March is Women’s History Month and we are celebrating by highlighting the many women who play a major part in stories told in The Bible. Today we are spotlighting the mother of Moses, Jochebed which means “The Lord Is Glory”.
Jochebed lived in bondage as a slave but her fierce love for her son, coupled with her faith, enabled her to act heroically in the midst of great oppression. That God not only preserved the son she surrendered to him but that he restored her child to her.
Moses mother Jochabed had one thing in mind when hiding her son and leaving him in a basket in the river. Her goal was to preserve his life for one more day, one more hour, one more moment. She could not have known how God planned to work in her life or in the life of her son. Nor did she realize he was putting into place a divine plan to rescue his people from the very oppression she was resisting. God’s ways are beautiful in the extreme. He uses the devoted, intense love of a mother for her child to bring freedom to an entire race. Like Jochebed, our goal should be to hang on, trusting that God has his own purpose at work and that we and our children are part of it.
Scriptures To Read Around Jochebed’s Story
PSALM 33:11,18 – The plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. The eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.
JEREMIAH 29:11-14 – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you; declares the LORD.
EXODUS 2:3 – When she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.
Let’s continue the conversation. See more of Jochebed’s story by reading Exodus 2:1-10 and Hebrews 11:23 then answering the questions below…
What can you learn about Jochebed as a person from what she does at each point in this story?
Why do you think Pharaoh’s daughter wanted to keep the baby as her own?
Why do you suppose her father (and possibly her husband, if she had one) let Pharaoh’s daughter break the law and adopt this foreign baby?
Hebrews 11:23 says Moses’ parents acted “by faith.” What part does faith play in child rearing? In what ways have you had to choose between faith and fear as a mother?
Where was God in this story? What does this say about God in your story?
Source: Women of the Bible by Ann Spangler & Jean E. Syswerda
