JOCHEBED: Portrait of a Godly Mother

 

What could be greater than the wrath of a wicked king? The love of a mother. We might never have known Moses—the one who parted the sea—if, as an infant, he had been drowned in the river. The story of Exodus would be very different if Jochebed (Exodus 6:20), the mother of Moses, had chosen fear over faith. Today, we recognize a deliverer of Israel because one mother chose to save her child.

HER COURAGE

Pharaoh, king of Egypt, was determined to stop the Israelites from multiplying. He commanded the midwives to kill every baby boy (Exodus 1:16). When that plan failed, he decreed that all newborn Hebrew boys must be thrown into the Nile River (1:22). What a wicked command! Imagine the heartbreak of parents forced to cast their children into the river at the king’s orders.

But Jochebed refused to comply. She hid her baby for three months, defying Pharaoh’s decree. She did not put her own comfort or safety first—what mattered most to her was doing what was right and protecting her child.

HER CONFIDENCE

Eventually, Jochebed could no longer hide her son. So she crafted a basket (in Hebrew, tebat, the same word used for “ark”), coated it with tar and pitch to make it waterproof, and placed her baby inside, setting him afloat on the river (Exodus 2:3).

What must have gone through her heart at that moment? Had she given up, simply leaving him to drown? Of course not. If she had wanted the child to perish, she would not have taken such care to build a vessel for his safety. Her actions required not only courage but also faith. She believed her baby was special and refused to let him die. She did everything she could—and entrusted the rest to God.

The writer of Hebrews affirms her act as faith: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see... By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” (Hebrews 11:1, 23).

HER CARE

God rewarded the faith of this godly mother. Just as the ark saved Noah and his family, Jochebed’s ark saved her child. The very river meant to drown him carried him safely into God’s plan (Exodus 2:5–6).

At the perfect time, Jochebed’s daughter witnessed a miracle: the slave woman’s child was adopted as a prince of Egypt. Even more astonishing, Pharaoh’s daughter hired Jochebed herself to nurse and care for her own son—while being paid to do so! Blessings upon blessings. The princess named the child Moses, meaning “drawn out of the water” (2:10). One day, this same child would grow into a mighty prophet of God, who would deliver Israel out of the waters of the Red Sea.

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We can never truly know what God is able to do when we choose to obey and entrust everything to Him. Jochebed is a shining example of a godly mother—brave, faithful, and determined to protect her child. She stands as a reminder of what one person can do when they refuse to bow to the pressures of this world and instead choose to do what is right. Stay Curious.