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“…And she named him Moses, and said, ‘Because I drew him out of the water.'”
Exodus 2:10
Moses, his name in Hebrew is Mosheh, which means rescued. It comes from mashas which means to pull out or draw out. In Exodus 2:10 we read that the Pharoah’s daughter named him Moses because she drew him out of the water, but precious one, God named him Moses for a much bigger reason.
This Moses who the Pharoah’s daughter rescued from the reeds of the Nile, God will one day use to rescue an entire nation by pulling them through the divided waters of the Red Sea. Are we not grateful that the mother of Moses chose to trust God.
The mother of Moses, Jochebed, was a woman of great faith. In Hebrew Jochebed means Jehovah-glorified. This was a woman who knew that a child was a gift from God. “Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward.” (Psalm 127)
Jochebed was a woman, who even though a death sentence had been placed over her son, she chose to hide and protect her son. This was a woman who did not fear the words of man, but trusted in her sovereign God. This was a woman who instead of allowing her son to be killed, she chose to allow another woman to raise him as her own.
When Jochebed looked into the eyes of her newborn son she did not see the burden of sleepless nights, she did not see the fear of society coming to kill him, she saw that he was beautiful. She looked into her baby’s eyes and she saw a hope. She saw a child that had a future and she did all that she could to give him life so that he might walk in that future and in that hope. She sacrificed her own heart, that he might live.
Yes, Jochebed also was rightly named as she glorified her Jehovah with her choice for life. How we need more Jochebeds in our world today. How we too need more Pharoah’s daughters. This daughter of Pharoah took a known Hebrew child into her arms to love and raise. A Hebrew child that her father, the ruler of all Egypt wanted dead. This woman stood up against her family and her society, to rescue a three month old child.
Oh where are the daughters of Pharoah today?
Where are the Jochebeds?
Where are the women who are ready to take a stand for life?
During the days of Hitler, their where many women who took this stand, some very young girls. I was a told of a young girl, unwed, who in the 1940’s bore the shame of an illegitimate child to be able to claim a Jewish baby as her own in order to save his life.
Where are these women today when the abortion clinic doors stand wide like an open grave calling out for death to enter? Where are the women who look into the eyes of a child and see a beautiful future and hope, not just for themselves, but for a family, a community, a nation, even the world? Where are the women who will look into an other’s eyes and share the beautiful possibilities of the glorious hope that is found in Jesus Christ?
Oh precious one, will you be that woman?
Oh Father,
Forgive me for my complacency. Oh Father, how I desire to be one who glorifies Your name. How I desire to be someone who stands for life. My Father in heaven, show me how to stand not just for this life but to stand for the eternal life that is found only in Christ. Teach me how to be one who draws the sentenced to death out of the Nile of the world. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8:2) Oh Father I know the One who is able to set free from the body of this death (Romans 6:4). Help me to go out and, in the confidence that is mine in Christ, share without shame the ministry of life. Let me not miss an opportunity to share the hope that is within me (1 Peter 3:15).
My Jesus it is in Your name I pray,
Amen