[Mother's Day] Exodus 2:1-10 | "She Hid Him"
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· 638 viewsGuest Preacher. Mother's Day, 2022 for Grace Point Baptist Church in Somerville, AL
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Introduction
Introduction
Let’s turn in our Bibles to Exodus 2.
The Bible preserves for us the story of many well-known mothers.
Can you think of some of the mothers spoken of in the Bible?
Eve - the wife of Adam, the “mother of all living”
Sarah - Isaac’s mother
Hannah - Samuel’s mother
Naomi - a mother-in-law to Ruth
Elizabeth - John the Baptist’s mother
Mary - the mother of Jesus
What about a grandmother - Lois. And Eunice, the mother of Timothy?
These mothers, mother-in-laws, and grandmothers are named among several others in Scripture, who are important to the story of our faith in God.
In fact, out of all the motherly qualities that exist, the one I believe God is most pleased with is a mother’s faith.
Many of these mothers in Scripture demonstrated great personal faith themselves. They passed on their faith.
While this is Mother’s Day, it is first and foremost the Lord’s Day.
So let us honor mothers, and motherhood by considering from Scripture the faith of one of the lesser known mothers in the Bible — the mother of Moses and how that faith trusted in God to save not just a baby boy, but also an entire nation and through Christ the world.
Before God spoke to Moses from out of the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3, God saved Moses from certain death in Exodus 2, because of the faith of Moses’ mother and father.
Moses’ mother is not named in Exodus chapter 2.
And by the way, that’s how it is for most mothers of faith. They don’t get named or recognized this side of heaven as they ought to. But through their strong and sometimes silent faith, they lead many to God.
Moses’ mother is not named in Exodus chapter 2, but other scriptures do reveal her name to be Jochebed.
But Exodus chapter 2 is not about Jochebed, but instead about her faith in God and what she did because of that faith.
May God help us see the faith of this mother, and father, and lead us all to a greater faith in God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!
Prayer
Prayer
Pray
I. The Reading
I. The Reading
A reading from Exodus Chapter 2, reading from the English Standard Version translation of the Bible.
This is God’s Word:
1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman.
2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.
3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.
4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.
5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it.
6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity 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 you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”
8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother.
9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.
10 When the child grew older, 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.”
Say Amen
Say Amen
If you receive this word by faith, as the word of God and not the word of man, would you say with me, Amen? — Amen!
II. The Exhortation
II. The Exhortation
When we think about faith, we think about belief, assurance, conviction — as if there is no doubt at all in faith.
But if we are honest, brothers and sisters, we have to admit that faith and doubt co-exist together. They have to!
If there is no doubt, there can be no faith, because faith overcomes doubt. Faith acts in spite of doubts.
This is why faith is a powerful witness to the existence and reward of God.
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
There is an element of not knowing and not seeing in faith.
As a people of faith, we are called to act and obey God even when we don’t know what will happen.
Because our confidence is not in outcomes, our confidence is not in what will happen, our confidence is not in ourselves, or in what we can see, or in what we hope for.
Our confidence, our faith is in God. Our future is in God. Our assurance is in God and God alone.
The world Moses was born into was filled with unknowns for the Hebrew people. The future was uncertain. A way out of their suffering was not seen.
But yet the Scriptures shine light on a people who acted in faith.
III. The Teaching
III. The Teaching
This text begins with:
A. The Faith of Moses’ Parents [ 1-3 ]
A. The Faith of Moses’ Parents [ 1-3 ]
Look with me at verses 1-3:
1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman.
Let’s ask this question —
Does it take faith to get married? Absolutely!
It doesn’t take faith to “hook up” for an evening.
It doesn’t faith to stay friends forever.
But it does take faith to “put a ring on the finger” as we say in our day.
It takes faith to commit.
It takes faith, when you don’t know what the years ahead will hold, to nevertheless enter into a covenant union, not based on what is foreknown, but based on what is promised —
“for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, for sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part.”
This traditional marriage vow admits that the future could go many different ways. The future is unknown!
But by faith, the unknown future will be navigated together, come what may.
Marriage requires enormous faith.
And this man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. There was a marriage.
But understand the context of this marriage and what this marriage required.
This marriage was during a time when the act of marriage, was costly.
Back up one verse, to the last verse of Chapter 1.
22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”
The Pharoah, king of Egypt, commanded to his people that every son born to the Hebrews should be killed — cast into the Nile.
And you ask, “why the sons only?” What about the daughters?
Pharaoh wasn’t being gracious toward the daughters by sparing them. It should be understood that the Egyptians had plans for the daughters. They were to be slaves, but of a different kind of slavery.
The Egyptians at this time oppressed the people of Israel. The afflicted them with heavy burdens.
14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.
We ask again —
What kind of faith did it take for a man to go and take a wife during such a time?
And for this couple to fulfill the duties of a husband and wife toward each other under such a threat of certain death for a son if she conceives and bears a son?
Certainly, we all worry about the future of our children and grandchildren.
It’s an honest question to ask — what kind of world is this to raise a child in? What debts will our children have to pay on our behalf? What suffering awaits them? Is it better to not have children at all?
This son of this Levite couple, through no fault of his own, would be killed if he were born.
What kind of stress would this place on the child’s mother? What faith to carry this child every day not knowing his future?
But she did.
Look with me at verse 2 —
2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.
The woman conceived and bore a son.
This woman who became a wife, now becomes a mother.
And this man became a father, because of their faith.
By the way, as a matter of biblical instruction here, notice the order of how this comes about.
The man and the woman were married - verse 1. And then the woman conceived and bore a son - verse 2.
The marriage came first. Then the son.
God’s Word instructs us about God’s way to motherhood and fatherhood and we should not apologize for that way. We should not shy away from that way. We should teach that as often as the Scripture allow us!
Every preacher I know struggles with how to teach on motherhood and fatherhood, because we all know women who can’t be mothers and want to be.
We all know of mothers who have lost children.
We all know of mothers who are mothers out of wedlock.
We all know of mothers who are mothers because of tragedy.
We all know of mothers who are mothers through adoption.
We all know of sons and daughters who did not have mothers.
There are many examples and exceptions, some good, some bad.
And the preacher feels like he has to dance around the issue of biblical motherhood because someone always gets offended, or is dealing with legitimate wounding or hurt, and so we stay silent.
But can’t we all at least have some measure of spiritual maturity on this day, and honor motherhood, and recognize that God’s Word does teach about God’s Way to motherhood and fatherhood - and that way is through marriage first.
We should teach that way. We should pray for that way. We should desire that way.
Because our children and grandchildren aren’t being taught that way - unless we teach it! And God’s Word teaches it, Amen?
It is not just an ideal way. It is God’s way and what God desires.
It is through the marriage of one man and one woman, and the faith that is professed in the marriage covenant, that this man and woman become a father and a mother.
Faith begets faith.
I heard someone say on the news this week — they were talking about inflation and how it is hurting our paychecks and our wallets (have you noticed?) — and they said the problem with inflation that makes it so bad, is that inflation begets inflation.
That is, inflation leads to more inflation. It is hard to stop.
Brothers and sisters, faith is like that, but in a better way.
Faith leads to more faith. And when we start living by faith, it is hard to stop, because faith begets more faith!
If we are faithful in little things, we will be faithful in bigger things.
Jesus said —
Luke 16:10 (ESV)
10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much...
We who have children know, that IF it took a measure of faith get married, it takes even more faith to raise a child! — Amen?
How much more so, in the time of Moses’ parents, where if the child was a male he was to be thrown into the Nile to his death by order of the king of Egypt!?
They didn’t have ultrasound machines back then.
Moses’ parents wouldn’t have known whether this child would be a boy or a girl until the child was born.
It was a considerable risk for them to procreate at such a dangerous time. It required faith.
This was the definition of a high-risk pregnancy!
But Moses’ parents are not operating by fear; they are living by faith in God!
And what an encouragement this is for each of us!
We are so fearful that we wait for the perfect set of circumstances or the perfect forecast to act.
Moses’ parents did not wait until the perfect time to get married. They did not fear. For the Scripture says —
A man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman.
They are not waiting for the perfect time to have marital relations and procreate. They are not waiting for the king’s edict to be lifted. For the Scripture says —
The woman conceived and bore a son.
Instead, Moses’ parents are doing what God has permitted and blessed them to do concerning marriage and family — they are obeying the word of God and not the word of the Pharoah.
Because God is God. Pharoah is not.
The man takes a wife. That’s his faith.
The woman conceives and bears a son. That’s her faith.
Together, by their faith, they act in a way that defies the king’s command and instead they trust God to make a way when there seemed to be no way.
Their faith in action proves this! We know this because of their deeds of faith. That’s how faith is seen to be living and not dead — not just heard with words, but seen through actions.
How did Moses’ mother act in faith?
Let’s look at verse 2 again —
2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.
Moses’ mother looked at her baby in the same way that Father God looked at all Creation that he had created, and saw that it was good.
This baby was “a fine child.”
The word “fine” is the Hebrew word for “good.” The same word in Genesis 1 when God saw that “it was good.”
Moses was a “good child” — because Moses was a creation of God.
Every child is a a creation of God.
No matter the circumstances that led to that conception - that child is a creation and gift from God.
And this is why motherhood and fatherhood, no matter how it came about, is a stewardship from Heaven that requires great faith!
A mother and father are stewarding a good creation of God. A human life, bearing the image of God.
So what did Moses’ mother do?
The text makes clear that she did NOT do nothing. But she DID something.
She acted again in faith and hid him.
She hid him three months.
Now, I believe all Scripture is truth without any mixture of error. If God’s Word says she hid him three months, then I believe it — she hid him three months. That’s settled, there is no debate. Amen.
But having had three children of my own, I humbly have questions —
What kind of mothering technique was this where a mother could effectively hide a baby boy less than three months old?!?
Have you heard a baby cry?
(I think some of our neighbors heard our babies crying!)
My ears are still ringing because of our babies crying!
How did she hide this baby?
But she did!
Moses’ mother hid him, by faith!
And while the Scriptures do not tell us how, we can read between the lines and understand what is implied here — this mother of faith did what she could for her child until she could do it no longer.
And by the way - that’s what genuine faith does. It trusts God and shows it.
Lazy faith is the kind that says “I trust God” but then doesn’t do anything about it. That’s a foolish faith. That’s a failing faith.
But a living faith says “I trust God” and BECAUSE I trust God I’m going to do all I can to act out that faith and show it.
Do you believe in the sovereignty of God? You should!
But if you believe God will save you without you ever exercising faith to confess Christ as Lord with your mouth and believe in His resurrection from the dead in your heart, then you misunderstand the expectations of faith.
Faith doesn’t sit back and do nothing. Faith acts. Otherwise it is a dead faith.
3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.
4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.
I imagine the water level of the Nile rose just a fraction as the tears of a mother poured into that water as she made this basket. Surely there were tears!?
Could you imagine taking your three month old child who can do nothing for himself, whom you have supplied with protection and provision from your own body, and then placing that child in an ark among the reeds by the river bank -
Knowing that you cannot keep him any longer or he will be found and thrown into that very Nile to be killed!
But at the same time, NOT knowing what might come of this experiment, that might end with the same outcome?
Verse 4 tells us that Moses’ sister stands at a distance to know what would be done to baby Moses.
Because they didn’t know!
That’s evidence of faith.
They didn’t KNOW what would happen. They didn’t have any assurance this plan would succeed. They didn’t know which way this would go. This was a big question mark!
This was acting in faith — because they didn’t just abandon Moses and walk away.
Moses’ sister stood at a distance and watched.
That’s expectation. That’s anticipation. We don’t know what it is, but by faith we believe something’s going to happen.
We’ve done all we can do. Now, let’s watch and see what God does.
One way or the other, this baby Moses was going into the waters of the Nile and apart from divine intervention, would be killed.
But this mother was not giving up and doing nothing.
She placed the baby Moses in the waters of the Nile, but she did it in the protection of a basket that she had built.
3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.
This word “basket” in verse 3 is the Hebrew word for “ark.” Moses’ mother made an ark for her son and placed him in it.
Surely, this imagery and language brings to mind another ark — Noah’s ark, when God Himself saved Noah and his family who were in the ark from drowning in the waters of the flood.
Perhaps Moses’ mother thought that God might do the same!?
Perhaps Moses’ mother has this confidence in God who can deliver in the same way he has delivered before, those whom He chooses.
And by making this ark, and placing Moses in it, she is appealing to God through her actions of faith, that God might deliver her son from death.
We don’t have to be told what Moses’ mother was praying or if she was praying at all. Her actions say enough.
“God of Noah, who saved one man and his family from judgment of the flood - will you also save one helpless baby from the judgment of this water too?”
Moses’ mother surely believed God could. And I believe she had faith that God would because she sent Moses’ sister to watch what would happen.
Through this act of faith, not knowing what would transpire, and not able to hide Moses any longer, Moses’ mother entrusts baby Moses to God’s care in the waters of the Nile.
And God does what only God can do.
And what does God do?
Brothers and sisters, God orchestrates a way that the best story writers in the world couldn’t make up!
God makes a way so that baby Moses is saved by the daughter of Pharoah, the daughter of the very man who commanded that Moses, as a Hebrew male child, be killed.
And from out of the waters of the Nile, that were meant to be Moses’ grave, Moses is lifted up — he is drawn out of the water — and preserved alive, not merely by the hand of the daughter of the king of Egypt, but MORE SO by the hand of the sovereign king of Heaven and Earth, God, the LORD Almighty who saves and redeems His people!
And through the working of God, because of a mother’s faith, Moses is nursed by his own mother and is paid to do it by Pharaoh’s daughter.
God gives Moses’ mother her son back and even provides money for her to nurse him.
And at the appointed time, when Moses grew older, Moses’ mother had to do something difficult again by faith. Something she had already done before when she put Moses in the ark.
Moses’ mother had to give her child away again, and commit him to God, when she took the child back to Pharaoh’s daughter to become Pharaoh’s daughter’s son...
10 When the child grew older, 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.”
Faith begets faith.
For as this story goes on, we learn that Moses acts by faith by choosing later to forsake the glory of Egypt and to suffer instead as a Hebrew.
Without a doubt, as Moses’ mother is nursing him and caring for him, she is also instilling faith in God in him.
Parents and Grandparents — Don’t minimize the role your faith plays in the lives of your children and grandchildren.
Don’t overlook the responsibility you have to pass on your faith to them!
Paul said to Timothy:
5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.
Moses’ parents had faith. Moses’ mother had faith.
And their faith shown through their acts leads us to God who is faithful and acts too.
B. The Faithfulness of God [ 23-25 ]
B. The Faithfulness of God [ 23-25 ]
Let’s read verses 23-25 again:
23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.
24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25 God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
All of these actions of faith by Moses’ mother for her baby, now are actions of God Himself for His children — His people.
And as Moses’ parents acted in faith, God acts according to His faithfulness.
God heard. God remembered. God saw. God knew.
God Heard
God Heard
God heard the cry of his people for help. God heard their groaning because of their slavery.
God Remembered
God Remembered
God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To bring their offspring out of this land and give them the land he promised.
When the Bible says God remembers, it’s not that God ever forgot.
It means God is about to act. God’s remembering means God is now acting.
God Saw
God Saw
God saw the people of Israel. He saw their sacrifices. He saw their need. God is not blind or distracted.
And -
God Knew
God Knew
God knew what was going on. God was not ignorant of the plight of His people.
Take comfort brothers and sisters!
This God has not changed.
He may be silent at times. He may be waiting. He may not be intervening right when we want him to.
But God still hears.
God still remembers.
God still sees.
God still knows.
And God - the only God, acts.
And this brings us to the —
The [Christ] Conclusion
The [Christ] Conclusion
Please hear this and be strengthened in your faith!
Just as God acted to deliver Moses out of the waters of the Nile, God acted to deliver His people out of slavery in Egypt.
And God has acted to deliver his people, that’s you and me and all who hear by faith, from sin today.
If we cry out in faith to God to save us, God will hear our cry for help!
And God will remember the new covenant established by the blood of His Son.
For God does not act unknowingly. God watched as His Son bled and died on the cross becoming sin for us. And God did not stand by wondering what would happen. God knew what would happen. His Son would die. And God did not intervene to prevent it. Instead, God will it.
God heard His Son cry out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
But God did not save His Son from that death so that by His wounds we may be healed. By His blood we may be forgiven. That in Christ we may become children of God and call God our Father!
God did not save Jesus from death or the grave.
But instead, God allowed Him to go that way, in our place, for our sin, and then on the third day God drew Christ out of the tomb. God raised Jesus out from the grave! So that we might know what Israel knew, what Moses’ parents knew — that —
God hears, and through the living Christ - God may be heard.
God remembers, and through the living Christ - God may be remembered.
God sees, and through the living Christ - God may be seen.
God knows, and through the living Christ - God may be known, by faith.
The apostle wrote in Philippians 3 —
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Exodus Chapter 2 moves us to a question of faith —
Moses’ parents had faith and acted on it.
Moses had faith and acted on it.
God is faithful! God has acted through Christ. God is acting through Christ!
But will God’s people have faith and act in faith too?
Will we have faith to confess Christ as Lord today?
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Will we turn from sin, and faithlessness, and turn to Christ by faith? Not just in our words, but also in our deeds?
Not just confessing with our mouth but believing in our heart?
Hebrews 11 says this —
23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,
25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
God, give us faith!
An enduring faith. Faith to suffer rather than to sin, faith in the greater riches and eternal reward of Christ. Give us a living faith that acts. And it may it begin with our confession today that Christ alone is Lord.
We believe this, help us to live this.
In the name of Jesus,
Amen.
