There is nothing more courageous than choosing to sacrifice your own heart for the one you love. Jochebed, the mother of Moses, is a tribute to every mother who has made the difficult choice to place her baby for adoption in the hopes of giving him or her a better life, or any life at all. What can we learn from her courageous sacrifice?
Jochebed’s Choice
[This story is taken from Exodus 2:1-10]
Jochebed was a Hebrew slave who found herself pregnant at one of the worse possible moments in Hebrew history.
Pharaoh, king of Egypt had issued a decree that every male Hebrew child born would be thrown into the Nile. This was his attempt to curb the Hebrew population which was threatening to overpower the Egyptian Empire.
Jochebed hid her baby for three months, but when it became obvious that she could no longer hide him, she made a decision. She threw him into the Nile in compliance with Pharoah’s command. But she did it in a creative way. She prepared a basked with tar and pitch so that it would float, placed her baby in the basket, and pushed him out into the Nile current. She had her daughter Miriam follow the basket along the shore to see what God might do.
Pharaoh’s sister found the basket. Miriam quickly appeared from hiding in the reeds and volunteered to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby. Pharoah’s sister agreed to pay the baby’s mother to nurse him. Once he was weaned from his mother she returned him to Pharaoh’s sister who raised him in the royal palace as if he were her own.
The house of Pharaoh was now unwittingly nurturing and subsidizing the life and education of the very one who would one day lead the Hebrew people out of bondage.
It was a mother’s courageous love that started the slow process that would undo Egyptian oppression over the people of God. Jochebed would spend the rest of her life watching her son grow up … from afar.
What do we know about this kind of courageous love?
A Mother’s Courageous Love
1. Courageous love takes great hope.
When Jochebed first held her son the Scripture says that “she saw that he was a fine child” (Exodus 2:2). The word “fine” is a term that can mean “pleasant, excellent, agreeable, becoming, or happy.” In this case, it might mean all of the above.
Jochebed saw something special in her baby from the moment she first held him.
A mother who is willing to place her baby in the hands of another must have a great hope for that baby’s future. She lets go because she believes in the unfathomable potential inside of her baby.
She also has to have a great hope in humanity – in the idea that there is another mother out there who can do what she cannot do – save her baby. Pharaoh’s sister is the other hero-mother in this story. It takes two mothers – the one who places and the one who receives.
2. Courageous love takes great sacrifice.
Jochebed didn’t want to give up her baby. She fell in love with him the moment she looked into his eyes. She knew he was special.
Moses actually did have a charisma that was beyond the norm. He was a born leader. He had the perfect combination of humility and bravado – the perfect balance between drive and patience. Moses was born to lead his people out of slavery.
Think about it – if Jochebed had allowed her baby to die, the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian slavery might have died with him. God created Moses for the task – all He needed was to find a mother willing to make the essential sacrifice. He found that mother in Jochebed.
3. Courageous love takes great faith.
The Scripture is strategic in the way it introduces Jochebed. She is of the priestly tribe of Levi and she married a man of the tribe of Levi. Her eldest son, Aaron will become the father of all priests under the Mosaic Law. Jochebed’s legacy will be one of faith.
The Jewish mother basically raised and educated her children until it was time for them to begin vocational training (about the age of twelve). The most important aspect of their early education was their spiritual training.
The formative years for this religious education were ages one to six. These are the years of personality and character formation. Jochebed nursed and cared for Moses until it was time for him to be weaned (about the age of five or six, in that culture). In that time, she laid a spiritual foundation for Moses that would serve him the rest of his life.
Mother’s make all kinds of courageous sacrifices for their children – sometimes on a daily basis. There is no sacrifice greater – no act more courageous – than the mother who is willing to place her baby for adoption in the hope that the sacrifice will mean a better life for her child.
Thank you to all the “Jochebeds” who have made that fierce sacrifice! You have lived your life with a small hole in your life and an ache in your heart. You are a warrior queen for the child you loved so much that you were willing to place her in another’s arms. That’s a God-like love.
And thank you to all the “Pharaoh’s Sisters” who have stood at the other end with open arms ready to love with that same kind of fierce love!
A Modern Day Jochebed and Pharaoh’s Sister
Stacy Cooper and Karen Smith talk about Anna, the girl Karen adopted after Stacy gave birth to her. They agreed to an open adoption and together they discuss how the process began, what has occurred between them since, and their hopes for Anna in the future. Listen to them talk to each other about it in the audio recording below.
[listening time = 2 minutes]
DAY 3 –> HANNAH: THE CHILDLESS MOTHER
