Let us go on to Amram and Jochebed, the parents of Moses. What a delightful story it is in the second chapter of Exodus. The wife seems to have been the moving spirit here, and perhaps this is hardly to be wondered at, as Jochebed was Amram’s aunt. (Ex. 6:20). But there is no suggestion that Amram did not have his rightful place in that little home in Egypt. Heb. 11:23 tells us: “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.” Those of us who have lived in a land dominated by a hostile foe can better appreciate the magnificent courage of this devoted couple, when they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. It was a trial of their faith; but we know that it was “much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire.” (1 Peter 1:7). And how God honored their faith! Each of their three children became one of His Own honored servants.
What a cheer to parents today, to take a stand boldly on the Lord’s side for their children, to count on Him alone, and to fear no man. Surely He will still honor such faith today, just as He honored it in the days of Amram and Jochebed.
But Jochebed teaches us another most lovely lesson. Pharaoh had charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river. Jochebed obeys the king. She owns that the king’s command applies to her son, and she casts him into the river: but hidden in an ark, so that not one drop of those waters of death could touch him. And God richly honors her faith. You all know the story. The king’s daughter takes him up, and the babe’s sister runs to “call a nurse”, who is no other than the child’s own mother. With what joy she takes that little one from the arms of the king’s daughter: not now for herself, but for the one who had saved him: “Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages.”
So is it with us. Every Christian parent has the privilege of owning that the child, God has given them, is under the sentence of death. He may put the child down into those waters of death: owning that this is where the child belongs: but Another has passed through those waters first: and now the One on Whom we count to save our children, gives the child back to us, saying: “Take this child away, and nurse it for Me, and I will give thee thy wages.” It is ours no longer. The One into Whose hands we have placed it, has accepted it, and now returns it to us to bring up for Himself, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. This does not mean that each child does not need a personal saving faith for itself: but it does, in God’s Own way, confess that the child is under the sentence of death: and we have the privilege of counting on the Lord who passed through those dark waters, to save it. We receive it back in a new way, no longer ours, but His to ‘nurse’ for Him; and what rich wages He pays, if we truly seek to do this for Himself.