A man from the family of
Levi married a Levite woman. The woman became pregnant and had a son. She saw
there was something special about him and hid him. She hid him for three
months. When she couldn't hide him any longer she got a little basket-boat made
of papyrus, waterproofed it with tar and pitch, and placed the child in it.
Then she set it afloat in the reeds at the edge of the Nile. The baby's older
sister found herself a vantage point a little way off and watched to see what
would happen to him. Pharaoh's daughter came down to the Nile to bathe; her
maidens strolled on the bank. She saw the basket-boat floating in the reeds and
sent her maid to get it. She opened it and saw the child--a baby crying! Her
heart went out to him. She said, "This must be one of the Hebrew
babies." Then his sister was before her: "Do you want me to go and
get a nursing mother from the Hebrews so she can nurse the baby for you?"
Pharaoh's daughter said, "Yes. Go." The girl went and called the
child's mother. Pharaoh's daughter told her, "Take this baby and nurse him
for me. I'll pay you." The woman took the child and nursed him. After the
child was weaned, she presented him to Pharaoh's daughter who adopted him as
her son. She named him Moses (Pulled-Out), saying, "I pulled him out of
the water." Exodus 2:1-10 (Message)
We are introduced to a woman named Jochebed in Exodus 2. She
stands out as one of the greatest mothers revealed in the pages of
Scripture. Her selfless love and
sacrifice made possible the exodus of God's people from Egypt and literally
changed the course of history.
We learned the story of Moses in the basket early in our
religious education. As we colored in
the basket and the faces of Moses and his sister by the water we may have
missed the fact that he was spared from death by the commitment, courage and
creativity of his mother Jochebed. God’s
plan for Moses was dependent on her.
While we are captivated by the cunning it took to insure her
presence in the life of her son, we need to also recognize that she never lost
her conviction about who God was and His purpose for His people although living
in a pagan world. As she raised Moses,
she taught him the stories of Jehovah God and His choosing of His people. Her values were imparted to him as she
nurtured him in the palace of the pagans.
Jochebed was a woman motivated by a strong faith in the will
of a Sovereign God! Her faith was so
strong that she was named, along with her husband, to God's Hall of the
Faithful in Hebrews 11:23. She needed this kind of faith to accomplish what
she did for the Lord and for her son. It
took faith to place the child in the river. This was the same instrument which
was being used to drown the other babies. (So Pharaoh issued a general order to all his
people: "Every boy that is born, drown him in the Nile. But let the girls
live." Exodus 1:22) It
took enormous faith for this mother to take her hands off the life of this
child and leave him to the will of God.
Jochebed’s son became a great man of God. He was the one man
whom God had chosen to be the deliverer of the people of God and the one who
was destined to be known as the Great Lawgiver Of Israel. I would imagine that Jochebed never realized
his potential when he was a baby. I suppose that she lived the remainder of her
life and never knew what God did with the life of Moses. In her own way, Jochebed rises as high as any
mother in the Bible. This mother's love and sacrifice were vindicated in the
way God greatly used her son!
Parents, you never know who you are raising! The lesson we learn is that God just wants us
to be faithful so that He can take what we have planted in our children and use
it for His glory and His kingdom. Jochebed
stands, even after all these years, as a true portrait of a godly mother. I
wonder how we parents stack up against her witness today?
Scripture to
Claim:
Hear, my son, your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's
teaching; indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head and ornaments about
your neck. (Proverbs 1:8-9)
