The Man With Two Moms Series

The Man With Two Moms

Exodus 2:1-10

No, this isn't a sermon about Rosie O'Donnell and her same sex partner and their adoption. It's actually a great true tale about someone in the Bible who had 2 mothers.

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Moses became the kind of man he was because of the type of mother he had. In fact, who he was, was very much determined by the type of MOTHERS he had, because God gave Moses two mothers. And they were both good mothers because they both had some of the same instincts for their roles.

For example: They both loved babies

Now, that may seem like a given… but not every woman loves kids.

ILLUS: I once read the story of a woman who went shopping for swimsuits with her mother. In the department store, though, she was having a hard time finding one that fit. After trying on at least 10, all to no avail, she grew increasingly frustrated. Trying to calm her, her mother said "Look at it this way: what would you rather have – the husband and three children who adore you, or a swimsuit that fits?" Before she could answer, a faceless voice from the next dressing room stall replied

"I want a swimsuit that fits!"

Not every woman wants kids. But these two did. And that WAS no small thing in their day because Moses’ 2 mothers lived in a culture of death.

A decree had gone out from the throne of Pharaoh that every male child born to a Hebrew was to be thrown into the Nile and drowned. And Moses’ birth mother – Jochebed – was a Hebrew woman.

Thus, she had a choice to make.

The society in which she lived made it virtually impossible to keep her child and she could have decided to simply allow her child to be thrown away. I mean - her son was not wanted.

She could have chosen death (the easy choice)… but she chose life instead.

And this was not an easy decision for Jochebed to make.

It required her to hide her child for 3 whole months always fearing that Egyptian soldiers would discover the baby… and not only would they kill her child but punish her entire family for disobeying the law.

Choosing life was not an easy decision.

But then consider Pharaoh’s daughter. She knew who this baby was. She knew he was a Hebrew.

Her father had decreed these children should die. Her society had decided that these babies shouldn’t live. Common wisdom had determined that these children were a threat to their nation.

It would have been so easy to let the child die. But she chose life instead.

Both mothers lived in a culture of death. Both mothers lived in a society that has decreed certain children shouldn’t live.

And so do we.

Now I want you to understand something:

God punished Egypt because of their culture of death. Egypt’s culture of death required that every male child born to the Hebrews was to die.

When God punished Egypt He brought 10 plagues down upon them. Do you remember what the last one was?

God decreed:

Exodus 11:5

5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.

Egypt decreed death for babies. And so God decreed death for their families as well.

But Moses lived because Jochebed and Pharaoh’s daughter never accepted that culture of death. They chose life.

I know there are many in our nation that have had abortions, and some here. Our culture has made it so acceptable that it’s often chosen before a woman or girl has had time to consider its implications. But the aftermath of that decision is often devastating.

I want you to remember that: Our God is a forgiving God (REPEAT).

In Egypt, there were people who escaped God’s punishment from that 10th plague. They did so by applying the blood of a lamb to the doors of their homes.

Today God tells us that we escape judgment – from ALL of our sins - when we apply by the blood of the Lamb of God (Jesus Christ) to our lives. By the blood of Jesus, God removes all of our sin from our lives.

When we get saved, God removes our sins as far as the East is from the West. He buries it in the depths of the sea. He removes it from our lives and remembers it no more.

Moses lived… and became the kind of man he became… because his 2 mothers loved life, and loved babies.

2ndly – Moses became the kind of man he was because his mothers did everything they could for him.