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[0:00] Exodus 2. We're going to read about one of the Bible mothers.

[0:19] ! One of the mother of Moses, Jochebed. Exodus 2. And they went a man of the house of Levi and took to his wife the daughter of Levi.

[0:32] And the woman conceived and there a son. And when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not hide him longer, she took for him an ark of bulrushes and dorked it with slime and with pit to put the child therein.

[0:51] And she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off to wit what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river.

[1:03] And her maidens walked along by the river's side. And when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child. And behold, the babe wept.

[1:15] And she had compassion on him and said, This one is one of the Hebrews' children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?

[1:32] And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go! And the woman went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away and nurse it for me.

[1:44] And I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son.

[1:56] And she called his name Moses. And she said, Because I drew him out of the water. Let's pray, shall we? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. Help us to attend to it and to receive it, Lord.

[2:10] Help, Lord, that you would be glorified as we open our ears to it and our hearts to it.

[2:21] In Jesus' name, Amen. Jochebed, she was the mother of Moses. Also of Aaron and Miriam. She was the first person in the Bible to have the Lord, or Yah, as part of her name.

[2:36] The name Jochebed, it means Yahweh is glorious. The glory of Yahweh. Yahweh is our glory. She was a mother to the glory of God.

[2:47] A mother to the glory of God. In the context of Exodus, chapter 1, verse 22, it says that Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.

[3:02] Pharaoh commanded the midwives to kill all the Hebrew male babies. But the midwives feared God more than the Pharaoh.

[3:13] And Moses was born anyway. Her third child. Some of the characteristics of what made a mother to the glory of God. Firstly, one of the characteristics of Jochebed was courage.

[3:29] Courage. Verse 2, And the woman conceived and bear a son. And when she saw him, that he was a goodly child, he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months.

[3:40] The world was dangerous for Jochebed and her family. For the Hebrew people, it was a dangerous place. Mothers and fathers here today, this world that we bring our children to, is a dangerous place.

[3:58] And we as mothers and fathers, we often fear for our children. We're concerned for their future. It takes courage to be a parent. To bring into the world a new life.

[4:12] In this hostile, dangerous, scary place at times, the world for Jochebed was not a safe place. It was not an easy life for Jochebed.

[4:24] It was a hard life for this mother. She was herself a slave amongst the nation of slaves in captivity, the children of Israel.

[4:36] And the Hebrews were suffering under the Egyptian slave masters, under the whip of the slave masters, as they built their pyramids and their buildings of the time.

[4:50] It was a time of great oppression, of bondage, of slavery, of hard labour. And the Egyptians were a brutal people. Here they were, the king, the nation of Egypt was afraid that the Israelites were growing in number.

[5:04] And the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt said that all the baby boys of the Hebrews were to be slaughtered. They were to be thrown into the river, thrown into the Nile, sacrificed as it were to the Egyptian god of the Nile.

[5:19] You could conceive of it as the Nile was a sacred thing to them. But what an atrocity that these innocent lives would be taken.

[5:34] It was a partial genocide of the people of God. And as soon as Jochebed heard, she knew that there was great danger for her. She saw she had a healthy boy and she was not afraid.

[5:47] We read in Hebrews 11, 23, to defy the king. What courage she had. What boldness she had as a mother.

[5:58] As a mother to the glory of God. Yahweh was her glory. The Lord was her glory. She did not want her precious son to die.

[6:11] She would do all that she could do to save this precious life. To see that her son would live. And she was not afraid, even if it meant breaking the law of the day.

[6:22] She would not kill her baby. She knew the risks. She was a mother with courage. She knew that disobedience to the king's command meant danger. It meant severe punishment.

[6:33] Potential death. As her family could be executed by the authorities. And she hid her son, Moses, for three months. And we got on Moses in our midst this morning.

[6:46] She hid Moses for three months. Mothers are needed. Mothers are needed. Mothers with courage. Mothers who will protect. Statistics show that 62% of school aged children watch three or more hours of television daily.

[7:04] There is good reason why mothers need to protect their children. Because there is an influence about us in this pagan culture that is Australia. Of the wickedness of our land.

[7:16] Friends, there is much that we as parents, as mothers, as fathers need to be considering. And to be mothers with courage. There is a mother with courage here this morning.

[7:29] My wife Julie. Julie, due to circumstances beyond her control, became a single mother before I met her. She faced hurtful assumptions and embarrassment from critical people, church people, without understanding.

[7:47] It took courage for Julie to be a mother. To be a mother. And to be a mother, especially a single mum. And a single mum's here today. It takes courage to be a single mum.

[7:59] It takes courage. And my hat goes off to you. Mothers here today. And especially single mums here today. We need brave mums in this world. It's a world that is hostile to God.

[8:11] It's a pagan culture. And it takes courage to be a mother. It takes courage to be a mother when difficult things come across your path. Being a mother can be a demanding role.

[8:23] A heavy responsibility. And some mothers have much to cope with. In the home environment, all kinds of pressures beset their way. And not only was Jochebed a mother to the glory of God with courage.

[8:36] She was a mother to the glory of God with conviction. A mother to the glory of God with conviction. She placed her faith in God's saving power.

[8:47] She placed her trust in the Lord. In faith, she didn't kill her son. But hid him. She did something very unusual. She formed a special craft.

[9:00] An ark. A papyrus basket. Which she coated with tar and pitch. She made an ark. And she made that little basket and coated it with tar and pitch.

[9:13] The same as Noah's ark. The same as Noah's ark. Jochebed was a mother with courage to the glory of God. And Jochebed was a mother with conviction.

[9:25] She did something really unusual. She made an ark. That's an unusual thing to do, isn't it? She made an ark. This little basket. And it was coated as Noah's ark was. She placed her baby boy in this basket.

[9:37] In the very place of destruction. She placed her baby in that river of destruction and death. She placed her baby boy there, but he was in a basket.

[9:48] I wonder how her heart would have felt as she placed that baby in that little boat. She took her helpless son, held him close one last time, you could imagine.

[10:00] Maybe never to see him again. But she placed him in God's hands. She placed him in God's care. In faith. Verse 3. When she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes and daubed it with slime and with peach, and put the child therein, and she laid it by the river's brine.

[10:20] Then Jochebed left her daughter Miriam to keep watch. Verse 5. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself. Her maid had walked along the side of the river.

[10:32] She saw the ark. She sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child, and behold the babe wept, and she had compassion on him. Pharaoh's daughter found the baby, Moses, in the river.

[10:45] He was spared by the grace of God. Jochebed had faith in God's protection for her child. Only because she trusted in the Lord could she abandon her son rather than see him killed, because she abandoned him into God's hands in faith.

[11:02] As a mother of conviction. There's mothers of conviction here this morning. Mothers with faith. Mothers with faith. And you're passing on that faith to your offspring. God bless you for that.

[11:14] Amen. Not every child that you rear will necessarily trust Christ. But you do what you can. As Jochebed did. You do what you can.

[11:25] She knew that God would take care of the child. She entrusted her child to the ark for safety. Even in the midst of the Nile. Now the Nile, I'm told, was infested by crocodiles.

[11:38] So, I mean, I was kind of thinking this gruesome thought. You know, you see in the, was it Catherine when they hang those chickens in the, in the, or you know, up in Darwin, they hang those chickens and the crocodile comes up and, whoof, it's gone.

[11:55] You know, maybe that's what they were doing to those Hebrew boys. It could have been the sport of the day. You can imagine the pagan heathen culture. You know, this bloodthirsty entertainment culture that even we have in Australia.

[12:06] Oh, you could just imagine the sick kind of things that would have gone on in this crocodile infested river. This was the place she laid her baby boy. Knowing that God would take care.

[12:20] And the princess found the child and had compassion. Wonderful, isn't it? The refuge of the ark from God's, for God's safety, for God's refuge. And it's interesting when you look at the arks, there's three of them in Scripture.

[12:35] Of course, we know Noah's ark. It secured the people from the danger, the outpoured wrath of God. The people were safe in the ark. The ones who were in the ark were safe.

[12:47] Likewise, Moses in the ark of the bulrushes, he was protected in the ark from the ark. From the murderous designs of Pharaoh, a type of Satan. And then the ark of the covenant is the third ark.

[13:00] Where the two tablets of stone that on which were inscribed the holy law of God were kept. Each ark speaks of Christ. It speaks of Christ.

[13:12] It speaks to us as believers. Believers here today, that you are sheltered. That you are secured. That you are kept protected from God's wrath. From Satan's assaults and from the condemnation of the law.

[13:25] And only the three things in all the universe which can threaten or harm us. God's wrath, Satan's assaults and the condemnation of the law. Each of those ark speaks to us as a symbol of judgement.

[13:38] It speaks of death. Death. And it speaks of the perfect place of safety and life. And Noah's ark spoke of that judgement of God poured out.

[13:49] It destroyed all but eight. Eight people were in the ark. Everybody else was wiped down. All the people who were outside the ark were under the sentence of death.

[14:02] All that were inside the ark were perfectly safe. With Moses' ark. All the male babies of the Israelites in Egypt were under sentence of death by decree of the Pharaoh.

[14:16] The ark of the covenant is in the tabernacle where rested the broken law of God which condemned the Israelites to death.

[14:33] But God provided the mercy seat sprinkled with blood as the shelter from the judgement of God. And the ark speaks to you today of Christ.

[14:45] The godly mother, the mother with conviction, the mother with faith will entrust her children to the refuge of Christ. We'll point our little ones to Christ.

[14:57] Not all of them will hear. But we can only be that faithful mother. That mother of conviction. Exercise your wisdom and faith. By faith Moses when he was come to use refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

[15:11] It says in Hebrews 11 24. She committed him to God and Moses knew that the Egyptian princess, as much as she had compassion on him, and brought him up was not his real mother.

[15:27] It was Jochebed, the mother of conviction. The mother of faith. Oh that God would raise up mothers of faith. That God would raise up mothers with conviction.

[15:38] Mothers who will trust God. Mothers who will pray. Mothers who will entrust their children to the ark of Christ Jesus. Moses knew that his real mother was a woman of faith.

[15:52] A mother with courage. A mother with conviction to the glory of God. And thirdly, a mother with care. A mother with care. Verse 9. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away and nurse it for me and I will give thee wages.

[16:08] And the mother, the woman took the child and nursed it. Not only did Jochebed get her son back safe and sound, she was paid by the Pharaoh's daughter to rear him.

[16:20] To nurse him until he grew older. She was able to care for Moses during those tender years. And how she must have praised God. When she had laid that baby in the bulrushes, in that ark at the side of the river, she never knew whether she would hold that baby again.

[16:36] But God gave back the son when she entrusted him to the Lord. And Pharaoh's daughter paid her a wage to nurse her own son. What a wonderful thing.

[16:48] Poetic justice, isn't it? And you see, young children, mothers with little ones. And we know the son yet to have children. God can bless you in his good time.

[17:00] But we know what a blessing it is if God were to give us children. But those little ones are a heritage. They're a wonderful treasure. And even as we see in Jochebed's life, she only had him potentially until he turned three.

[17:16] And the government of our day, the government itself recognizes the early years, they call it, as a vital and critical time. The early years of a child.

[17:27] Even those first three years. When it seems like you wonder what they're learning, really. But even in those tender years, those first three years, Jochebed would have imparted her faith to that child.

[17:40] She would have imparted her love for God to that child as much as she could have done, I'm sure. And the home is critical. Those first early years of a life.

[17:52] The world that we live in, it's pagan. It's hostile to God, just like Egypt. Mums have an essential role of nurture and care. And when he was weaned, Jochebed had to give him up again.

[18:04] To hand him over to the Pharaoh's daughter. But she'd invested herself in those early years. In those years of nurture. Those years of care. And trusting him to God, I'm sure, praying for him.

[18:18] Jochebed would have been teaching young Moses every time she could about the Lord. And Moses was spared from death. But thrust into a pagan culture.

[18:31] You know, for some parents, we know that can happen soon. We love our child. We rear them as best God helps us to. As prayerful as we can.

[18:43] Yet we know it's ultimately their own choice as to where they end up. Mums have an essential role. Dance have an essential role.

[18:55] Jochebed would have taught young Moses. Yet he became an Egyptian. And she remained a lowly Hebrew slave. I wonder then what in that time interval.

[19:06] Whether she lived to see him become the leader of Israel as it became. We don't know that side of the story. But her faith saw results.

[19:17] Her faith. Mothers, do your part and trust God. Leave the result with God. Sow your seed. Do your part and trust God. No matter how hostile the environment.

[19:28] Even as we know. We that are parents. Our children might go into secular institutions. And be influenced by things that we'd rather them not be influenced by.

[19:42] But as godly parents. As mums. As dads. We can entrust our children to his care. And we see the fruit of Jochebed's faith.

[19:53] Was that later Moses became a hero for God. He led the Israelites out of that bondage. And that slavery that they were captive in. Into absolute freedom.

[20:05] Into the promised land. The total number that Moses led. Some have reckoned it to be as much as two or three million people. He was one of the most influential men in all human history.

[20:19] One in the honour roll of faith in Hebrews 11. But his mother was the one who played that key role. It was his mother in letting him go and giving him up. Who saved him.

[20:31] As she trusted Christ in the ark. In tight form. As she placed him in the ark. The refuge that was Christ to come.

[20:42] That safe place to be was Christ. And she placed him there. Even in the midst of that crocodile infested Nile River.

[20:53] Her love. Her faith. Her courage. Saw that child rescue from a cruel death. To be preserved. To bless the whole world. And so friends today.

[21:05] Think of it. There's some beautiful mothers here today. Who love the Lord. And I thank God for you that are here today. Mothers. My own mum. And my lovely wife who's a mum.

[21:18] And I thank God for every one of you mums here today. You've got a hard job. It's a tough job. And you've got a lot of challenges no doubt. We're all living in a hostile pagan culture still in Australia today.

[21:33] But God's faithfulness will see you through. God's faithfulness will see. Maybe you don't see the result. Maybe Jacob never saw the fruit. Of her life. Of her faith. She might have gone before she saw what Moses became.

[21:47] But God restored her child to her. And we see God blessed the faithfulness of Jacob. Friends we're living in a world where the knowledge and fear of God is absent in many homes.

[22:03] And our nation needs godly mothers. Mothers to the glory of God. Mothers to the glory of God. Who will train up their children in the way they should go. Mothers with courage.

[22:14] Mothers who will disobey the law. If it need be that God would be glorified. Mothers with conviction. Who will trust their children to God. Who will pray for their children.

[22:25] Who will prayerfully entrust their children to the refuge of Christ. Leaving it in God's hands what the ultimate answer will be.

[22:36]  And mothers with care. Mothers who will nurse and nourish. Who will bring up their child in the fear of God. Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray.