Exodus 1:13 says, And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:  The Egyptians became very harsh in their treatment of the Israelites.  We today in America have never experienced anything like this, but people in some parts of the world have.  Verse fourteen states, And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.  The Israelites were basically tasked with all the hard work.  Since the Egyptians feared the Israelites becoming too powerful, they thought they would work them down.  Verse fifteen declares, And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah:  Then verse sixteen adds, And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.  The king devised another way to keep the Israelites, or Hebrews, from becoming too powerful.  He told the Hebrew midwives if the a Hebrew woman was having a son, they were to kill it, but if the child was a daughter, then they were to let her live.  We might ask how these midwives could be expected to do this to their own people, but the king had ordered them to do so.  Sometimes, we may have to choose between following the orders of the government and the orders of God.  Of course today, people kill the unborn child simply because we see that as our right and not for the fear of anything except inconvenience.  Verse seventeen says, But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.  When having to chose between obeying man or obeying God, the midwives chose to obey God.  I am sure they realized what this could cost them, but they stood for what was right with God.  Hopefully, if we have a choice today between doing what man commands and what God commands, we will chose to stand with God.  Verse eighteen declares, And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive?  The midwives were called before the king and basically asked why they had disobeyed him.  Verse nineteen states, And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.  The midwives basically lied to Pharaoh and said the Hebrew women gave birth before they could get there.  Not to defend lying, but it may have been the only way for the midwives to stay alive.  Verse twenty declares, Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.   Since God dealt well with the midwives, we can assume that what they did was acceptable to God, and the nation of Israel flourished because of their actions.  I believe that when we stand with God we will flourish, spirituality if not materially.  Verse twenty-one continues, And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.  God blessed the midwives materially because they had been faithful spiritually.  Verse twenty-two declares,  And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.  Since the Pharaoh's first plan didn't work out, he ordered all the Hebrew sons to be drowned, but again he was sparing the daughters, though I don't believe it was because of compassion for them.  We should never be surprised by the inhumanity of some people to others.