As a priest, the story of Moses and his lineage always intrigues me. One character who always stands out to me, is his mother, Jochebed. From the scripture, she is described as a Hebrew woman who endured the pains of slavery in Egypt before the renowned exodus. According to Exodus 2:1, her parentage traces back to being a descendant of a Levite. Even more intriguingly, she was wedded to a fellow Levite named Amram (Exodus 2:1). This web of kinship draws even tighter as Exodus 6:20 divulges that Jochebed was not only Amram’s wife, but his aunt too, as she had married her nephew.
Their union produced three known children – Moses, Miriam the prophetess and Aaron, as accounted in Exodus 15:20 and Exodus 6:20 respectively. When Moses was born, Miriam was old enough to serve as a lookout during his infancy, indicating that Moses came into the picture some years after Jochebed and Amram’s marriage.
The moment Moses came into existence was not one of peace. Israelites were set under a draconian decree by the king of Egypt, in a bid to manage their rocketing population; All newborn Hebrew boys were subjected to death upon their birth – a directive that greatly troubled Jochebed (Exodus 1:8-16).
However, the audacity of the life-limiting decree sparked rebellion. The Hebrew midwives, for instance, refused to be instruments of the mass infanticide and managed to outwit the king (Exodus 1:17-19). Jochebed, too, took matters into her own hands. To shield her son from the king’s murderous edict, she tucked Moses into a basket of bulrushes and set him adrift on the Nile River (Exodus 2:3). A blatant act of defiance that paid off when none other than the Pharaoh’s own daughter defied her father’s decree by adopting the baby she found afloat in a basket, and even named him – Moses (Exodus 2:5-10).
God’s providence was on full display in this act as Jochebed was mysteriously appointed Moses’ nurse and was compensated for her services by the very king who ordered his death (Exodus 2:7-9).
Though Jochebed is again mentioned in Numbers 26:59, the scripture does not give further insight into her life. Interestingly, the Qur’an lends voice to her tale, giving a similar account of her decision to hide Moses, though it introduces certain details about Jochebed’s pregnancy that the Bible does not affirm.
Drawing lessons from Jochebed’s life, her remarkable faith stands as a beacon for every believer to trust in God’s providence. Her defiance against the Pharaoh’s decree was not only a fight for her son’s life but a testament of her unwavering faith in the provision and protection of God. Her story is a stark reminder to always stand up against injustice, despite the consequences that might follow.
Leave a Reply