Introduction: The Conflict Between Culture and Conscience
It is easy to have faith when the government supports your beliefs, when society applauds your values, and when obeying God is safe. But the true test of faith comes when the laws of the land and the laws of God collide.
The parents of Moses—Amram and Jochebed—lived in such a time. They were slaves in Egypt, the superpower of the ancient world. The Pharaoh, driven by paranoia and racism, issued one of the most horrific decrees in history: genocide. Every male Hebrew baby was to be cast into the Nile River. This was the "king's commandment." It was the law. To disobey was treason.
Yet, this verse tells us that two slaves stood up to the most powerful man on earth. They didn't start a riot; they didn't lead an army. They simply refused to let fear dictate their actions. In the quiet of their own home, they staged a holy rebellion. This sermon explores how faith empowers us to defy the fear of man in order to honor the God of heaven.
1. Spiritual Vision: Seeing Value Where the World Sees Waste
The verse begins with the motivation for their faith: "...because they saw he was a proper child."
On the surface, this sounds like normal parental pride. Every parent thinks their child is beautiful. But the word translated "proper" (or "fair" in Acts 7:20) carries a weightier meaning. It implies something uncommon, something divinely excellent. Stephen, in Acts 7, describes baby Moses as "fair to God."
The World's View vs. Faith's View:
* Pharaoh saw: A threat. A statistic. A problem to be eliminated. To the culture of Egypt, that baby’s life was worthless trash to be thrown in the river.
* Faith saw: A "proper child." A gift from God. A life with purpose and destiny.
Faith changes your vision. It allows you to look at a situation—or a person—that the world calls "hopeless" or "worthless" and see the fingerprints of God. When the world says a child in the womb is just tissue, faith sees a life created in God's image. When society says a sinner is beyond saving, faith sees a potential saint. Amram and Jochebed didn't just see a baby; they saw God's potential, and that vision made the risk worth taking.
2. Holy Courage: The Conquest of Fear
The centerpiece of this verse is the negative statement: "...and they were not afraid of the king's commandment."
Let's be realistic—they were human. They surely felt the biological sensation of fear. Their hearts must have raced every time an Egyptian soldier walked past their hut. But there is a difference between feeling fear and being controlled by fear.
The Bible teaches that "the fear of man bringeth a snare" (Proverbs 29:25). When we fear what people can do to us—cancel us, fire us, imprison us, or kill us—we are trapped. We compromise our convictions to stay safe.
How did Moses' parents overcome this terror? By replacing a smaller fear with a greater fear. They feared God more than they feared Pharaoh. They realized that Pharaoh could only kill the body, but God held eternity in His hands.
* Pharaoh said, "Throw him in the river."
* God said, "Do not murder."
When those two commands conflicted, their choice was clear. True faith produces a holy courage that says, "I would rather suffer the wrath of the king than the displeasure of God." This is the same spirit we see in Daniel, in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and in the apostles who said, "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
3. Active Trust: The Risk of the Basket
Faith is not just a feeling in the heart; it is work with the hands. The verse says Moses "was hid three months."
Think of the logistics of this. Hiding a newborn in a slave camp is nearly impossible. Babies cry. They need constant care. For 90 days, this family lived on the edge of death. They likely hushed his cries, covered the windows, and lived in constant vigilance.
But eventually, the baby grew too big to hide. It was then that their faith went to the next level. Jochebed built an ark of bulrushes, daubed it with slime and pitch to make it waterproof, and placed Moses in the very river that was supposed to kill him (Exodus 2).
This was not abandonment; it was entrustment.
Jochebed didn't just throw him in the river; she placed him there with a plan, and she set his sister Miriam to watch. This is a profound picture of what it means to live by faith.
* Faith does its part: She built the basket. She made it safe. She planned.
* Faith trusts God with the rest: She couldn't control the crocodiles. She couldn't control the currents. She couldn't control who would find him. She had to release her grip and let God be God.
And look at what God did! He didn't just save Moses; He had Pharaoh's own daughter find him, adopt him, and—in a delicious twist of divine irony—pay Jochebed wages to nurse her own son! God honored their faith in a way they could never have imagined.
Conclusion: The Legacy of Fearless Parenting
We remember Moses as the great Lawgiver, the Prince of Egypt, the man who spoke to God face to face. But the foundation of Moses' life was laid by the faith of two obscure slaves who refused to bow to a wicked culture.
We are living in a time that demands this same kind of faith. The "king's commandments" today—the pressure of culture, media, and popular opinion—often demand that we sacrifice our children’s spiritual lives on the altars of worldly acceptance.
* Will we see our children as God sees them?
* Will we refuse to fear the criticism of the world?
* Will we take the risk to hide them in the truth of God’s Word and then trust God with their future?
Let us be like Amram and Jochebed. Let us look at the threats of the world and say, "We will not be afraid." Because when parents possess a fearless faith, God can use their children to change the world.
