Lessons For Mom From Four Mothers

• HEBREWS 11:23 SAYS THAT “BY FAITH [IN GOD]” JOCHEBED HID HER SON FOR THREE MONTHS

o AN ACT THAT SET IN MOTION MOSES’S LIFE WITHIN THE EGYPTIAN COMMUNITY AND HIS EVENTUAL LEADING OF ISRAEL OUT OF SLAVERY.

o BY GOD’S MIRACULOUS DESIGN, AFTER JOCHEBED PROTECTED HER SON BY SENDING HIM DOWN THE NILE IN A BASKET WHERE HE WAS “COINCIDENTALLY” FOUND BY THE KING’S DAUGHTER

o JOCHEBED WAS ASKED TO BE MOSES’S WET NURSE.

o AND DURING THAT TIME, THOUGH SPECULATIVE, JOCHEBED PASSED HER TRUST IN GOD TO HER SON:

• BY FAITH MOSES, WHEN HE WAS GROWN UP, REFUSED TO BE CALLED THE SON OF PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER. V. 24

• BY FAITH HE LEFT EGYPT, NOT BEING AFRAID OF THE ANGER OF THE KING, FOR HE ENDURED AS SEEING HIM WHO IS INVISIBLE. V. 27

• JOCHEBED’S DECISION TO FOLLOW THE FAITH OF HER ANCESTORS—ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB—IMPACTED HER SON, WHO LATER LED ISRAEL OUT OF EGYPT.

• IT’S AN EXAMPLE FOR NOT JUST MOTHERS BUT ALL PARENTS—WHETHER BIOLOGICAL, ADOPTED, OR THOSE CALLED TO BE “SPIRITUAL PARENTS,” DISCIPLING OTHERS IN THE LORD—

• QUIET FAITHFULNESS CAN HAVE AN IMPACT ON THE LIVES OF MANY.

THE MAIN POINT?

WE HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO IMPART OUR FAITH TO OTHERS, WHICH CAN POTENTIALLY IMPACT GENERATIONS.

3. A WOMAN WHO KEPT HER PROMISE

1 SAM 1:1–28

THE MAN ELKANAH AND ALL HIS HOUSE WENT UP TO OFFER TO THE LORD THE YEARLY SACRIFICE AND TO PAY HIS VOW. BUT HANNAH DID NOT GO UP, FOR SHE SAID TO HER HUSBAND, “AS SOON AS THE CHILD IS WEANED, I WILL BRING HIM, SO THAT HE MAY APPEAR IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD AND DWELL THERE FOREVER.” ELKANAH HER HUSBAND SAID TO HER, “DO WHAT SEEMS BEST TO YOU; WAIT UNTIL YOU HAVE WEANED HIM; ONLY, MAY THE LORD ESTABLISH HIS WORD.” SO THE WOMAN REMAINED AND NURSED HER SON UNTIL SHE WEANED HIM. AND WHEN SHE HAD WEANED HIM, SHE TOOK HIM UP WITH HER, ALONG WITH A THREE-YEAR-OLD BULL, AN EPHAH OF FLOUR, AND A SKIN OF WINE, AND SHE BROUGHT HIM TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD AT SHILOH. AND THE CHILD WAS YOUNG. THEN THEY SLAUGHTERED THE BULL, AND THEY BROUGHT THE CHILD TO ELI. AND SHE SAID, “OH, MY LORD! AS YOU LIVE, MY LORD, I AM THE WOMAN WHO WAS STANDING HERE IN YOUR PRESENCE, PRAYING TO THE LORD. FOR THIS CHILD I PRAYED, AND THE LORD HAS GRANTED ME MY PETITION THAT I MADE TO HIM. THEREFORE I HAVE LENT HIM TO THE LORD. AS LONG AS HE LIVES, HE IS LENT TO THE LORD.” (VV. 21–28)

• KEY VERSE: “THE LORD HAS GRANTED ME MY PETITION THAT I MADE TO HIM. THEREFORE … AS LONG AS HE LIVES, HE IS LENT TO THE LORD” 1 SAM 1:27–28

• HANNAH WAS NOT ABLE TO HAVE CHILDREN, YET SHE CONTINUED TO ASK GOD TO GIVE HER A SON.

• ONE EVENING, WHILE SITTING AT THE DOOR OF THE TEMPLE AT SHILOH, SHE MADE A VOW TO GOD SAYING: “O LORD OF HOSTS, IF YOU WILL INDEED LOOK ON THE AFFLICTION OF YOUR SERVANT AND REMEMBER ME AND NOT FORGET YOUR SERVANT, BUT WILL GIVE TO YOUR SERVANT A SON, THEN I WILL GIVE HIM TO THE LORD ALL THE DAYS OF HIS LIFE” (V. 11).

• GOD HEARS HER DESPERATE PRAYER AND GRANTS HER REQUEST, AND SOON SAMUEL IS BORN (WHOSE NAME MEANS, “I HAVE ASKED FOR HIM FROM THE LORD”).

• HOW EASY IT WOULD HAVE BEEN FOR HANNAH TO “FORGET” HER PROMISE TO GOD, TO HOLD SAMUEL TIGHT AND RAISE HIM TO ADULTHOOD HERSELF.