of power and courage living within us. You are the source of every brave and faithful thing we will ever do.

To God be the glory.

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