A Mother's Faith: Jochebed

A Mother’s Faith – Jochebed

Elements of the story:

Heroine: Jochebed

Accomplices: Midwives

Villain: Pharaoh

Accomplices: Egyptian slave master, citizens

Story: Jochebed’s story echoed the story of the Israelites. (Does it echo yours?)

A baby is always a blessing. So, when Jochebed realized she was pregnant, it should have been a time to celebrate. She already had a son, Aaron, and a daughter, Miriam. She would be happy whether this child was a boy or girl. But Pharaoh, who knew nothing about her, had stolen the joy she should have felt at being blessed with a child and replaced it with fear. He was a powerful king, but she resolved that tyrant wouldn’t defeat her.

God had blessed the Hebrews in Egypt, but looking at it from the outside, you would have never known it. Years before, Jacob, his sons, their wives and children moved there to escape a famine. The Pharaoh at time was delighted to protect and provide for Joseph’s family, and they, like Egypt as a whole, thrived.

Now, four hundred years later, no one remembered Joseph, but they couldn’t help but notice his family. They filled the land. They were hard workers and lived peacefully. But they weren’t Egyptians and hadn’t assimilated into the Egyptian culture. Pharaoh knew it and he saw them as a threat.

9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” NIV

Pharaoh decided on a strategy to oppress the Israelites so they would be too weak, too discouraged to want or have more children. He turned them into slaves. He put masters over them and forced them to build Pithom and Rameses as store cities. He thought the brutal work would steal their strength, but it didn’t. It made them stronger. He was ruthless and did everything he could to make their lives harsh and bitter. Nothing worked. The more he oppressed them the more they multiplied.

Seeing that didn’t work, Pharaoh’s ruthlessness turned into infanticide. He summoned the Hebrew midwives and told them,

16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”

20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. NIV

Pharaoh’s rage increased. If the midwives wouldn’t kill the baby boys, his loyal citizens would.

22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile but let every girl live.” NIV

Jochebed had to be careful. She would hide her pregnancy as long as she could, then when she could hide it no longer, she would hide herself. The Egyptians who lived nearby where always looking for pregnant women. She knew they reported whenever they heard a baby was born. She watched, heartbroken, as Egyptian guards burst into every home after a baby was born. If it was a boy, they took them away to kill him. She didn’t know what she would do if God gave her a boy. If He did, she knew she would never allow the guards to take him away. She may have been a lowly woman, but she had faith in God. Her God was greater than Pharaoh.

The day came and her baby was born. She shed tears of joy and sadness, as it was a boy. None of her neighbors knew she was pregnant, although some close friends may have suspected it. There was no celebration, no well-wishes, gifts or blessings from the elders. This was all part of her carefully devised plan.

Over the previous three months she had her children bring in discarded clothing and rags. Her husband secretly brought in dirt and sticks, a little at a time. She fashioned a small enclosed space in the corner of the room where they baby would seep and where she could hide her baby if anyone came in. She used the clothing and rags as padding as a sound barrier inside it and neatly stacked all their extra clothing on top of it. It looked like a pile of clothes and bedding. It worked, for a while.

This should have been a joyous time for her, but instead she woke up each day wondering if this were they day when they would come and take her son away and cast him in the Nile river. She was afraid, but she also had faith. She would not allow the fear a place in her heart. She prayed and trusted God to protect her boy. Every mother loves her children and thinks they are beautiful. Yet as she looked at her son, she somehow knew in her heart that she wasn’t just beautiful to her, he was beautiful to God.

Then it happened. She had hidden him for three months. He had grown bigger and it was harder and harder to muffle his cries. He was lying on the bed out it in the open. The curtain was drawn so no one could see him. Jochebed forgot it was time to feed him. He let out a loud cry. She ran to him and quickly began to nurse him. He calmed down. She called out.

“Miriam, come. Look at the window and be ready, like we practiced,” she said.

Miriam peaked out the curtain. “Momma, they’re coming!”

Jochebed quickly tucked her baby into the enclosure, closed the makeshift door and prayed he had eaten enough. He smiled, eye lids heavy, falling asleep. She moved the clothes into place, sat on the bed and Miriam climbed into her arms.

“I’m sorry, Miriam, this is going to hurt,” she said.

“It’s okay, momma, I understand,” Miriam said.

Jochebed pinched Miriam’s legged until it was red, and she began to cry. The door flew open and two Egyptians guards rushed in. They paused as their eyes adjusted to the darkened room. They saw Jochebed holding Miriam, who was crying.

“What are you doing here? Why did you burst into my house?” Jochebed asked indignantly.

“Someone heard a baby cry. Where is it?” the guard shouted.

“Ha! Look around, do you see a baby? Yes, they heard a cry, my daughter fell and hurt her leg. Can’t you see she’s crying?”

One guard walked around the around the room, looked under the bed, opened drawers and threw things on the floor. He knocked over their table and chairs, perhaps hoping to intimidate Jochebed. It didn’t work. She kept her eyes locked on him. He moved to the corner and knocked over the stack of clothes on the baby’s enclosure. They fell off but still covered the makeshift door. Jochebed prayed her baby would stay quiet.

He bent over to look at it more closely when she snarled at him, “Do you see something you like? You can’t find a baby so are you going to take my husband’s shirt instead?”

The guard, surprised at being disrespected by a woman, moved toward her with his arm raised. The other guard stepped between them and sneered. “Be quiet woman!”

They spoke to each other, took one more look around the room, then left as quickly as they came. Jochebed sighed as she wiped the tears from Miriam’s eyes.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you so badly,” she said.

“I’m not crying because you hurt me, momma, I’m crying because I’m afraid they’re going to take our brother away and kill him,” Miriam said.

Jochebed hugged Miriam to her chest. “That’s not going to happen, Miriam.” She believed that, but a tear still fell from her eye.

They straightened up the room and sat in silence for the until Amram came home. He sensed the somber mood. “What’s wrong? What happened?” he asked.

“They came looking for our baby today,” Jochebed said. “Thanks be to God they didn’t find him. But it’s time. He is too big and his cries too loud. We have trusted God for his safety. It is time to put him in God’s hands.”

“Do what you think is best,” Amram said sadly.

Jochebed had often lay awake considering her options. They could try to sneak away as a family, but where would they go? How could they live? If they were caught, they would all die. She thought of trying to convince an Egyptian family with no children to adopt him, but she knew the risk of being discovered with a Hebrew baby was not one any Egyptian would want to take. She thought of a plan. She held out little hope it would work, but little hope is better than none.

Weeks before she had purchased a papyrus basket large enough to hold her son. She had Amram go to the tar pits and bring back enough asphalt and pitch to cover it inside and out. She carefully coated it, making it waterproof. When it was dry, she lined it with cloth and fashioned a bed for her boy to lie comfortably.

It was time to let go of her son. She hugged him tightly and kissed him one last time. She looked into those beautiful eyes and felt the love that only exists between a mother and her baby.

She wept as she put him in the basket. She placed it in the cart they used to collect wood. She and Miriam left to find firewood, as they often did. She prayed he would not cry during the journey. They made their way to Nile river. She carried the basket as she waded a short distance into the Nile, set him among the reeds and walked away. She looked at the basket floating peacefully and turned away, unable to hold back her tears. She collected a few sticks, put them into the cart and headed home. Each step she took she prayed God would watch over and protect her son.

It wasn’t until she got home that she realized Miriam wasn’t with her. She didn’t know that Miriam decided to watch and see what happened to her brother. Miriam crouched among the reeds far enough away that she wouldn’t be seen but with the basket in sight.

After some time had passed, she heard voices. She saw a large group heading to the riverbank near where they basket floated in the reeds. She saw it was Pharaoh’s daughter. She watched as her attendants surrounded her. She had come to bathe in the Nile. Just then her brother began to cry. Pharaoh’s daughter stopped and told everyone to be quiet. The sound of her brother’s cries easily carried across the water.

5 Seeing the basket among the reeds, she sent her slave girl to get it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child—a little boy, crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”

Miriam had an idea. She slowly approached Pharaoh’s daughter and bowed before her. She said, “Your highness, 7 Should I go and call a woman from the Hebrews to nurse the boy for you?”

Pharaoh’s daughter paused as she looked at Miriam. Then she simply said, 8 “Go.”

Miriam ran all the way home. She found her mother making dinner. “Momma, momma, you won’t believe it. I have good news,” she said smiling. “You have to come with me. Hurry.”

“Slow down, my dear, what is it?” Jochebed asked.

“Momma, I couldn’t leave my brother. I had to wait to see what happened to him. After a short time, I heard a group of women coming to where you left the basket. It was Pharaoh’s daughter, going to bathe in the Nile. When she went into the water my brother started to cry and everyone heard him.”

Jochebed gasped as her hands covered her mouth.

“No, momma, it’s good news. I watched as her slave girl opened the basket. Pharaoh’s daughter knew at once he was a Hebrew baby. But she wasn’t angry, she felt sorry for him, crying, alone in the river. I think she knew that someone tried to save his life.”

“I had an idea. I walked over to her, bowed to the ground and said, “Your highness, 7 Should I go and call a woman from the Hebrews to nurse the boy for you? She looked at my brother and me and simply said, ‘Go.’ We have to go now, momma.”

Jochebed was stunned. What a turn of events! She and Miriam hurried to where they had left her baby. She saw the women crowded around Pharaoh’s daughter who was holding her son. He wasn’t crying.

She bowed to the ground and said, “Your highness.”

9 Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.”

So Jochebed and Miriam took the boy home and Jochebed nursed him. One of Pharaoh’s daughter’s servants went with them to see where they lived. Later she returned with clothing and crib for the child. The neighbors were surprised to see Jochebed with a baby. She told them of how Pharaoh’s daughter found him and how she was hired to nurse him. Jochebed regularly took her son to the palace so Pharaoh’s daughter could see him.

10 When the child grew older (and no longer needed nursing), she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”