Editor's note: Enjoy today's devotion from From Where I Stand: A 30-Day Journey with Women of the Bible by Shanna Noel & Sherri Hughes-Gragg.
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For nine precious months, Jochebed sheltered and nourished her son in her womb. There in the dark, he developed and grew, rocked to sleep by the steady rhythm of her heartbeat.
For three more months after his birth, she risked her own life to save his. Pharaoh had ordered that all Israelite baby boys be thrown to their deaths in the Nile River and so, Jochebed hid her son.
But then, the day came when he grew too big, his cry too strong, to hide him any longer.
Wrapped in a sling across her chest, the chubby cheeked baby smiled and cooed at her as she fought to hold back tears. Under the watchful eye of her older daughter, Miriam, Jochebed placed a basket on the table and sealed it tight with pitch, a waterproof glue-type substance.
When the pitch was dry, she nursed her baby one last time, wrapped him in blankets, and placed him in the ark. With his stomach full and the warmth of his mother still clinging to him, the baby boy drifted off to sleep.
Jochebed took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment to gather her strength. Then, she tucked the basket, and her baby, under her arm and began the short walk to the Nile. Once there, she parted the reeds and slipped the pitch-lined basket holding her baby boy out onto the water.
A tiny ark to hold her precious son...
It was a fragile hope, but the only one she had left to offer him. She had given him all she could. Now, all that was left was to whisper a prayer and... surrender him. The rest was up to God.
Scripture Reading
Read the scriptural account below of Jochebed’s heart-wrenching surrender of her son, Moses.
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.”
Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.
His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it and saw the baby.
He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said. Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son.
She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.” — Exodus 1:22–2:10 NIV
Let’s Review
1. Imagine you are Jochebed, and you have just realized that you are expecting a baby. Describe what you are thinking and feeling.
2. Women will go to great lengths to protect those they love, but like Jochebed, we all reach our limit at some point. What brings you peace in these moments?
3. Our Scripture reading tells us that not only did God save Moses’ life, He returned the baby to his mother until he was weaned. Imagine the moment Pharaoh’s daughter placed Moses backin his mother’s arms. What might Jochebed have been thinking and feeling?
Application
Genesis 7 tells us the harrowing story of a worldwide flood sent by God as a creational reset of sorts because humanity had slipped into such depths of violence and bloodshed that a do-over seemed the only option.
But... God preserved a remnant. One man, Noah, was still attentive to God’s leading, so God instructed Noah to build an ark for the preservation of his family as well as two of every kind of animal.
Exodus chapter two tells us of another ark, this much smaller one fashioned by a grieving mother’s hands to give her baby boy the only chance she could afford him when all her other resources came up short. With this ark, God saved the baby boy, Moses, who then grew up to save and lead his people to freedom from Egyptian slavery.
Most of us know a “mama bear” who has done amazing things for the love of a child. Jochebed was certainly one of these. She courageously hid her baby for as long as she could, and when the moment came in which she was no longer able to do so, she gave him the only gift she had left to give: she tucked him into a pitch-sealed basket and set him afloat on the Nile.
Jochebed’s lesson for us is a simple one, but far from easy:
- When we have done all we can to protect and provide for those we love who are in crisis, we must surrender them into the loving care of God.
Letting go is hard, isn’t it?
It feels like quitting. It feels like failure. It just feels... wrong.
But there are moments when letting go is both our only choice and the best choice because in doing so, we make room for God to move in unexpected, miraculous ways.
Are you heartbroken over a loved one in crisis? Remember that God loves them far more than you could ever imagine and that while your human resources are limited, His are infinite.
Our loving, rescuing God is mighty to save.
Prompt
Write a prayer asking God to help you surrender those you love into His faithful care.
Dig Deeper
Excerpted with permission from From Where I Stand: A 30-Day Journey with Women of the Bible by Shanna Noel & Sherri Hughes-Gragg, copyright Shanna Noel & Sherri Hughes-Gragg.
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Your Turn
Every parent can imagine the heartbreak of Jochebed and yet the relief knowing that God had saved the life of her baby boy. He is faithful to care for our loved ones. Every time. ~ Devotionals Daily