Today we are going to look at a woman named Jochebed (Moses’s mother), who’s selfless love and sacrafice, literally changed the course of history.

In this passage we will see four lessons that will speak to everyone, whether you are a man, woman, boy or girl, God has a message for you…

And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
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.
And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.
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.
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.
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?
And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother.
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 2:1-10

Her Credentials

First we need to take a look at her credentials, what do we know about Jochebed?

• She was an Israelite
• She was of the tribe of Levi
• She was married to Amram
• She was mother to
  • Aaron
  • Moses
  • Miriam their sister

Jochebed was willing to defy the commandment of Pharoh so that she could keep the commandment of God; therefore, It appears that both Jochebed and Amram were dedicated to the Lord. Every person needs to have a personal relationship with the Lord. This relationship is the only hope that we have in this fallen world. According to Jesus, this relationship is the only way to salvation (John 14:6), and according to the apostle John this relationship is the only way to experience real joy in your life (1 John 1:1-4).

The first thing that you need to get locked down if you have any hope of being the kind of parent that you are called to be, is that you need to ensure that you have a relationship with the Lord. There are four things that you need to know to develop that relationship which you can see by following this link ►Click Here

Her Courage

Next, we will take a look at the courage that Jochebed demonstrated, we see her courage in Exodus 2:2, where the Bible tells us that she hid baby Moses for three months. This was courageous because Pharaoh had charged all of the people that they were to kill all of the male babies, only the female babies were to be allowed to live (Exodus 1:22).

Jochebed refused to give in to a godless system, that wanted nothing but to destroy her son. Society today, or as I like to refer to it, the world system, wants nothing but to destroy the moral and spiritual life of your children. We need parents who aren’t afraid to stand for what is right. Parents who demand more for their children than the world can give, parents who are willing to say, enough is enough! Parents who will say my child is going to learn the ways of the Lord, Parents who will declare with Joshua:

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Joshua 24:15

We need parents who are willing to serve the Lord, more that they are willing to serve the world so that we can rescue our kids from that system. She wanted to rescue her son from that system. Everything in this world system is designed to work against God and his ways.

We need parents who will set a godly example for the next generation. Not just willing to tell them what they ought to do, but being the example of what it is that they ought to do. Our children ought to see us, reading our Bibles every day, they ought to see us praying every day, and not just over meals.

[Tweet "Our children should see us living out the things that we say that we believe. We need to be godly examples."]

That is what Amram and Jochebed were trying to do, they weren’t just going to go along with the world, they weren’t just going to go along with the system, they weren’t just going to do what the system said to do, when it was against the laws of God. Sometimes you have to take a stand! We need parents who are willing to take a stand.

Her Faith

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.

Exodus 2:3

The third thing we see here with Jochebed here is you just simply see her faith, she had faith in the Lord, that he was going to take care of her baby, you know that was a very River where all of the other babies were getting drowned out.  You see, you can’t keep your kids out of the world, They have to be part of the world, now we’re not going to lock them all up in a closet and never let them out or put them up in the high tower somewhere you can’t do that it’s not the right thing to do anyway.  We’re supposed to be in the world just not of the world we’re supposed to be members of society we’re just not supposed to allow the things that rule and reign them, their goals and their aspirations and their motives and attitudes and everything else isn’t supposed to be ours, we are supposed to be in the world but not of the world our children need to be in the world but not of the world.

 She had to let Moses go into the world She had let him go into the River, but she didn’t send him out there empty-handed so to speak.  She gave him the tools necessary that he would be able to survive while he’s in the River, for him that happened to be an Ark that she made for him.  When we send our kids into the world, we don’t just send them out there empty-handed and say good luck hope it all works out OK. You have to send them out there with the tools that they need, with the instruction that they need. We see her faith here not only did she have faith to send her son off into the world by putting him in that arc and setting it in the river that was the very instrument of death for all those other children but later on when is sister sees that Pharaoh’s daughter found him and that they saw that he was a Hebrew child and she wondered what they were going to do, she said hey, do you want me to go find a Hebrew woman to come and nurse the child?  And Pharaoh’s daughter was like well yeah, sure go ahead, so Jochebed just raised Moses right there in her own home, but then when he got older she took him back she had faith that all things are going to work together for good someway somehow she didn’t understand it didn’t know what God’s plan was is all she knew is that by doing this, she would preserve her son’s life and she had faith it was all going to work out somehow. We can follow her in her faith. 

The world demands that we just hand our kids over to their system and everything else and she hand her son over the pharaoh’s family and things that he grew up as the son of pharaoh and all that stuff but while she was nursing and weening him up she was able to put some good things in the Moses how do you know that?  because he turned out pretty good you turn out pretty good I mean yeah I mean OK so he was a murderer, well nobody bats a thousand. He ended up in the mountains and things for 40 years and hanging out with a bunch of sheep and stuff like that but he turned out pretty good.  When God came calling, he listened, I mean why did he murder that guy in the 1st place?  because he knew that he was a Hebrew and the Hebrews were being mistreated and everything else and anger just rose up in him, and he took matters into his own hands.  because the things that were built up in as a young child.  His mom set him loose into the world but she didn’t set him loose into the world empty-handed without the resources that he needed without the upbringing and the training that he needed in order to be able to make the right decisions we need to set our children up for success and not for failure:

My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.
When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.
For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

Proverbs 6:20-23

 The world demands that we just turn our children over but our children they deserve better than that  our kids deserve better than just to turn them loose.  Our kids need instruction our kids need to know the Bible they need to know what thus saith the Lord. 

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9

We are supposed to teach our children the words of God, and not just when we’re at home but we teach them the words of God when we’re at home and we’re out and about or whatever we’re doing it doesn’t matter it needs to revolve around the word of God

Our children deserve better it takes faith to go against the grain, but it’s going to pay off.  She had some great faith she had faith to raise her child the way that she knew she was supposed to raise him. Knowing that once he got old enough she was going to have to give him back to pharaoh’s daughter she raised him properly she was given the opportunity to teach him about God she was given the opportunity to teach him about proper worship she was getting opportunity to teach him about living right she had those opportunities and she didn’t squander those opportunities too many times parents squander those opportunities they just assumed that their kids are going to figure it out. They just assume that the Sunday school teachers are doing it they’re just assuming that the public school teachers are doing it or the private school teachers are doing it just assuming that somebody else is teaching their kids the right way to go and that’s a terrible assumption.   Even if it is happening it’s our responsibility as parents and family members it’s our responsibility to teach them about God the world’s not going to teach them about God,  whatever the world would teach them about God is not something that you want the world to teach them about God.  The world is either going try to teach him that there is no God because they want to try to justify themselves from their sins and they don’t want to be accountable to anybody they’re going to teach him that God is just anything out in the world and all the little bugs and birds and bees and everything in between are all some sort of a God or something everybody’s always putting stuff on the Facebook if you’re with me we need to have prayer back in schools, say Amen.  You want prayer back in schools?  I want God back in schools,  you’re assuming that the prayer that they will put in the school is a prayer that you want, that it would be a prayer that you would be willing to pray.  It’s not the school’s job to teach your kids how to pray it’s our job collectively to teach our kids how to pray. Prayer is a conversation with your creator that’s what prayer is.  It’s not some special formula and all that kind of thing sure there are certain aspects that you should have in your it’s our job to teach our kids about prayer and to teach them why prayer is even important in the 1st place.  Why is it that we even pray, we need to teach our children that.  The world is not going teach them that teach them how to pray. 

Teach them about the fact that they are loved.  The kind of love that the world is going to teach them about is not really love.  The love that the world is going to teach him about is a love that is just take, take, take.  That’s the love that the world knows about.  Real love in the Bible is demonstrated by the fact that for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son real love is giving not taking it’s giving that’s true love real love is sacrificial real love is unconditional she had the opportunity to teach Moses, and we have the opportunity to teach our children about real love.

We need to teach our children about the word of God what the word of God is and why is it important to even know that we have the word of God well it’s important to know that you know the word of God so that way you know you don’t have to just take anybody else’s opinion for whatever it is that they got to say about what it is that you ought to do with your life:

Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

Psalms 119:9

 She had the opportunity to teach him about the word of God.  She had the opportunity to teach him about his people and about the people that he ought to be assembling himself with,  we have the opportunity to teach our children about the people that they ought to be congregating around with not just the cool people at school, not just the people who are going to get him in trouble, instead of those people they should have a real desire for coming to church being around the other people of the Lord.  Because we have some things in common and we love one another, and we are kind to one another we are not we are just trying to take from one another.  Does that ever happen in the church? sure it does, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t go, that doesn’t mean that you give up, that doesn’t mean that you quit, that doesn’t mean you that you take off your Christian cap and hang up on the wall, it doesn’t mean that you’re not going to be a Christian anymore.  It means that you follow the word of God and you forgive.  and you learn how to work with other folks which is a real skill that our children need to learn these days.   Learn how to get along, learn how to forbear, put up with one another these are all principles that we have the opportunity to teach our children through the word of God through,  through a church membership through preaching, and through the godly examples that we can show them we look our kids learn more about what we do than what we say any way you could say all the right things but if you do something opposite that they’re going to pick up on the opposite.  We have the opportunity to be godly examples, don’t just throw that opportunity away let’s take advantage of those opportunities to be godly examples whether you’re a parent or whether you’re not a parent is immaterial, we all have the opportunity to be godly examples to other people that are around us.

 If you give your children to God, give them all the God that you can, you have done your best. That is what we are asked to do.  She demonstrated her faith in the fact that once she put all these things in the Moses and once she did her best that she could possibly do it set him up in order to develop his own personal and intimate relationship with the Lord which is what we should all be concerned with regarding our children that they be able to develop their own personal relationship with the Lord, because that is the only hope that they have in this world.  Once she did that, she exercised her faith and she went ahead and released him into the world.

Her Compensation

The next thing that we see about her something that she did not even realize that she had is her compensation.  The compensation that we can get from the Lord by doing the best that we can.  By starting off with having our own relationship with the Lord and Secondly with exercising our faith in the Lord and doing the things that the Lord has called us to do.   Moses became a great man of God, Jochebed had no idea what her son would accomplish in his life.  She went for the of her life not having any idea what it is that the Lord was going to do with Moses.  I’m not sure how long into his ministry she lived I don’t know that maybe she just lived long enough to see that he committed murder and then took off as a fugitive that might be all that she knows she might have thought she really messed up no idea maybe she was still around when he came back around after those 40 years in the wilderness but the Bible doesn’t tell us.  For all intents and purposes, she probably never knew what God did with the life of Moses she probably never had a clue while she was on the earth in the same way you never know who you’re raising or who you’re helping to raise.  You do not have any idea what the Lord’s going to do with these little kids, what kinds of things he’s going to accomplish with them.  We all have a part in that.  Not just their parents but everybody that’s around and helps to guide them.  We need to give him the best that we have we don’t know, they might turn out to be God-fearing God following people and young adults who will be used for the glory of God.  We need to pour our best that we have these young ones it is not just for the little bitty ones and sort of kids of all ages. We need to pour our best into one another.

When you look at the life of Jochebed here; I am sure there are things that she did that she regretted I’m sure she probably regretted every day that she gave Moses back to Pharaoh’s daughter.  she knew that she had to do that or to save his life but still there was regret involved in that I’m sure there were some other things that she regretted her life, and as we look back at the high points of her life we could see some things that she did and we could see that she really and truly is the epitome of a successful parent because she put the best that she had she did everything that she could do and her child turned out really well.   

Successful Parenting

Successful parenting is often gauged by college degrees it’s often gauged by how successful that our children are in the business world or how successful they are in society and in all those kinds of things but the true success of parenting is measured when we see our kids living for the Lord and that’s what Moses did.  He lived the rest of his life for the Lord.  that’s the measure of successful parenting, the college degrees are great, the good jobs are great, being important in society I suppose could be great,  probably pull you down the wrong path more times than not on that one.  What proves out that you are successful in your parenting is to put the good characteristics in our kids and hopefully they will make good decisions in they will live for the Lord.  That is successful parenting, and that is what we’re all trying to accomplish. Jochebed stands as a true portrait of a godly mother, but as I close this out today, I wonder how well we stack up as parents. 

Our hope at Irvington Bible Baptist Church is that this podcast provided some encouragement and has helped you to develop a closer relationship with the LORD Jesus Christ.