Jochebed: A Woman Of Determined Faith

Jochebed: A woman of Faithful Determination”

Exodus 2:1-20

Mother’s Day 2016

HEY:

OPEN: REAL MOTHER’S

Real Mothers are special people.

Real mothers would like to be able to eat a whole candy bar (all by themselves) and drink a Coke without any "floaters" in it.

Real Mothers know that their kitchen utensils are probably going to end up in the sandbox.

Real Mothers often have sticky floors, filthy ovens and happy kids.

Real Mothers know that dried play dough doesn’t come out of shag carpets.

Real Mothers sometimes ask "Why me?" and get their answer when a little voice says, "Because I love you best."

Real Mothers know that a child’s growth is not measured by height or years or grade.

It is marked by the progression of Mama to Mom to Mother...

APPLY:

Mothers are an integral part of our lives.

We wouldn’t be who we are without our mothers.

TODAY IS A DIFFICULT DAY FOR MANY OF YOU….

MISSING MOM, MISSING MOTHERHOOD, MISSING CHILDREN00

Some of the greatest people in history:

- will tell you how important their mothers were to their lives.

George Washington, for example, declared:

“All I am I owe to my mother”.

Napolean Bonaparte said, “Give us strong mothers and we will have strong sons.”

Abraham Lincoln said, “Behind ever great man is a great mother.”

This was also true of one of the greatest men in Old Testament history:

a man named Moses.

Moses became the kind of man he was because of the type of mother he had.

MOTHER’S ARE GOOD AT FAITHFUL DETERMINATION…

- So much time is spent speaking and studying about MEN of the Bible

- I wanted to give some attention to WOMEN Bible heroes..

-

- Arlington Christian Church is in debt to women of Faithful Determination

o Who have raised and taught generations of people

o Who add Church service/labor to already FULL schedules…

Nothing will have a more profound and lasting influence in the lives of our children than having good, godly examples in their homes.

Moms you have a calling to receive.

To live a life that is a demonstration of God’s love

YOU:

- you to consider the example of JOCHABED…

- “Faithful determination” are the 2 words that I describe her with

- Strong to the finish…

Jochabed is in the book of Exodus because MOSES wrote the book of Exodus,

But funny thing is that without Jochabed there is no MOSES…

LOOK:

The story: How did we end up here?

o Remember back to Joseph leading his family INTO Egypt, and saving them from the famine??

o His family stayed and multiplied.

By the time of Pharaoh:

- the Hebrews had multiplied greatly

Pharoah feared the HEBREW PEOPLE would:

- outnumber the Egyptians and take over the nation.

- he commanded that all newly-born Hebrew boys be thrown into the CROCODILE INVESTED NILE RIVER….

LET’S LOOK AT JOCHEBED…..

1. Her Identity - A godly mother OF ARRON, MIRIAM NOW MOSES

- She was an Israelite,

- from the tribe of Levi:

2. Her Dilemma

She was living in a HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT:

- Jochebed’s life was NOT EASY.

- she had known only the curse of slavery.

"The Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all we read that their demands."

In Exodus 1:13-14 (NLT)

THIS GODLY WOMAN:

- does not complain or give up,

- EVEN THOUGH life under normal circumstances is hard almost impossible

SHE IS EXPECTED TO KILL HER OWN BABY…

3. Her Courage

Exodus 2:1-2

"And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three month"

Desperate Mothers:

Those midwives we courageous too!!

- when asked by the Pharaoh why they were not killing the boy babies as commanded,

- replied that the Hebrew women were “too vigorous” and babies ARRIVED before they could get there!

Jochebed HAD TO do something to save him.

- Moses was not an inconvience to her,

but an opportunity to BE FAITHFUL

- There is a cost to faithfulness

JOCHEBED FEARED GOD MORE THAN PHAROAH

Acts 5:29b "...We ought to obey God rather than men."

4. Her Sacrifice

"But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank."

Exodus 2:4

The story plays out like this: BABY IN A BASKET

- When she realized that she could no longer hide her infant son,