I want to talk to women this morning… I intentionally didn’t say “mothers”

I pray we’re all having a blessed Mother’s Day. If your mother is still living, then you’re blessed to be able to honor her today. If your mom has gone on to be with the Lord, today is mixed with emotions of sweet memories and gratefulness for the lessons learned, as well as the loss of missing her. I’m very conscious that there are some for whom Mother’s Day is difficult at best, even painful, over the endless prayers that remain unanswered for a child and for others burdened by decisions that are painful to recall. I know there are some of you who struggled with whether to even come today, due to a myriad of emotions.

Considering Mother’s Day, I want to look at the life of Moses’ mother. (Why Moses’? Shouldn’t it be Ruth, Mary or Sara?)

Because in Moses’s life we see three women God used to

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a

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!

Within our text this morning we find three examples of what it means to be a mother, and only one is biological!

This Mother’s Day, whether you’re mothering your own child or raising another’s, is for you, and we honor you!

The three women I want us to look at this morning are
1. Jochebed,
2. Pharaoh’s daughter,
3. Shiphrah, &
4. Puah

Pastor, you can’t count. That’s FOUR women! True, but Shiphrah & Puah worked together in Moses’ life.

I. Jochebed is Moses’

mother, and we’re introduced to her in Exodus 2 w/o her name. Jochebed’s name is mentioned in Exodus 6:20 and restated in Numbers 26:59, both identifying her as

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wife.

In context, as we read Exodus, “

yrs.” have passed, and the nation of Israel had grown to as much as 60,000 people. The new Pharaoh, the one who Exodus 1:8 - “knew not Joseph” - was afraid that they would form an alliance with Egypt’s enemies and form an army against the Egyptians. – So the Pharaoh made a decree in Exodus 1:22.

Let’s look at Jochebed Exodus 2:1-9. Here are some points we must consider:
• Jochebed wasn’t just Moses’ mother. She was also Miriam’s mother and Aaron’s mother.
• Miriam was most likely the

. She stood guard watching to see what would happen to her baby brother.
• Aaron, the

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child, was born before the edict came down to kill all Hebrew boys. He was probably already a slave.

So Jochebed, as a mother hearing her child was to be killed, was an accomplished mother.
She raised a daughter to take both the responsibility to watch Moses, and the initiative to approach Pharaoh’s daughter with a solution that would allow Jochebed to stay involved in Moses’ life. Yet, more than that, Jochebed’s impact on her family was powerful: in Exodus 15, Miriam is called a prophetess, only the third person in Scripture (after Abraham and Aaron) to have this role.

She was also the first worship leader in Scripture, leading the women of Israel in song after they cross the Red Sea.

Jochebed raised a strong, accountable, spiritually attuned daughter who, herself, contributed to God’s work in Moses!

Consider Aaron, Jochebed’s middle child… We’ve already said Aaron was called a prophet Exodus 7:1.

But Aaron also became God’s

to Pharaoh after Moses begged God to send someone else to Exodus 4:14. Additionally, Aaron would be ordained as the first high priest, and every high priest thereafter was from the line of Aaron. We can’t leave out Moses himself, the future Law Giver and one of the greatest leaders on God’s people.

As parents, we try to figure out how to get our kids to read the Bible. Jochebed’s son is writing it! We can be in awe of Jochebed’s kids. What does it take for a mother to raise not one, but three spiritual children!?!!

While every child has gifts & talents, not every child has a

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to nurture them for/in the purpose of the Lord.

Jochebed spared Moses from death as an infant… Instead of allowing him to be murdered under a royal edict, she coated the bottom of a woven basket with tar to waterproof it. Then she sat the baby in it and set it among the reeds on the Nile’s riverbank despite crocodiles. - she wanted the Lord’s will for her child, not what she thought was best. So Jochebed was creative. She was

. And then she did the bravest, hardest thing of all: she let them go. She entrusted all of them to God’s care, and Moses was the most obvious. It’s hard to consider that Jochebed (a mother) had so much faith in God for the well-being of her child to set him afloat!

I think of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2. She made good on her promise to dedicate Samuel him to God. And visited him yearly!

The world needs more Aaron’s, Miriam’s and Moses’ – but that means the world needs more

!

II. Pharoah’s daughter (adoptive mom) – first recorded adoption we know.

No matter what her name was, after Jochebed finished weaning her son, she turned the boy over to Pharaoh’s daughter who raised him as her own and named him Moses because, as she said, I drew him out of the

. While Pharaoh’s daughter disappears from the story after this, consider how this act of selflessness changed the world:
• Did you know that every two minutes, another child enters the foster care system in the United States?
• 2024 – 21,358 children went int o foster care in Texas.

Any woman who invests

into a child of God, and that can contribute to the same results as a Jochebed, has an immeasurable value!

III. Shiphrah & Puah - Exodus 1:15-20 – spiritual activist for truth

These were the two Hebrew nurses who helped the Israelite women give birth. These two women trusted God and, at great personal peril, chose not to obey the king’s command. They let all the Hebrew baby boys live. And God blessed them for it. Shiphrah & Puah were the very first activist against child murder… They stood up for infants that could not speak for themselves, even when doing so could cost them their lives.

Moses had “3” that impacted his life, and God worked through their

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to change this world.

Is God able to use you to change this world for good and for God? If you are a woman, you are of the greatest value!