Pastor and People

Numbered among Time’s 10 Best Moms Ever were such notables as Marge Simpson, Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter, and Mrs. Jumbo from the hit Disney movie Dumbo. Among the list was someone I had not even considered as I was reading the Time story. Jochabed, the mother of Moses was number 5 on the list.

When Pharaoh demanded that all the male Jewish newborns be slaughtered, Jochabed had a difficult decision and was faced with trying circumstances. Jochabed was pregnant with Moses, the very one God would use to deliver His people out of Egyptian captivity and finally posses the Promised Land. Instead of subjecting her son to murder, Jochabed placed her newborn baby in a floating basket among the current of the Nile River (Exodus 2). Moses floated into the bathing waters of Pharaoh’s daughter who claimed him as her own. God’s marvelous providence positioned Jochabed as the nurse that would raise Moses in Pharaoh’s household.

Faced with the punishment of death for not following Pharaoh’s orders, Jochabed choose life for her son and placed him in the providential hands of God. She courageously choose to obey God rather than man. As we reflect on mothers and their infinite value in our lives and society let us praise the mothers who choose life!