Whispers of Christ

Personally I love stories of faith. It’s encouraging to me to see people who have faced trials in this world and still chosen to walk with God. To this end, I’m going to continue our study of the women in the Bible and we are going to look at Exodus 2 this week. Here is the link: Exodus 2. As always, I’m going to recommend that you read it before you read the post, because context is key! I would also recommend that you take time to meditate or think on it as it’s just a deep story that gets blown over quite a bit. 

Passage Snapshot:

The Israelites are in Egypt and they are heavily oppressed. Their labor had increased and the Pharoah in power does not remember or know of Joseph’s contributions and saving of his people (or maybe he just didn’t care). The harder he opposes the Israelites the more the breed. Think rabbits. So he comes up with this idea that he’s going to throw all the Baby boys into the river Nile. When Moses is born, his parents decide that they are going to hide him instead of throwing him in the river. As soon as they realize they can’t hide him anymore, his mother places him in a basket and sticks him in the river (little ironic if you ask me). He is then picked up by the egyptian princess and raised as her son before he ends up becoming the Israelites deliverer. 

Setting the Stage:

Here are the historical and background items that you need to know before we talk about the take-aways from this passage: 

1. Moses’s mother is named Jochebed. She’s a Levite (from the tribe of Levi). She was also her husband’s aunt (husband’s name was Amram), this would have been a widely accepted practice back then.
2. The era is the New Kingdom period of Egypt. The pharaohs would have been considered living gods and they were among the most advanced, wealthy, and militarily dominant in the world at the time. 
3. The Egyptians regarded the Nile as sacred and had multiple deities which they worshipped that were associated with it.
   1. Fun Fact – the Nile actually runs from south to north, not the other way around and so the Egyptian kingdom was upside down. 
4. Royal adoption wasn’t rare during that time. 
5. Infanticide was law. It wasn’t optional, it was mandatory and expected. 

Jochebed:

Right, let’s talk about Jochebed. I mean this woman blows my mind because she is living in a place of serious oppression. She was a slave (bottom of the barrel) and a woman on top of it. Even though Egyptian women had pretty decent rights for the time, this would not have applied to Jochebed because she was a Hebrew slave. But it is worth noting that the mothers would have been the ones responsible for teaching the traditions and educating the children on the ways of God. So while her role is socially and financially dependent on her husband, I would argue that she has a huge impact. 

Based on this story alone I would say she was courageous, strategic, and rooted – just to mention a few. Here is why I say that: 

Courageous and Rooted

The first thing that I noticed is that she understood God’s values. This was prior to the Torah (Mosaic Law) being written so all of God’s words would have been passed down via stories from parent to child. But even without having the written word of God, she knew that life was valuable to him. She knew that it wasn’t right to allow her child to be murdered. So when the edict for infanticide reached her home, she took a stand. She didn’t allow her fear of what could happen to her to decide the outcome and she chose to hide her son for 3 months. 

I asked my friends with kids what it would take to hide a newborn for the first 3 months and it was interesting to hear their responses. I also have to give my friends props for putting up with my random questions via text like this because it reads like I’m about to steal a child and hide it. So thank you ladies for always understanding that it’s probably for a Bible study and not for a crazy-person moment. 

Anyway – back to Jochebed, the amount of work she would have had to do to keep him quiet would have been incredible and let’s not forget that she would have had Aaron and Mariam around too. So add a 3 year old and (estimated) a 5-7 year old into the mix. Now you have to instruct them to keep quiet so it doesn’t wake up Moses and they can’t tell anyone, and you have to do your housework as normal. That’s a lot. Like someone give this lady an award for ultimate mother of the year! 

Strategic and Careful

Let’s talk about strategy. I mean this woman – I bet she would have kicked butt in chess. She was super strategic. Not only about hiding her son but when you look at the choice she made in how, when, and where she gave him away, it’s kinda incredible. I’m willing to bet there were some divine wisdom downloads on that one. 

Example – When she knew she couldn’t hide him any longer, she made a basket for him. But she didn’t just make a basket and plop him in it. She made it and made it water proof. This process would have taken her a total of about a week. I honestly can’t even imagine the emotional strength or rollercoaster she must have been on. Like “Oh I’m just weaving a basket to put my baby in, so I can float him down a river and hope that he survives.” Oof. But she does it. Then she puts him in the reeds of the Nile. So again, we see strategy. She doesn’t plop him into the river and just prays – she prepares, considers, and then executes. 

Even after she places him in the reeds, we see his older sister, Miriam, keep an eye on him. I’m no expert but I’m willing to bet that she was instructed by Jochebed to watch over him. I wouldn’t leave anything to chance and would like to know the outcome, but with so much work to do I don’t think Jochebed had the ability to be as present as she wanted to be. So she entrusted the task to someone else who could hide easily or be inconspicuous. 

I think we can all agree that this woman’s story is highly underrated. But while I could talk about her characteristics for a decade, I do want to talk about the take-aways that God showed me from this story. Because they are super cool! 

Take-Aways:

1. What someone intends for evil, God will use for good. 

In American football, there is a moment where when a player does something wrong the referee will toss a flag in the air and it’s called a “flag on the play”. Every so often God gives me a moment like this where the story flags or brings another verse to mind for me. I call them “flags on the play” because they just pop-up in my mind in the middle of the story and stop the play in its tracks. The one he brought to mind for this story was Genesis 50. In it you see Joseph saying to his brothers that what they meant for evil, God used for good. 

The pharaoh meant evil when he commanded the murder of thousands of Hebrew boys, but God, as he does, turned it all around and used it for the good of his people. He took that command and used it to bring about the deliverance of his children. So my thought is, if there is something going on in your life that feels evil, God is allowing it. But as my pastor always says “if it’s not good, it’s not done”. So don’t give up hope just yet, it’s gonna get better and this season that you are in – it’s gonna pass. Take the lesson, own the lesson, but don’t become bitter or hard. Who knows where you can go with this in your pocket. 

2. Planning is important.  

We have seen that God is a god of intentionality. He was intentional when he created the earth (I mean 7 days is a long time for him to do that, when he could just snap his fingers). But we also see through this story that planning and strategy matter. Jochebed took great care with her child, not just raising him and hiding him, but also when she knew she no longer could. Do you realize that there are a lot of animals that live in the Nile? Hippos – highly territorial and aggressive, they are actually more dangerous than the crocodiles, which will eat anything they can get their jaws around. Oh and let’s not mention the water cobras, venomous snakes which like to swim. 

And then lets talk about the placement of the basket, she even took the time to figure out where to place it and set someone to watch over it. The fact that God shared all these details, tells me about the care and planning that was taking place. It’s a characteristic of God and so it makes sense that we would see it here. 

3. Fear of God overrides fear of man.

We saw this same trait with Rahab, and I’m sure we will see it again but Jochebed and her husband chose to not let the fear of man rule their choices. I’m sure they were scared. I’m sure they knew the risks but they knew God. They knew what was right and wrong and they chose to obey him. The benefits were worth it. 

4. Obedience always pays out. 

Recently I was reading a book called God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew. It’s a great story of his experiences serving as a missionary behind the iron curtain (countries during communism post-WWII). In it he has a quote from a friend about how the joy of obedience isn’t just obeying God but then what God is doing after you obey. I’m sure that Jochebed didn’t know where her obedience would take her, but she knew that she had to obey. Her obedience ended up not only saving her son and nation, but she was given the joy of raising her son and getting paid for it! What a cool turn around. 

5. Never underestimate your sphere of influence.

I think it’s important to state that you need to not underestimate your own sphere of influence. Jochebed did what she did just because she couldn’t murder her son. But her choices to walk with God ended up saving a nation and allowing her lineage to become the priestly line. Her daughter was a prophetess because she continued to walk with God. 

I was talking with a friend earlier today and I told her that even if she doesn’t see the effect that she has on those around her, she has one. We as followers of Christ are either planting or watering seeds. The question is just are you planting seeds of Christ or of this world? Every action serves a purpose and has an effect. Think of it this way, if you only influence one person in your sphere, that’s more than enough. Why? Because they will influence one, who influences one, who… well you understand. It’s a waterfall effect that has a large impact. 

Jochebed influenced only her children and just look at the outcome of that! We downplay the roles of parents and educators in this world but I want to not only encourage but challenge people in those roles – who are you serving and what seeds are you planting for the kingdom. You have such a huge impact on those around you and you don’t even realize it. I have so many stories and examples from my own life of those who influenced me towards the kingdom that I’ll have to share in another post but don’t assume that just because you can’t see the impact it isn’t there. 

Story Symbolism:

Ok, let’s talk about symbolism. As with every Bible study, there is always some symbolism involved. I’ve stopped believing in coincidence because there is always too much to have it be a fluke. This story is no exception. Here is some of the symbolism that I discovered: 

1. The basket

Interestingly, the Hebrew word for basket used in this context is “Tevah”. Guess what?! It’s actually the same word that is used in the Bible for the Ark that Noah builds. Coincidence? I think not! Both are vessels used by God for divine intervention and rescue. 

2. The Nile & water

So at the end of Exodus 1 we see Pharaoh commanding that all baby boys be cast into the Nile. The Nile and its waters were originally supposed to be a place of death. The interesting thing is that God turns it into a place of deliverance. Water is normally symbolic for things like chaos, danger, or judgement. But it can also be symbolic for cleansing and rebirth. I love that in this story, it’s symbolic for both. It’s also interesting to me that it ties in with the symbolism for the basket as Noah had to deal with water and so did Moses, but further into the Bible we see Moses dealing with the Nile in the plagues and water in the forms of the Red Sea and certain miracles. 

3. Pharoah’s daughter

I’m actually pretty excited about this point. There were a few female Pharoah’s that rose to power in Egypt. My favorite was Queen Hatsheput. Don’t ask why, because I don’t know but she was always super interesting. She was known for bucking tradition and wearing a false beard! Well most commentaries and historians speculate that this was actually the daughter who raised Moses. I’m over the moon about this! But beyond that let’s talk about the fact that she was the only one outside of Pharoah that could have taken in a Hebrew boy and not had any consequences. Whether or not she knew it, God used her to not only deliver Moses from death but then to give him the resources, education, and standing that allowed him to go up against Pharoah when he returns as God’s messenger. Pretty awesome if you ask me! 

4. Moses’ name

I’m a big fan of learning about names. I believe that they have significant meaning and impact. Moses’ name means to be “drawn out of”. It’s interesting to me because we see him being drawn out of the Nile, which is why he was named that but he was later used to draw Israel out of Egypt! 

5. Jochebed’s name and story

We covered this one pretty well but I want to point out that Jochebed’s name means “glory of God”. It’s really beautiful to me that she lived up to that and then used the opportunity given to her to pass on that legacy of understanding his glory to her children as well. Her story is one of obedience, faith, and reunion. While she may not have been redeemed from slavery, she was given a second chance at raising her son because of her obedience to God. To me that’s just beautiful. 

Closing Thoughts:

In closing here is what I want to challenge you with – how can you spur others on toward the kingdom of heaven? What do you have in your hand that you can use? I think it’s time for believers to stop living in oppression under the rules of this world. We need to rise up and start living by God’s rules. If it makes you feel better, I’m also preaching to myself, not just you! Let’s start thinking “How can I, today, partner with God to make an impact for his kingdom?”. Life has a way of getting in the way and we tend to forget that we aren’t on this earth for what it can offer, but Romans 13:11-14 tells us to not get distracted to remember that our job is only to use our influence to spur others on toward Christ. Maybe that’s encouraging a brother or sister, maybe it’s giving to the poor, maybe it’s taking a coworker a cup of coffee, or maybe, just maybe it’s service with a smile regardless of how they act. Small things matter and we are always planting seeds – I beg you to plant your seeds with care. 

With all my love,

Hannah