She crouches on the floor, a pot of pitch beside her, and carefully works on the basket she has spent the past few nights weaving. Her three-month-old baby boy is strapped snugly on her back, while three-year-old Aaron is watching closely and Miriam runs errands for her mother about the house. Both Amram and Jochebed would likely have spent their days in the extreme heat of the Egyptian sun, making bricks. Here is a godly young Hebrew family enduring very hard times.
Jochebed is a woman of faith and she is not about to have her young baby son drowned in the river Nile. Yes, she plans to put him into the river, but in safety. How far ahead is she looking in faith? I believe all the way to the redemption of her people. She must have known the part of the river where Pharaoh’s daughter bathed. It is here that the basket is placed and here that young sister Miriam waits, ready to make her mother’s proposal to the princess. How it must have strengthened Miriam’s childhood faith to see it all come to pass! All day while working for the Pharaoh, the young mother must have been pleading with God in whom she trusted for the well-being of her little son.
The Faith of Abraham
It reminds us of Abraham setting off with Isaac, a history that Jochebed must have known well. Could God spare and use her son as well? Would there be a deliverance for her as well? And a blessed and useful life for her son? Years later we see Hannah walking to Shiloh hand in hand with her little son. Only great faith in a loving and all-wise God could work in hearts this way.
Miriam does not have to wait long. Her beautiful little brother is discovered by a woman whose heart God has touched. She is the one who names the child Moses, and she agrees to the plan to have Jochebed nurse him for her.
What a precious few years the mother now has with her son. Mothers of today, make the most of those early, formative years with your child. Moses learned the love of his family. Miriam, Aaron and Moses were a close trio of siblings all their lives. He also learned to love his race, God’s chosen people, and to love and honor the one true God. Jochebed knew her time was limited before she must send Moses back into Pharaoh’s court to be learned in “all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” But I believe that she had peace through her faith in God that all would be well and would ultimately lead to the deliverance of God’s people. We do not read anything further of her in Scripture. We do not know if she experienced the joy of the exodus of her people, so many years later.
Jochebed’s Children
But Jochebed’s children and grandchildren come alive for us in the pages of Scripture. Moses, at the age of 80, is prepared and ready to do God’s bidding and approach Pharaoh. Aaron his brother steps in with help and support. After the final deliverance, on the far banks of the Red Sea, we see Miriam taking a timbrel in her hand and leading the women in singing and dancing for joy. “Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously” (Ex. 15:2121And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. (Exodus 15:21)). She must have been close to 90 years of age! She had waited a long time for this day, now far removed from the banks of the river Nile, with its reeds and rushes and little basket.
Faith Tested
Time moves on and all does not run smoothly through the generations. Aaron makes a golden calf. Two of Jochebed’s grandsons are consumed by fire for their disobedience. Her daughter is temporarily disciplined with leprosy. Her Moses is not allowed into that Promised Land. Was she a failure? What far-reaching blessing from her act of faith! Her people arrive in Canaan. Great-grandchildren fight to win and hold their inheritance.
What an encouragement Jochebed’s faith can be to mothers today! We walk through a sinful, idolatrous world, and our children are surrounded by it. Yet her faith in God also worked in her children’s hearts so that, in turn, they valued what she did (Heb. 11:24-2524By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; 25Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; (Hebrews 11:24‑25)). It would seem that the Lord in His mercy and grace granted over and above what she was asking in faith as she worked on that little basket.
W. J. and C. P. Prost