Sermon Tone Analysis

Great Lessons from a Godly Mother

Exodus 2:1-11

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - May 11, 2014

*Mother's Day is a very good thing, because it reminds us how much we owe the mothers in our lives.

Mother's Day reminds us how much we should appreciate not just our own mothers, but our grandmothers, the mothers of our children, and the mothers of our church.

Mother's Day reminds us how much we should appreciate you, not just one day a year, but every day for all of the things you do.

And Moms, we thank God for you!

*Erma Bombeck once explained Mother's Day by saying: "The easiest part of being a mother is giving birth.

The hardest part is showing up for it each day.

Mother's Day is traditionally the day when children give something back to their mothers for all the spit they produced to wash dirty faces, all the old gum their mothers held in their hands, all the noses and fannies that were wiped, and all the bloody knees that were 'made well' with a kiss.

*This is the day mothers are rewarded for washing all those sheets in the middle of the night, driving kids to school when they missed the bus, and enduring all the football games in the rain.

It's appreciation day for making them finish something, for not believing them when they said, 'I hate you,' for sharing their good times, and for sharing their bad times.

Their cards probably won't reflect it, but what they are trying to say is 'Thank you Mom for showing up.'" (1)

*Moms matter, especially godly moms, and that includes the mom in our Scripture today.

She was Moses' mother.

Exodus 6 tells us that her name was "Jochebed," and that name sounds strange to us.

But Jochebed was a great name, because it means "Jehovah is glory" or "The glory of Jehovah."

And Jochebed brought great glory to God.

She was a mom who mattered 3,500 years ago, and she still matters today.

This godly mother has some great lessons for us all.

1. First: Jochebed teaches us that we should always follow God over government.

*Verses 1&2 help us see this essential truth.

-- There:

1. . .

A man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi.

2. So the woman conceived and bore a son.

And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months.

*Jochebed hid her new baby for 3 months.

That seems like a strange thing to do, especially today, when most people spread the news as far as we can.

But Jochebed was a lowly Hebrew slave under the cruel tyranny of Egypt.

Exodus Chapter 1 helps us understand how bad it was for the Jews to live as slaves in Egypt.

Please look starting at vs. 7, where God's Word says:

7. . .

The children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.

8. Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

9.

And he said to his people, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we;

10. come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.''

11.

Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens.

And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses.

*That word "afflict" means treating them in a hard way, threatening them, forcing God's people to bow down, making them depressed and downcast.

12.

But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.

And they were in dread of the children of Israel.

13.

So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor.

*That word "rigor" means treating the Children of Israel with harshness and cruelty.

The idea of this word was to fracture something or break it apart.

The Egyptians were trying to shatter God's people.

14.

And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field.

All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.

15.

Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah;

16. and he said, "When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.''

17.

But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive.

18.

So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?''

19.

And the midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.''

20.

Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty.

21.

And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them.

22.

So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, "Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.''

*Moses' mother was in a desperate and dangerous situation.

The law said that she had to murder her son by throwing him into the river.

*Rick Mobley says that this was: "a period of time in which every day was a dark, sad and miserable day for mothers, fathers and family members alike.

God's people were under the oppression of a ruthless pharaoh or Egyptian King.

Cold hearted and murderous, he had given the order to kill every male child born among God's people.

Each baby boy was to be tossed into the Nile River and drowned.

Precious lives, created in the image of God were being destroyed. .

."

*Then Pastor Mobley asked this question: "If you had of been there in the first chapter of Exodus what would you have done?

Imagine for a moment that you lived back then, and you or someone you love was expecting a baby.

You didn't know if it was a girl or a boy.

If it was a girl, the news could spread throughout the community: 'We have a new baby!'

*But if it was a boy, you knew that the soldiers would come to make sure you threw your baby in the river.

If you refused, you would be beaten or possibly killed.

And the baby child would still be taken away and killed."

(2)

*That was a time when it would have been easy to choose death.

But Jochebed chose life.

She treasured life, because God treasures life!

Jochebed chose the Lord over man's law.

She chose God's way over the government's way.

And that's what we should do.

*This Old Testament story strongly reminds us that just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's right.

Our first obligation is to follow God, knowing that He will never take us down the wrong road in life.

Moses' mother teaches us to follow God over government.

2.

She also teaches us to follow the heroes of our faith.

*We can see this lesson in vs. 3, where God's Word says this about Jochebed: "When she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank."

*How did Jochebed know to build that little boat?

She probably recalled the Genesis story of Noah and the ark God told him to build, the story of how Noah's family escaped the great flood in an ark.

I feel sure about this, because the Old Testament word used here for "ark" is only used in one other place, and that is the story of how God saved Noah's family and the animals in an ark.

*Moses' mother found the answer she needed by looking back to the heroes of our faith.

And if you really want to know how to move forward in life, one of the best things you can do is look back.

*Look back to the heroes of our faith: Ordinary people who lived extraordinary lives, because they followed our extraordinary God.

Jochebed teaches us to follow the heroes of our faith.

3.

She also teaches us to depend on God's divine care.

*If we read between the lines in today's Scripture, we can surely see God taking care of Jochebed and baby, Moses.

Please look starting in vs. 3:

3.

But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank.

4.

And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him.

5. Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river.

And her maidens walked along the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it.

6.

And when she had opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept.

So she had compassion on him, and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children.''

7. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?''

8.

And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go.''

So the maiden went and called the child's mother.

9. Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.''