The Mother of Moses
Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers! This morning I want to preach a message on the mother of Moses. I don't remember if I ever preached on Moses’ mother before, but she certainly was a great example of a good Christian mother. Our text this morning is found in Exodus 2:1-10.
We will find this to be a precious story of the wonderful providence of God in the lives of His people. This story affects the future of the entire Jewish nation, and it started with the marriage of a godly man and woman who gave birth to a very special child - a son, who by the providence of God would come to be called Moses.
This couple were both descendants of Levi, probably his grandchildren. They married within the family in those days to keep their tribe pure. This was proper and acceptable in Israel. We learn their names in Numbers 26:58-59, which were Amram and Jochebed. We know they were a godly and God-fearing couple because of their actions in our text, and because of what other Bible passages have to say about them. We also know that they had two other children, whose names were Aaron and Miriam, who were considerably older than Moses.
From our text in Exodus 2, I want to consider four points concerning the mother of Moses.
Exodus 2:1-2 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
Pharaoh was king of Egypt where the Israelites had been held as slaves under rigorous bondage for over 300 years by this time. And the Israelites kept multiplying in numbers, and the Egyptians feared that they would grow until they would outnumber and outpower the Egyptians, and would fight against them and escape from Egypt.
Because of this, Pharaoh made a decree that all of the newborn Israelite boys were to be killed by casting them into the river and be drowned, in order to control their population. Something like abortion today. Some countries actually use mandatory abortion as a means of population control, except it is the girls they abort, not the boys. I've heard that China does this! China is infamous for their violations of human rights! But in Pharaoh’s case, the baby boys grow up to be men, and men become soldiers, and soldiers can become dangerous enemies of the Egyptians.
So, for Amram and Jochebed, to try and preserve their son's life certainly could be dangerous for them…
Hebrews 11:23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.
As we will see, their fear of danger wasn't as strong as their fear of the Lord, and their love for the Lord and for their child. But I think the key motivation for their effort was their faith in God, especially Jochebed, who is the leading character in our text. She is the one who Moses gave the credit for saving him, at least humanly speaking.
Exodus 2:2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
Acts 7:20 In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair…
Exceeding fair means fair to God, or divinely fair.
Moses, no doubt, was a beautiful baby as babies go! But what parents don't think that their newborn babies are beautiful?
No doubt Moses was a cute kid, but I feel sure that Jochebed, and perhaps Amram too, had some sort of a special premonition from the Lord, that Moses would be a special baby given from God for a special service, and that they should make every effort to protect his life, which was in imminent danger. Of course this was a natural motherly instinct, so it was probably easy for her to do. Any mother who doesn't have a natural instinct to protect her child isn't much of a mother!
Now, regardless of whether or not she had a special revelation from God concerning her child, I think that every godly mother should think, or at least hope for their children, that God would save them and use them to serve the Lord in His Church! I believe that this is a most God honoring desire for every Christian mother to have for all of their children!
Today, too many parents, including mothers, are more concerned about their children's carriers, than they are about their eternal souls, which are one step away from the fires of hell.
Exodus 2:3-4 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.
4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
I don't think that making an ark was an afterthought. She no doubt had this planned and thought out the whole time, like phase two of her plan to save her baby. Some of the Jews believe that Moses was born three months premature so that no one would suspect that he was born, giving his mother extra time to prepare for the next step of the plan. Well, no one knows for sure. But either way, God could and did help her to keep her baby hid.
But this was a pretty ingenious plan. Making a little ark out of bulrushes and daubing it with slime and pitch so that it would float. Bulrushes were just reeds that grew along the river bank that were used for weaving baskets and such. Slime was a sticky, glue-like substance used on the inside of the ark as a seal, and pitch was a tar-like substance that was used on the outside. And it worked! The ark accomplished it's purpose - it preserved life! This sounds like a scaled down version of another ark in the Bible that was used to save life on the earth!
Next, she laid the ark with the baby inside in the flags along the river bank. In the flags, or reeds, the ark would be safe from the current and hold it near the shore. Now, she didn't put it just anywhere, but where she knew that Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe. I'm sure they studied this out ahead of time as well. It was part of the plan!
And then his sister, that is Miriam, watched to see what would happen. Again, this was also a very important part of the plan.
This was phase 3 of the plan. But this part of the story is out of the hands of Jochebed, Moses’ mother. She had done all that she knew to do up to this point, but now she must depend on her faith in the Lord for the deliverance of her son's life.
Exodus 2:5-6 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it.
6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children.
First, the baby had to be found by Pharaoh’s daughter. Jochebed put the baby in this particular spot in the river where she knew Pharaoh’s daughter bathed, but that didn't mean that she would go there that day and time. But by the providence of God she did, and between her and her maidens the baby was found.
Now, would she rescue the baby and save it from the decree of death, or would she throw it back in the river to drown? We know the answer, of course, but to Moses’ mother the outcome was uncertain, only her faith laid hold on the promises of God. This was what she planned and labored for the past three months, for the hope that her child would be saved. And by the grace and providence of God, Pharaoh’s daughter saved the child for her own. It had to be the Lord who put it on her heart to deliver the baby from the river, and from her father Pharaoh, who would have had the child killed.
Exodus 2:7-9 Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?
8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother.
9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.
Miriam had been instructed by her mother to do what she did, unless she was just a wise and perceptive young girl, which was also possible. In any case, she was bold and wise, and persuasive in offering to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the child for her.
This was a perfect and ideal solution to the obvious problem of how to feed and care for a young baby, which Pharaoh’s daughter would not have been able to do herself, or at very least it would have posed a great inconvenience to her to find a woman who was able to nurse the child for her.
Of course, according to plan, Miriam called Jochebed, her mother, who was probably somewhere nearby praying to God to have mercy on her, and help her, and save her child. What a blessed and happy day for Moses’ mother! Her prayers were heard and answered!
And we notice that she even got paid to take care of her own son! That was probably one thing that she hadn't planned on!
Exodus 2:10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
We don’t know for sure how old the child was when Jochebed brought him back to Pharaoh’s daughter, but some think 2 or 3 years, but he may have been even older. Again, Jochebed had to part with her son the second time! It was probably as difficult for her this time, or even more so, than when she parted with him the first time! But by now she knew that her son would someday be a great servant of God. She might have even known that God would use him to deliver His people from the bondage of Egypt.
And he became Pharaoh’s daughter's son by adoption. Historians say that Pharaoh’s daughter was married but could have no children of her own. So the Hebrew child was as her own son, which would be raised up with all the royal care and education and advantages, in preparation to one day ascend the throne, and to succeed Pharaoh as king of Egypt!
And she called his name Moses! Bear in mind, the child would have already had a name given to it by his parents, either when he was born, or else when he was circumcised. But we never learn what that name was. It was never recorded in the Bible. Even Moses himself, the author of the first five books of the Bible, never revealed that name, though I'm sure he knew what it was.
The name means “drawn” or “drawn out” because he was drawn out of the water. That was a very appropriate name, seeing that Moses was not only drawn out of the water to save him from certain death in the river, but he was drawn out by God Almighty to save him from the certain eternal death because of his sins, and drawn out of the Jewish people to become their savior from Egypt. Who would have ever known or thought that Moses would be the savior of Israel? I believe Jochebed knew, or at least had some divine insight from God about it.
When we think about it, Moses was a very likely candidate to be the savior of Israel, from the spiritual perspective. Like Christ, he was born to die, as it were. His deliverance from the river could be symbolic of Christ - of his death, burial and resurrection. But it would be another 80 years before he would be called of God to this awesome work. And at that time he was hated and despised by Pharaoh and the Egyptian, and even his own people stood in doubt of him. Again, we see some similarities between Moses and Jesus.
But Moses was a man with a speech problem. He didn't see himself as being right for the job. Just the opposite was true! If you remember, he tried to talk God out of it! And he only had his brother Aaron to help him in the work. But God always does things contrary to man's thoughts and man's ways. He was planning to deliver Israel using Moses even from his birth; even from eternity!
Beloved, Moses had the Lord on his side, and all the power of heaven at his disposal. How could he possibly fail?
In conclusion, Moses’ mother, Jochebed, was a great woman of faith. She loved her children, and she loved her husband, and she loved her Lord. It should be noted that all three of her children grew up to be servants of God, and all three were used mightily by the Lord.
She was a woman who cared more for her children and for the things of God than she did for herself. And that is true of all the great women in the Bible. That is what made them great women in the eyes of God. And the key to their success was their faith in God, along with their works of faith.
Hebrews 11:23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.
By faith, that is the faith of his parents. Moses was delivered from death at the hands of Pharaoh by the faith of his parents, especially his mother, who Moses gave credit for the work of his deliverance. Faith without works is dead. But Jochebed was a wonderful example of showing her faith by her works.
I hope that this mother will be an encouragement to you mothers to put Christ and your children before yourselves. You never know what great things the Lord might do for and with your children.
We don’t even know if Moses’ parents even lived to see how God mightily used their children. They would have been very old before God first called Moses to deliver His people.
We don’t always see or know how God uses our faithful service and works of faith, but as we see in this story, the result was honor and glory of God, and the salvation of His people!