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A HEROINE OF THE FAITH
Exodus 2:1-10
Bob Bonner
May 11, 2008
Being as it is Mother’s Day, this morning I wanted to introduce to you a true heroine of the faith, one from whom each of us, whether male or female, mother or not, could look to as a role model. Her name is Jochebed. Jochebed has been called “the forgotten woman” because she has been lost in the shadow of her illustrious son, Moses. What is meant by “forgotten” is that many Bible readers do not know the names of Moses’ parents, because in Exodus 2, where the account of Moses’ birth and early years is given, neither of his parents names are listed. In fact, her name is only mentioned twice in the scriptures, in Exodus 6:20 and Numbers 26:59, and both times rather incidentally. But both of Moses’ parents’ names play a prophetic role in his life.
Allow me to remind you that to the Hebrews, names were more than just a handle to identify someone. They literally defined the person. When a name was given to a person at birth, it almost foretold their role in the world. Sometimes their names reflected what they physically looked like or a condition under which they were born.
Jochebed literally means “Yahweh is glory” or “Yahweh is honor.” Obviously, she came from parents who considered the worship of Yahweh to be important, even during an era when most Hebrews had turned their backs on God, having endured four hundred years of slavery at the hands of the Egyptians. But not Jochebed’s family. From birth, she was a woman whose life purpose was to direct her people to honor and glorify God.
Moses’ father’s name was Amram. His name means “kinsmen” or “people.” Notice what happens when you put the names of these two god-fearing parents together. Combined, their names send the message that “these people are to give glory to God.” In other words, as a result of a faithful set of parents coming together to produce Moses, Israel became a people or nation whose first leader’s sole purpose was to bring glory to God.
Now, before we read our passage for study this morning, allow me to set the stage, that is, the historical background. Following Joseph’s death at the end of Genesis, the historical data concerning Egypt for the next six hundred years is rather meager. What we do know is that during the 18th dynasty, a new native Egyptian Pharaoh took back Egypt from the reign of the foreign Hyksos kings and began to build Egypt into the most powerful empire in the world for the next five to six hundred years. A good guess would be that this 18th dynasty began sometime between 50 and 150 years after Joseph’s death. Under this new Egyptian regime, steady streams of prisoners of war flowed into Egypt and were immediately put to work as slaves to build the empire. It was during this time that Joseph’s relatives, the Hebrews, were also enslaved.
Because the historical record is so scant, one can only imagine how it was that the Hebrews became enslaved by these native Egyptians. I would not be surprised if the native Egyptians, having been under the rule of a foreign king for centuries and obviously very poor in comparison to Joseph’s relatives, became jealous over the Hebrew’s wealth. Their greed and a desire for revenge could have played a part in their taking back the land from all foreigners who had subjected them to lower class treatment. In a fashion similar to Hitler’s Nazi regime, they probably quickly took from the Hebrews and the other wealthy foreigners all of their possessions, including the prime real estate they had acquired in Goshen.
By the time we come to Exodus 1, the Hebrews have been slaves in Egypt for about four hundred years and were living in dark days of despair and hopelessness. Yet despite their enslavement, the Hebrews were reproducing at an alarming rate and had grown to over two million people. According to verse 9, they were more in number than the Egyptians and thus presented the Egyptians with a threat of revolt or coup. Egypt could be once more placed under foreign dominance.
Recognizing this potential, the Pharaoh resolved to reduce the threat by reducing the numbers of the Hebrews. He had three successive plans to reduce their population growth, each of which failed. First, he worked the men hard and fed their families little to tire them out and to discourage them from having children. But this didn’t work.
Then he ordered the midwives to put the male babies immediately to death when they were born. There is some evidence that the possibility exists that these midwives were not Hebrews, but Egyptian midwives helping the Hebrew women give birth. Either way, the midwives refused to follow through on Pharaoh’s orders.
Really desperate, Pharaoh commanded all his people that if they became aware of any Hebrew boys being born to snatch them from their mothers and drown them in the Nile. Daily, you would see patriot Egyptians raiding Hebrew homes, grabbing newborn male Hebrew babes, and tossing them into the Nile to drown. We can only imagine the alarming nighttime raids, the hateful voices, the screeching, screaming mothers, the yelps of beaten fathers, and the cries of infant babies.
These economic, political, social, and racial pressures probably had a lot to do with the struggling faith of the Hebrews and may explain, as we read in Joshua 24:14, why many Hebrews had joined in the idolatrous worship of the Egyptian gods. According to Ezekiel 20:6-8, during this time the Hebrews had turned their backs on Abraham’s God, and they had quit circumcising their male babies, the significant token of their covenant relationship with Yahweh.
Without going any further, let’s look at our text. We read in Exodus 2:1-10 these words; “Now a man from the house of Levi [Amram] went and married a daughter of Levi [Jochebed]. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got him a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile, with her maidens walking alongside the Nile; and she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid, and she brought it to her. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, ‘This is one of the Hebrews’ children.’ Then his sister [Miriam] said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?’ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Go ahead.’ So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her [Jochebed], ‘Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed him. The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she named him Moses, and said, ‘Because I drew him out of the water.’
From the beginning of verse 1, we see evidence of Amram and Jochebed’s faith. Think about the historical, political, and social climate in which this man and woman deliberately chose to get married. Some might have advised this young couple against marriage in such harsh times. But as we will see, when a couple share faith in the Lord and remain faithful to Him, their shared faith alleviates much of the stress and struggles of life.
From other passages in scripture we learn that soon after they married, they had their first child, Miriam, followed by her first little brother, Aaron, 12 years later. It was after Aaron’s birth that Pharaoh’s edict went out to kill all the male babies. Three years later, when Miriam was 15, Jochebed found herself pregnant again. But this time was different. Imagine her real fears now in light of the Pharaoh’s edict. What a time to get pregnant! Moses was born under the most difficult of circumstances. People wanted him dead, and he had done nothing, yet.
From the middle of verse 2 through verse 10, we see over and over again examples of Jochebed’s exercising her faith in her role as Moses’ mother.
At the end of verse 2, we see that Jochebed protected Moses from an early capture and drowning. It tells us that, against the Pharaoh’s orders, she “hid him for three months.” Presumably with Amram’s support and young Miriam’s cooperation, she did her best to keep Moses’ birth a secret by keeping him quiet when the ears of Egyptian overseers were nearby.
Besides the natural parental desire to care for one’s children, Jochebed and Amram had an added faith incentive to protect Moses. In Hebrews 11:23, we are told this: “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king's edict.” The writer of Hebrews tells us that it was not just due to the natural desire to protect their child that the parents hid Moses, but it had to do with a matter of faith. But faith in what? I believe they had three matters of faith upon which they based their actions.
First, they had been taught by their parents and had remembered what God had promised to Abraham and his people in Genesis 15:13-14. God told Abraham: “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve; and afterward they will come out with many possessions.”
God had clearly foretold that this situation of slavery in Egypt would take place, and that the Hebrews would be oppressed as slaves for four hundred years. Furthermore, it was not difficult for this couple or anyone else at the time to add up the number of years and to recognize that they were almost up. Hence, they believed that God would raise up a deliverer very soon. I believe that while pregnant and before their child was born, Amram and Jochebed had determined that they would not allow their child to be murdered. Maybe their child would be a boy and be the one to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt and back to their promised land of Canaan.
The second matter of faith concerned the reality that they knew that Moses was “beautiful.” “What’s that have to do with anything,” you ask. “Every mother thinks their kid is beautiful.” Yes, but not every father considers their brand new newborn to be beautiful. Men, especially those who are fathers for the first time, don’t typically look at a newborn and say, “Wow! She’s a knock out!” To the typical male, all babies are ugly, distorted, red, and wrinkled. Half the time, we can’t even tell they are ours, or hope that based on what they look like that they are not! Yet, Hebrews 11 says that both parents “saw he was beautiful.” That word, “beautiful” means more than just attractive. It is an expression that means “unusual,” “special,” or even “favored.” Somehow both Jochebed and Amram knew from the very beginning that God had special plans for their son. And I will show you later that I believe there is scriptural evidence that the parents knew eighty years before Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt that he had been born for this assignment.
A third act of faith is revealed in the statement that both Amram and Jochebed “did not fear the king’s edict.” They knew that it was always better to honor God than to fear men. When God says, “Don’t murder innocent children,” then you don’t murder innocent children, whether they are born or remain unborn, no matter what others may pressure you to do. It is always better to honor God than to fear men. For these reasons of faith, his parents chose to withstand whatever would come to protect baby Moses.
Imagine how difficult it must have been for Jochebed to keep a newborn quiet for those first three months. Close friends and neighbors probably were all aware of the birth, but none of them would have turned the baby over. But if one of the “Gestapo,” the Egyptian overseers, just happened to walk by during a baby’s outburst, he would be discovered. This led Jochebed to quickly realize that Moses could not stay with them for very long or, for sure, he would be killed. So she worked on a plan that she hoped would save her son’s life.
Our text says that during these months, she came up with a “wicker basket.” Really, the word for “basket” is the same word for “ark.” She either made it herself or had someone else make it out of reeds. Then she made it seaworthy by coating it with pitch and tar so that it wouldn’t leak. All of that took time and planning.
Before she put her plan into action, she explained to her fifteen-year-old daughter Miriam what the plan was. She was to be her co-conspirator. She told her that they would take Moses and the ark down to the river and hide it in the reeds near the edge, at the place where Pharaoh’s daughter was known to bathe. After leaving the baby there, mom would return home, but Miriam would stay behind and wait for Pharaoh’s daughter to show up. When she did, and presumably after Pharaoh’s daughter found the baby, then right on cue Miriam was to just happen by. If the daughter looked like she had taken pity on the baby, as most young women would have, then Miriam could ask if she could find a Hebrew woman to nurse the child. That’s about all of the planning Jochebed could do; the rest she would have to leave up to the Lord. There were no guarantees that any of this would work. To say that there were anxious moments would be an understatement.
The day finally came. Jochebed and Miriam took Moses and their little ark down to the river. I imagine with tears, fears, and many last kisses and hugs, Jochebed prayerfully pushed him into the water so that he would get caught up in the reeds. Then she hugged Miriam and headed back home alone. That must have been one long, lonely, and sorrowful trip. Even though she was stepping out in faith, there was risk, and she must have feared failure.
Meanwhile, Miriam stood at a distance to remain unnoticed. After a period of time, sure enough, the Pharaoh’s daughter came by to bathe. She spotted the ark, a boat large enough to hold a three month old child safely. She instructed one of her servants to fetch it. Catch God’s perfect timing. This young woman, who probably was not yet of marriageable age but was tender toward babies as most young girls are, saw and heard that remarkable child crying as soon as she lifted the lid of the ark. That cry struck a cord of mothering instinct in the young girl’s heart. How else could she respond but to have compassion toward the child? As this young princess’s attention turned to the basket, she couldn’t help but notice that it had been carefully constructed to preserve the child. “This,” she realized, “has all the markings of a mother’s love and protection.” This vulnerable young woman probably felt for the first time the Hebrew women’s pain brought on by the cruel edict of her father. Her innocent childlike conscience welled up in her and she responded, “Not this child!”
Miriam couldn’t believe her eyes and ears. Quickly she moved toward the princess, doing everything she could to maintain self control so as to not betray her relationship to Moses. She remembered the words she and her mother had rehearsed over and over, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from one of the Hebrew women?” The answer returned short and quick, “Go!”
While still in sight, Miriam hurried, but not too fast back to her home. But when out of sight, I imagine she ran like she had never run before. She exploded through the doorway of their home and gushed out all that had happened down by the river. Jochebed, probably amazed as well, returned as fast as she could.
In the meantime, don’t think for a moment that the Pharaoh’s daughter was fooled by Miriam’s just happening to be there when her brother was discovered. Young as this Pharaoh’s daughter was, she knew this was no coincidence. Furthermore, when Jochebed showed up unable to hide her radiance and excitement and handled the hungry baby expertly, Pharaoh’s daughter was very aware that this was the child’s mother. Hence, to make sure that her good deed did not fail, and lest this baby starve to death, Pharaoh’s daughter offered to pay her a living wage to nurse this child until he would be able to be brought to the palace.
This had to push Jochebed over the edge. Can you imagine a mother who would go to any lengths to save a child she loved getting paid to look after him? In her wildest dreams she could never have expected this outcome. God was at work, and you can bet the farm that back home that night, the whole family praised God together for His goodness.
Most agree that Jochebed held onto Moses for probably close to five years. During those years Jochebed revealed one more act of faith concerning Moses. During those five years, she prepared Moses for his role as Israel’s deliverer. Five years was enough time to teach Moses Who God is, and how he fit into God’s plan. It was enough time to teach him how to pray. It was enough time for both Jochebed and Amram to live as spiritual examples before this bright future leader.
While she nursed him, she would sing God’s love songs to him; when she worked around the house, she prayed out loud to God, teaching Moses by her example that prayer is important. At that inquisitive age when a child asks what seems to be millions of questions in one day (“Why does Daddy have to work so hard?” and “Why are those men beating our friends with whips?”), Moses would learn from his mother about God’s promises and about God’s call upon his life.
After five years passed, Moses moved to the palace and was adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter. But he never became an Egyptian. He knew he was a Hebrew and he knew he would one day be the leader of his people. He never forgot what his mother had taught him during those first five years of his life.
How do I know that? Look at what Hebrews 11:24-27 tells us about what Moses knew and what Moses did. “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.”
Let me interrupt your thoughts for just a moment. First, these verses point out that Moses’ God-given moral conscience must have been reinforced by the teaching of his mother during those first five years, because there is no other way he would have come to the conclusions that led to such upright living in that situation.
Secondly, those verses imply that at the very least Moses knew he was identified with the Jewish Messiah in his role as a deliverer, leader, and prophet. He knew he would face the same rejection that Christ did, but all of the riches of this world would not deter him. Why? Because Moses knew the secret that obeying God brings future eternal rewards. It is even possible, as one might understand from a study of other passages in the New Testament which mention Moses, that Moses was well acquainted with the future ministry of Jesus Christ. I don’t know if all of that came from Jochebed’s teaching or through another supernatural channel. But Moses knew who he was and for what purpose God had called him.
Here’s one more passage that reveals the depth to which Moses learned his lessons about who he was and Who God is at his mothers knee. In Acts 7:23-25, we read this about Moses: “But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. [That’s interesting. He always knew that he was a Hebrew, not an Egyptian.] And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him; but they did not understand.”
Why did Moses assume that everybody else in the Hebrew camp would know he was to be their deliverer? Because he thought their mothers had taught them about the promises of God, just as his mother had taught him! Sadly, not all Christian mothers take that role seriously. They leave it up to Sunday School teachers or to no one at all.
One last thought: It is possible that Amram and Jochebed lived to see the day that Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. For sure, we know Miriam and Aaron were with him. Amram died at the age of 137. Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt when he was 80. Amram would have had to be 57 or older at Moses’ birth not to have seen or made the trip with his son out of Egypt.
If you take the time to ponder what we have just been reading about Jochebed’s faith, her role as a model mother, and how God blessed her obedience to Him, the lessons are too numerous to cover them all at this time. But I will start you off with just two to consider.
The first point is one parent’s often times take for granted: Do not underestimate the importance of parenting in the first five years of a child’s life. Today’s parents have no idea how much a child learns or fails to learn because they are not paid attention to during the child’s first five years. Many women today view motherhood as a burden rather than a blessing. Day care centers are filled with many of their children. That is not to say that all working mothers consider motherhood a burden. Nor do I intend to say that no mother should ever work. Tragically, too many women are forced for various reasons to work and place their children in day care centers.
However, if you are a mother who is working outside the home, just make sure you are working because there is a need to work, and your working outside the home is not driven by a desire to simply maintain or gain more comfort at the expense of building godly young men and women. Keep in mind, the most formable years of a child’s life are the first ten years. Once those are gone, they are gone! If at all possible, be a stay-at-home mom as long as you can. Nobody can replace you as the child’s mother. Nobody will care for or show concern about your child’s present and future as you will.
Secondly, so often we look at our circumstances and we think the worst. As a parent, you may find yourself divorced and think that there is no way, because of their fractured environment, that your children can grow up secure in Christ as stable men and women of God. But look at Egypt with its political and social unrest—prejudice, violent oppression, a father gone most of the time under the hand of forced labor. Yet, God overruled it all when a mother, who put her confidence in God and believed in His promises, decided that, regardless of what was going on around her, she would fulfill her responsibility to rear a daughter and two god-fearing sons.
The point is, if we look to God, despite our split home or the lack of money or that we may live in a ghetto, we will find He is bigger than all those adversities. And when we wait upon Him and put our confidence in His promises, He delivers. He rewards. He responds to our needs. To put it in the form of a principle: A person of faith learns to put more confidence in God and His promises than in the impact that one’s environment can have.
1. From your own childhood, what socially negative environmental impacts did Jesus overcome to reach you and begin the positive transformation process in your life today?
2. What is the greatest fear you have concerning your children’s environment? Have you continually laid that fear before the Lord and prayed for their protection?
3. What stressful time are you going through that demands courageous faith? Have you asked anyone to join with you in praying for His success in your situation?
4. What was one thing you can remember from your upbringing (either bad or good) that you learned before you were age 5?
5. What is the greatest truth you want your children to catch from watching your life?
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