365 Devotionals: The Story of Moses

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. James 1:22 AMP

The Seeds of Promise Devotional Series

Jochebed: Mother of Miriam, Aaron, & Moses

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January	Book	Read From	Read To	Devotional
18^th	Exodus	Chapter 2		Jochebed: Mother of Miriam, Aaron, & Moses

Memory Verse: And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she called him Moses, for she said, Because I drew him out of the water. Exodus 2:10 AMP

Devotional Reading: Exodus 2:1-10 AMP

¹Now [Amram] a man of the house of Levi [the priestly tribe] went and took as his wife [Jochebed] a daughter of Levi. ²And the woman became pregnant and bore a son; and when she saw that he was [exceedingly] beautiful, she hid him three months. ³And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark or basket made of bulrushes or papyrus [making it watertight by] daubing it with bitumen and pitch. Then she put the child in it and laid it among the rushes by the brink of the river [Nile]. ⁴And his sister [Miriam] stood some distance away to learn what would be done to him. ⁵Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked along the bank; she saw the ark among the rushes and sent her maid to fetch it. ⁶When she opened it, she saw the child; and behold, the baby cried. And she took pity on him and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children! ⁷Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call a nurse of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you? ⁸Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the girl went and called the child’s mother. ⁹Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed it. ¹⁰And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she called him Moses, for she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

Devotional Reading: Hebrews 11:23 AMP

²³[Prompted] by faith Moses, after his birth, was kept concealed for three months by his parents, because they saw how comely the child was; and they were not overawed and terrified by the king’s decree.

Jochebed, whose name means, “Yahweh is glory,” was a daughter of Levi, and the full-sister of Kohath, father of the Kohathites, one of the four primary divisions of Levites. Jochebed’s husband, Amram, was her nephew, the son of Kohath. Amram & Jochebed became the parents of (in order of birth) Miriam, Aaron, and Moses – whom God chose to be the deliverer of the Israelites from the bondage of Pharaoh.

When the child who would be called, Moses was born, there was a current decree from Pharaoh that anyone who saw a male, Hebrew child should seize him and cast him into the Nile river to drown. Jochebed saw that her son was exceedingly beautiful. She was compelled to spare his life. She had the unction to build him an ark and set him afloat on the river. His sister Miriam inconspicuously followed the ark and saw that it floated to the pool of Pharaoh’s daughter. This first miracle was that Moses has lived until now by the cunning wisdom of his mother and the grace of God. The second miracle was that no beast or creeping thing came to the ark where the child was. Thirdly, the child was not crying though he was naturally alone in the ark and could not see his surroundings. Fourthly, Miriam suggested that a Hebrew woman should nurse the child; however, the daughter of Pharaoh thought it not strange that this girl was speaking with her. She did not know Miriam, who was not a servant in her house; yet, Pharaoh’s daughter did not question from whence Miriam came, but commanded her to go and find a nurse for the child. God’s providence allowed the child’s nurse to be Jochebed, as Miriam naturally went and called the child’s mother, who was her own mother also.

God manifested His purpose and placed Moses in the position to bring down a reign that persisted through 400 years of slavery. He would be raised in the house of Pharaoh and later discover his roots.

Were it not for the instinct of Jochebed, Moses would have died in infancy; but she hid him in the house for three months, which is another miracle because her house would have been searched, and the house could not have been very large as to have many hiding places being the house of a slave. Miraculously, Moses never cried when it would have compromised his situation and revealed his location. Consequently, the Eqyptian guards could not find the child. Finally, when Jochebed could no longer hide Moses in the house, she had enough faith place him in a floating basket, amongst crocodiles, snakes, and other predators including Egyptians who might have sank the ark with the child in it, because of the commandment of Pharoah. God protected Moses and ordered his route (like as He orders the steps of a good man) in the ark, leading the babe straight into the hands of royalty. Not only was the child spared, he was positioned to become a prince; Jochebed, his birthmother (who probably thought that she would never see the child again, though she believed that the child would live despite Pharaoh’s decree) was called to be his nurse; and because Jochebed was “hired” to nurse the child, she also received wages from the daughter of Pharaoh, adding income to her household. God took a dangerous and oppressive situation and worked divine favor between Jochebed, the child, and the daughter of Pharaoh.

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