“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.” Exodus 2:3 (NIV)
The woman described in these passages of Exodus was Jochebed, who was from a family lineage of priests, of the tribe of Levi. Her name isn’t even mentioned in the early chapters of the story, but we learn it from the genealogies mentioned later, that she was the birth mother of Moses, and a woman of faith.
There is no mention in this story of God ever once speaking audibly to Jochebed, who decided to hide her three month old baby in order to keep him alive. She received no dreams, no visions, no audible instructions and no angel visits from heaven, to help save her baby from Pharaoh’s cruel decree, ordering the killing of every Hebrew infant male.
Now it was time for her to put her faith into action, as she prayed and toiled before choosing between two options. She could either keep hiding her baby at home, risking that he might be found and murdered, or risk putting him in a waterproof papyrus basket to float down the Nile River, entrusting his destiny to God. She couldn’t hide him any longer, so she chose the latter.
The Nile River was filled with poisonous spiders, crocodiles and deadly mosquitos, yet Jochebed decided to risk all those natural threats, rather than take a chance on the evil that Pharaoh could do to her son.
Jochebed’s name translates to “God’s glory,” and she believed God would bring glory out of the entire situation. Without receiving any visits, visions or voices from heaven, Jochebed took action based on her own faith instincts. In courage and selflessness, Jochebed put her baby into that basket, and sent him down the Nile, praying and trusting God to lead him to whatever his destiny would be.
Her baby was found in the water by a compassionate princess who received him as a gift and raised him as her own son, in the royal palace. She named him Moses and through providential events, the princess hired Jochebed, to nurse him until he was weaned.
We all face difficult situations that require courage to trust in God. We may need to take immediate action, or it could be a situation where we cannot take any action at all, and need to be still and know that God is with us. In either case, it is our faith instincts that rise up within us and lead us to pray and trust in God.
While Jochebed hid her baby for three months, she prayed for a way to keep him alive in a world of turmoil and injustice, where she was a slave. The day she stood on the bank of the Nile, she had already followed her faith instincts, and released him into the care of an invisible God. As she watched her baby crying in that basket, floating down the river, with his arms reaching up in the air, her heart was breaking. Trusting God and turning faith into action, may not spare us from heartbreak, but hope reminds us that tomorrow is a new day.
Jochebed prayed and trusted that her son would live a full life, and God answered her prayer, far beyond her expectations. We all know the story of Moses and the Passover story. Despite how the movies depict the story, after his weaning, there’s no biblical account of Moses ever being reunited with his birth mother on this side of heaven. Sometimes the closure that we seek in this world, is delayed until eternity.
Jochebed was not the only Jewish mother in history, who gave her baby up in order to save him. There was another time in history, during the Holocaust, when mothers gave their babies up, entrusting their lives to someone else who could save them. Those children were adopted and raised in another country by another family, but not all birth mothers were reunited with them later.
They were courageous mothers like Jochebed, who followed their faith instincts, took action and then stood still, believing that their baby’s destiny was in God’s hands, which it was.
God is still a rewarder of those who diligently trust in Him. Throughout generations, we entrust the care of our children and loved ones to God. Sometimes we do so by relinquishing our control, and learn to be still and trust. Like Jochebed, we are led by our own faith instincts. We pray, take action and then leave everything in the hands of an invisible God, as our loved ones journey in their own papyrus basket of destiny.
Lord, show us when to put our faith into action and when to be still and trust. Guide us by the faith instincts you placed within us, so that we may glorify you through every situation. Amen