Example for Mothers

It was in 1914 that President Wilson signed the first Mothers' Day Proclamation, setting aside the second Sunday of every May to be observed "as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country." Of course, love and reverence should be shown daily, and in the Bible we have many mothers mentioned whose faithful devotion to the Lord and to their children gave reason for high honor by God who has set them forth in His Word as examples for mothers today. One such example is Jochebed, the mother of Moses.

Jochebed means, "The Lord is glorious." This would suggest that she highly esteemed Jehovah and gave Him first place in her heart. This was the motivation for her successful motherhood.

Also, we notice that she was in accord with her husband, Amram. They were both of the tribe of Levi, which means "joined." How essential it is that mother and father be one in setting the direction for the course of their children.

From Exodus 2, however, we have indication that the responsibility to "train up a child in the way he should go" (Prov. 22:6) largely falls upon the mother. "When she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months." Acts 7:20 says he was a child "exceeding fair to God." Without a doubt, she recognized by faith the value of her son as a gift from God to be brought up for Him.

In hiding him three months there is indication that she was fully aware of the dangers surrounding them in Egypt. The king had decreed that all male babies were to be killed at birth--thrown into the river. She was going to protect him at all cost, fully aware, too, that the earliest impressions upon a child form his character and determine his course in life. Would that mothers realized this today. Egypt, a type of the world, has not changed its character: its god and prince is Satan himself who makes a bid for all children, not only in violent assaults but by subtle seemingly harmless ways of putting the world before them to influence their impressionable minds and hearts. Mothers need God's wisdom for ways to hide these precious souls.

She does something further. When he could no longer be hidden 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 2:2). She believed, as every parent who holds Christ to be precious, that children are "holy" (separated, 1 Cor. 7:14). They are to be regarded as purchased by Christ who has rights over them and are to be preserved for God in view of Christ coming into their hearts and lives by true faith and affection for Him. In putting him in the river, she actually committed him to God, recognizing he was under the sentence of death. However, in putting him in the ark, in figure, she was putting him in touch with Christ in faith that God would preserve her son and use him for His glory.

She retired from the scene, apparently in perfect peace, waiting for the outcome of her trust in God. It wasn't long before she realized the working of God in answer to her faith. Who but God could cause the daughter of Pharaoh to go to wash in the river at that particular time? Who but God could have her see the ark and have the baby weep as she opened it? Who but God could put it in the heart of Miriam to be there with a suggestion that would be favorable to the princess who was actually defying her father's decree?

Imagine the joy in Jochebed's heart when Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages"! When faith and works are united in action, "God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform."

We are not told how long Jochebed had Moses, but she didn't waste one moment to prayerfully care for him, lovingly nourish him and carefully instruct him in the way he should go. She put Jehovah and His people before him with divine emphasis to such a degree that he never forgot what his mother taught him even at the age of 40 years. Though "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and mighty in words and deeds" (Acts 2:22), his heart was for Jehovah, and with his brethren, the children of Israel. Hebrews 11:24-28 reveals his faith in forsaking Egypt to identify himself with the people of God in their affliction, "Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt." What a power his mother was in his illustrious life as a servant of God!

Jochebed surely got her wages, not only from Pharaoh's daughter, but from Jehovah, which will be eternal in reward, and cause her to sing: "The Lord is glorious."

(Reprinted with permission of Moments With The Book)