THE LOVE OF TWO MOTHERS
Ronald Reagan once said “From my mother I learned the value of prayer, how to have dreams and believe I could make them come true.”
A man is not poor who has a mother that loves him. And that’s particularly true of one of the greatest men of the Old Testament - a man named Moses. Moses not only had ONE MOTHER that loved him… HE HAD TWO. There was Jochebed - the mother who gave birth to him – and there was the daughter of Pharaoh who adopted him. And both These mothers were great mothers because – 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.
Now… she had a choice to make. The society in which she lived made it virtually impossible to keep her child, and so she could have simply decided to throw her child away. I mean – in that culture – her son was not wanted. She could have chosen death (the easy choice)… but she chose life instead.
And that 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 kill her child but punish her entire family for disobeying the law. Choosing life was not an easy decision.
And then there was Pharaoh’s daughter. She knew who this baby was. Exodus 2:6 tells us, “She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. ‘This is one of the Hebrew babies,’ she said.” 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.
ILLUS: Both mothers lived in a culture of death. Both mothers lived in a society that decreed certain children shouldn’t live. And America has long had that kind of society. About 15 years ago, Florida was considering a law that would have required that abortion providers should offer pregnant mothers the opportunity to see ultrasounds of their unborn children. That’s ALL that law would have required – abortion mills simply had to OFFER to have the mothers see their unborn children. The bill did NOT require the mothers to look at the ultrasounds. And yet that law died in the Florida senate. Why? Because at that time we lived in a culture of death. We lived in a society that decreed - certain children should die
We need to remember that 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. And when God punished Egypt He brought 10 plagues down upon them - do you remember what THE LAST PLAGUE was? The Last plague was that God decreed: “Every FIRSTBORN SON in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill...” Exodus 11:5
Egypt had decreed death for the Hebrew baby boys, and so God decreed death for their children as well. But MOSES LIVED because Jochebed and Pharaoh’s daughter never accepted that culture of death. They chose life.
Now, I usually take a Bible text and follow it where I believe it wants to take me, but that doesn’t mean I’m always comfortable with the destination I arrive at. I know there are many in our nation that have had abortions. 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, from what I’ve read - the aftermath of that decision is often devastating. You may know of someone who has had an abortion, or you may have had one yourself. So, I want you to remember something: Our God is a forgiving God (REPEAT). We need to engrain this into our minds and make sure…others are aware of it. OUR GOD IS A FORGIVING GOD.
In Egypt, there were people who escaped God’s punishment from that 10th plague.
And 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 – by applying the blood of the Lamb of God (Jesus Christ) to our lives. It’s by the blood of Jesus, that God removes all of our sin from our lives.
When we believe in Jesus, repent of our sins, confess Him as our Lord and allow ourselves to be buried in the waters of Christian baptism, God removes our sins as far as the East is from the West. He buries those sins in the depths of the sea. He removes them from our lives and remembers it no more.
But why would God do that for us? Why would He forgive ALL our sins? Well… because OUR GOD is a God who chooses life. Not just life for the unborn, but also for those of us who’ve made decisions that have brought us shame and guilt. Decisions that have robbed our lives of the joy and the promise God created us to have. It’s only by the blood of Jesus that we have that hope in our lives.
(PAUSE)
So Moses lived, and became the kind of man he became, because his 2 mothers loved life and they loved babies. But Moses ALSO became the kind of man he was because his mothers did everything they could FOR him. Jochebed hid Moses in order to save his life. Other Hebrew mothers probably hid their children as well, but that very rarely worked. I mean it’s kind of hard to hide a pregnant woman. Pregnant women kind of stick out in a crowd - they’re usually (pause…) soooo pregnant.
And the Egyptians would have been watching. They would have been waiting for the day when she would no longer be pregnant - and then they’d come for her child.
So, IF that’s true - how could Jochebed succeed in hiding her child for 3 whole months? I don’t know. But if I’d been her I’d have tried putting a pillow under her dress. She could have pretended she was still pregnant… at least for a while. But even if then – that kind of deception would have only succeeded for a while. Even the Egyptians knew a pregnant woman couldn’t remain pregnant forever. Eventually they’d know she had given birth, and then they’d take her child, and kill him.
So what was she to do? How is she going to save her baby? Well, she decided to get a bit creative. If Pharaoh wanted her child to be thrown into the river - well, that’s where she’d put him. But not before she had given her boy an edge - an advantage in life. She and her husband build a little boat for him. A basket covered with pitch so it would float. And she placed that boat in the bulrushes along the shore of the Nile. Now, she didn’t put him out in the current where his little boat could be swept downstream. So she puts the basket in a sheltered place - a place where he could be found. And it’s very likely that she scouted around for the best place for him to be found. I mean - if he was to be found… she wanted him found by… someone with the power and influence to make sure he isn’t put to death. And the only person with that kind of influence would seem to be Pharaoh’s daughter.
Now, I could be wrong about some of the details… but it makes sense to me. But no matter whether I’m right or wrong on my speculations, Jochebed had done an awful lot of planning to make sure her child survived Jochebed did everything she could for her son.
And then there’s Pharaoh’s daughter - Moses’ adoptive mother. That woman loved this boy– and she took him into her home and made him… her son. She (like Jochebed) did everything she could for this boy. Acts 7:22 tells us that “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.”
Pharaoh’s daughter wanted Moses to have all the advantages her culture could supply. She wanted him to more than a common laborer. She wanted him to be a leader of men/ a ruler of nations. And she succeeded in building him into a man who was powerful in speech and action.
And so, she did everything in her power to give him an edge – an advantage - fitting for the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
Both of Moses’ mothers loved him so much that they did everything they could possibly do to give him every advantage he could have. But only Jochebed could give Moses the one thing that changed his life. Pharaoh’s daughter supplied Moses a knowledge of the wisdom of Egypt. She got him into the best schools; s\She arranged to find him the best teachers. She had supplied him with the ability to be a man who would one day be powerful leader. She supplied him with all the training and education that he needed to be a success in this world.
And yet Hebrews 11:24 tells us that the time came when Moses “…refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” There was something Pharaoh’s daughter had not supplied him with. Something was missing from his extensive education. But what could it have been? WHAT WAS MISSING?
(pause…) Well, what was missing was a different kind of knowledge… a knowledge of who God was. As parents and grandparents and uncles/ aunts we need to realize that even with the most advanced education our society can supply – without God at the center of our children’s lives - there will be an emptiness that nothing else can fill.
In Ecclesiastes, Solomon looked at all the advantages a man can have in life: wealth, and education, and power, and success. But… toward the end of his book he declared: “Meaningless! Meaningless... Everything is meaningless!" (Ecclesiastes 12:8) That was seemingly the whole message of his book. But, at the back of that book, Solomon spoke of the one thing that would give meaning to life. “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Ecclesiastes 12:13
What did Solomon mean? He meant that – without God – life become meaningless and empty. Only God can help us to reach our potential. Only God can help us to realize our promise and possibility. But once we know who God is, then we can realize that we’ve been made in His image; we are part of His plan; we have been created for a purpose and we have a reason to exist.
Ephesians 2:10 tells us who are Christians: “… we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” We have purpose; we have value; we have a reason for our lives … because God is IN our lives.
And that’s what Jochebed gave her son. Now, she couldn’t read to him from the Bible because none of that had been written yet (except perhaps Job). But she could have told him the stories of great men like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But even more than that, I think she gave she shared HER faith in God. She told him what SHE believed. She told him what God had done in her life… and in his; and she told him what God wanted for their people (Promises). And she did that because God was REAL to her and so… God became real to him as well.
Now… One Last Thought: Both of Moses’ mothers chose life for Moses, and I found that interesting because at the very end of his life, Moses challenged Israel to CHOOSE LIFE as well,
“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD IS your life…” Deuteronomy 30:19-20
And, HOW were they to choose life? Well, by loving the Lord their God; by listening to his voice; and by holding fast to Him - because He was the Lord was their life.
INVITATION
