A Mother’s Faith

The Pharaoh issued a hit on every Hebrew baby boy. If anyone in Egypt found one, they were to throw him in the Nile. Serve him up to the crocodiles. Genocide was on Pharaoh’s mind, and Amram and Jochebed were living in the kill zone. One cry and one vigilant neighbor who heard and investigated would result in the death of their baby, Moses. Here is where we see the first act of a mother’s faith. “She hid him for three months.” That’s 90 days and over 2,000 hours, every one of which could have been Moses’ last. Why did she risk it? 

Because this was her son, flesh of her flesh. But she also knew because this was a critical time for Moses to be nursed by his mother, to bond with her, to be held and comforted by her, not to mention all of the physical and cognitive development that would take place in those first few months. This boy was being raised by faith and make no mistake: all godly parents raise their children by faith. We may not be living under the edict of a tyrant, but we are about the business of raising godly children in an ungodly world. We can only do that by faith and by the grace of God. But no matter what, we must do that. Each child and each day is precious. 

The writer of Hebrews wrote, “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” Stephen mentioned the same thing in his sermon before he was stoned to death, that Moses “was brought up for three months in his father’s house.” This mom and dad cherished every moment with their son, not knowing how long they would have him. The same is true for us, Mom and Dad. 

 The next act of faith was also born out of tremendous pressure: Jochebed knew that she could not hide Moses forever. So she prepared a basket for him, an ark, made of bulrushes, and covered it with pitch. The word in Hebrew for this little boat is used only one other place, in the book of Genesis when God told Noah to make an ark…and cover it with pitch. The readers of Exodus in the wilderness and later generations would certainly recognize the symbolism. God saved his people through an ark in Noah’s day. God delivered his people by sparing the deliverer in an ark many years later. The Bible says that Moses’ mother “put the child in (the basket)…among the reeds by the river bank.” Philip Ryken said she must have put her heart in there as well. She “placed” the basket in the water. The word means, “gently placed.” With a mother’s love and courage born of faith in a loving God, Jochebed gently turned her child over to God. Hannah did the same with Samuel but she was just giving him over to Eli the priest. Jochebed was turning her son over to the elements, but she knew, by faith, that she was placing Moses in the arms of God. 

You know the rest of the story. God did protect Moses. He used five women in the birth narrative to make sure the deliverer of His people would be able to grow up and do just that. We owe so much to Shiphrah, Puah, Jochebed, Miriam, and even the unnamed daughter of the Pharaoh. She raised Moses in the seat of power, where he was “trained for Pharaoh’s overthrow right under Pharaoh’s nose!” (James Hoffmeier)

God is good, and our children are precious.