For Scriptural context: read Exodus 1.10-22; 2.1-10
By divine providence, Joseph, the son of the great Israelite patriarch, Jacob, ascended to power in Egypt. Soon his brothers would leave their homeland and move to Egypt with their families. The Israelite population in Egypt which started out at 70 at the lowest number according to Exodus 1.1 grew and grew over the years. Exodus 1.2 mentions that the Israelite population grew in vast numbers so much so that the land of Egypt was full of Israelites. As a leader in Egypt, Joseph especially, but also Joseph’s brothers and their families would have gained some repour and security with the Pharaoh. However, that relationship would end when there was a transition in power from one Pharaoh to the next. 200 years would pass and the with the passing of time, not only was there now a larger Israelite population, but there was also now a new Pharaoh in Egypt. The once honored Israelites were now feared by the new Pharaoh who was now alarmed at the growing Israelite population.
This new Pharaoh ordered that the free Israelites were to become slaves of the Egyptians. Pharaoh’s plan was to crush not only the spirit of the Israelite, but to physically crush them through back breaking manual labor. His plan did not work, and through the toil and hard labor, the Israelite population continued to grow and grow. Pharaoh’s fears grew alongside the Israelite population. Pharaoh came up with a new plan. Rather than attempting to kill the Israelites passively, he decided to be blatantly obvious. His new plan would be to kill all the newborn Israelite boys by throwing them into the Nile River, but the girls would be kept alive. Among those Israelites in Egypt was a man, Amram, who was a descendant of Levi and married a woman, Jochebed, who also a descendant of Levi, Jacob’s third son and one of Joseph’s brothers. Jochebed is who I would like to focus on for a while.
Jochebed lived in a hostel place and time, in Egyptian slavery. As already mentioned, Jochebed came from the tribe of Levi and her name implies, “glory of Jehovah” or “Jehovah (is her or our glory). She is also the first individual in Scripture to have their name compounded with “Jah” or “Yah” which is the shortened form of “Yhwh” or “Jehovah”. Jochebed is first introduced to us without mention of her name in Exodus 2.1, but her identity and linage is not recorded for us until Exodus 6.20. “And Amram took Jochebed his father’s sister to wife: and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven years.” Yes, you read that correctly, Jochebed was both the wife and aunt of Amram. To us, in present day, that will sound very inappropriate, but this type of marital union was common practice in that part of the world and prior to the institution of the Law.
These two descendants of Levi, Jochebed and Amram, would have grown up in Egypt and thrust into slavery, marry and start a family. She had already given birth to two children, a daughter, Miriam and a son, Aaron. And now with the new decree from Pharoah, Jochebed discovers she was pregnant. What is she to do? Her unborn child is doomed to death if it were a boy, but life if it is a girl. What is a mother to do when a difficult decision is to be made? Jochebed chose to do right and chose to obey God rather than Pharaoh. Imagine what she must have felt in the months leading up to the birth of her child. Only then to process the emotions and feelings of giving to a second son. A son who was ordered to be cast in the Nile River by Pharaoh himself.
Jochebed, along with some midwives, disobeyed Pharaoh’s orders. Jochebed did not cast her newborn son into the Nile River, but instead, she hid her child for three months. Not only did Jochebed do this out of a mother’s love and because it was the right thing to do, but this child, her child, was different, he was special, Exodus 2.2 says, “…and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months” and Acts 7.20 says, “In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months:” Hiding a newborn baby was a task that must have been very difficult. Hiding the delivery and the sex of the baby would have been a chore. Concerned about the noise from outside awaking the baby or the baby waking others. Privacy in ancient times was not like modern times, I’m sure people lived in very close proximity to each other. Jochebed stayed sheltered in her home, wondering each moment, day and night, if this would be the last time she would be with her child because the Egyptians would burst into her home and rip her son out of her arms. No doubt she saw the same thing happen to other women who she knew. Would her neighbors see that she was no longer pregnant and turn her in to the Egyptians, jealous that her baby boy still lived? Would his crying be heard? Would Aaron and Miriam spill the beans in excitement about their new brother? What would happen when and if she got found out? These and other thoughts must have flooded her mind with worry constantly. But nevertheless, Jochebed did this task for three months, until it became no longer something she was able to do. What could she do now? What would happen to her precious baby? I imagine she and her husband Amram discussed and thought of all the possibilities as they lay in bed each night. I can picture them praying together, trying to figure out to do the right thing. Jochebed’s actions prior to and after the birth strike me as those of a woman who was incredibly thoughtful.
Jochebed and Amram soon came up with a plan. Jochebed made a place of safety for her baby boy. Jochebed crafted “…an ark of bullrushes”, a grass or reed which grew abundantly in Egypt and was found specifically along the banks of rivers “and daubed it with slime and with pitch”, to make it waterproof, “and put the child therein: and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.” Exodus 2:3. Imagine the emotions and feelings piercing her heart and mind. When the water was calm, the ark might float safely; but if there were any changes of current what would happen, would the precious cargo be carried down the stream or tip it over causing the baby to drown? Or what if any of the crocodiles would think it were food and try to eat the ark with the baby inside? Or what would happen when someone, an Egyptian, were to come upon the ark, and notice that this baby boy was not an Egyptian, but was an Israelite, what would happen then? These thoughts of worry could not paralyze her. As difficult and heart wrenching as it was Jochebed gently placed her dear baby boy in the ark into the Nile and watched it float away. She stood by the riverbank saying goodbye to her precious baby as the thoughts of what could happen to him out of her arms if the little ark would have failed and not knowing when or if she would ever see him again. I imagine the tears streaming down her face as the ark drifted away and became smaller and smaller in the distance. He was out of her hands and fully in the hands of God, she had to trust God with her son. She couldn’t provide him safety, but God could.
Part of Jochebed’s plan was to at least know what the fate of her son would be, so she instructed her daughter Miriam, to follow the ark as it flowed down the river. We know from Exodus 7.7, “And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.” that Aaron was three years older than Moses, and I believe that Miriam was older than three. Miriam was old enough to be given the responsibility of watching her baby brother in the ark and then speaking maturely, so I think it’s safe to say that it’s likely she would have been about five to ten years old at this time. Even at that age, this was a big responsibility for a child and no doubt Jochebed had a part in instructing and guiding Miriam on what to say and do when the time came to step in.
We know that Pharaoh had a plan, but God had His own plan. A plan that would involve this young Israelite baby boy in the ark who would play a huge role in the future deliverance of Israelites from Egyptian slavery. God plan, which included Jochebed’s precious baby boy would spare his life from the doom that awaited so many other Israelite baby boys. Just at the right time, the daughter of Pharaoh came down with her maidens to bathe in the river. Pharaoh’s daughter bathed while her maidens walked along by the river side. Something caught Pharaoh’s daughter’s attention. Perhaps, it was odd for them to see such something like the ark floating down the Nile, or maybe they heard noises, perhaps a cry or simply divine providence. The ark came to a stop among the flags (grass or reeds) of the riverbank and a maid was sent to fetch it. The daughter of Pharaoh opened it, and saw the child, and “the babe wept.” Perhaps she was a already mother herself or she had hoped to be one. As soon as she saw the baby boy her heart was softened. She recognized that the baby boy was not Egyptian but was instead he was “one of the Hebrews’ children.” Exodus 2.6 She could have right thrown the baby boy right back in the river, turned around and walked away. I’m sure if she did that her father would have been very pleased with her, but that’s not what she did. She had compassion on the baby boy, she knew what her father was like, she knew his order and she chose to go against him.
Pharoah’s daughter was being used by God as an instrument to rescue this baby boy from death at the hands of her own father, but she would also be used by God to provide for his education and position which will be instrumental in his future role as leader of the nation of Israel. We know from Romans 8.28 that nothing happens by chance. God makes all things work together for good to them that love Him for His purpose. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Though God perfect Will, He made the daughter of Pharaoh the adoptive mother of the future leader of the Israelites. The man who would lead the Israelites to freedom from Egyptian slavery. This was no accident.
Remember Miriam, standing along the riverbank, seeing what is unfolding, and no doubt coached by her mother, approached Pharaoh’s daughter, saying: “Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother.” Exodus 2.7-8. Isn’t it interesting that Pharaoh’s daughter didn’t find it suspicious at all that out pops Miriam out of the bushes. This young Israelite girl, who offers a Israelite woman, who will nurse the baby boy. Or maybe Pharaoh’s daughter just didn’t care. Or here we see God’s divine hand moving providentially. “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. 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.” Exodus 2.9-10 This little baby boy would be named by Pharaoh’s daughter as Moses. He would be raised by the daughter of Pharaoh in the palace, yet he would be nursed physically and no doubt spiritually, given Jochebed’s testimony, for years by his birth mother. Who would also be paid to do so though I have a feeling that she would have nursed him without getting paid. It was common practice for a child to be nursed until they were between the ages of 8-12. For potentially 12 years of his life, Moses would be prayed over by his mother. He would learn of God, Creation, the Flood, and be taught the history and teachings of what had been passed down to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. His early impressions of the God of his fathers would be of a real, true, living God, who spoke, and acted, loved and cared for His people and not the idolatry that he would learn living as a son of Pharaoh’s daughter in Pharaoh’s house. From his early childhood, he would know that the gods of Egypt were not trustworthy, powerful, real, but rather, fake, and worthless. Jochebed used her time with Moses to influence him and teach him of the God that she knew and trust, the God that had delivered him from death, she no doubt hoped that Moses would grow to know and trust God for himself.
This is the last we hear of Jochebed, Moses’ mother in the Biblical narrative. Later she would be mentioned in Numbers as the wife of Amram, and in the New Testament and then in Hebrews. However, her legacy would continue in the lives of her children. Each of Jochebed’s children grew up to be children who were very blessed. Moses grew up to be the great leader of the children of Israel. A man who would commune so intimately with God. Aaron would become the Israel’s very first high priest. And Miriam would become a songstress, poet and prophetess. Jochebed was a woman who lived in slavery, yet nurtured and shaped what she had, even in much adversity. She greatly influences the lives of her children to follow God’s will for their lives. The God who she trusted so deeply with their lives, became the God that they became to trust.
Jochebed will forever be remembered, alongside her husband, for her faith and courageous acts in Hebrews 11.23: “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was not a proper child: and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.” Jochebed was a woman who exemplified Proverbs 9.10 in real life, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: And the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Jochebed feared God instead of Pharaoh. She led with courage by example, and I believe, in conjunction with God by his side and his mother’s example, Moses was able to show the same courage when standing before Pharaoh himself. She is a woman who is little known, but she is the type, who had faith, courage and love that had made such a deep impact in the lives of her children which then trickled down to a nation of millions. She is a woman who we should strive to know and be like because of her faith and how God worked in her life through her faith, she chose to walk out in faith, rather than sinking back in fear. She saw the answer to her prayers, even if it took a lot of faith and time, she was blessed by God and probably didn’t see firsthand the results of her teaching. But Moses might never have been the man he was had it not been for Jochebed. Jochebed is one of many outstanding women in Scripture who are placed there for us to learn from and use as an example in our own lives even if they lived thousands of years ago. Let Jochebed be the example that we follow, especially when considering the little ones who are in our lives now or who will be in the future. Jochebed was a woman who trusted in God and sought to do what was right, no matter the cost, through her courage, faithfulness, and love. Jochebed’s faithful and trustworthy God still lives. And that same God can work in and through our life in the way that He did in Jochebed’s life and isn’t that something to be grateful for. Whether you are a mother or not, may we pray and hope that God works in our life the way He did in Jochebed, may we be responsive like her. Let her life be a lesson to us. Will I exhibit faith in God and how am I going to respond when I get in or face a difficult circumstance or a unthinkable challenge? Jochebed was prepared. Will we be prepared?
Jael's Journal 