"the name of the Amran's wife was Jochebed, a descendant of Levi, who was born to the Levites in Egypt. To Amram she bore Aaron, Moses and their sister Miriam." (Numbers 26:59 NIV)
I’m nearing the end of Numbers in my bible reading plan and today I came across another list of names and totals. This is the reason most people bail on the book of Numbers, there’s a census in the very first chapter. Again, in the final pages, God has called for a second census. What we may fail to realize is these two censuses were 38 years apart. The first took place in the beginning of the Israelites wilderness experience, just before they rejected the Promised Land as un-possessable. Remember, God vowed that every disbeliever would die in the wilderness, but their children would take the land. (Numbers 14:29-35) So the second census took place at the end of their wilderness experience, after the terminal generation had died out. Moses counted the surviving children, who would possess the land despite their parents disbelief. The differences between the first census and the second were marginal. God had made good on His promise.
It was amidst this second census this morning, that I caught this verse about Jochebed. Notably, she is the only woman numbered among the tribes. She must have been quite special to be counted that day, we don’t see her listed in the first census, but the Levites were not counted in the initial numbering and she was of Levitical descent. Why is she special? Read the verse more slowly and you start to realize, Jochebed is Moses’ mother. We might not recognize her because she was unnamed in Exodus 2, and only briefly mentioned in the lengthy genealogy listed in Exodus 6.
Jochebed’s name in the census of Promised Land people startled me. This mother was still alive. She was still counted among God’s people. Jewish history places her at 250 years of age when Moses dies and she moves into the land of milk and honey without him.
I can’t help but think back to Exodus 2. Moses’ mother is the unsung hero of his life. We don’t know if he resented her or his adoption, but many adoptive children do. (How often do we miss or misunderstand our parent’s sacrifices for us?) Remember the political climate Moses was born into. Pharaoh had marked himself for God’s wrath when he commanded the widespread killing of Jewish children. (Only evil leaders insist upon the murder of infants.) Much to her credit, Moses’ mother would not comply. Instead, she hid her third child as long as she could and when he outgrew her ability to keep him sequestered, she acquired a basket and lined it with pitch. Then she entrusted her three-month-old to the ravages of Nile River.
Miracle of miracles, baby Moses survived the current, the crocodiles and the prolific Egyptians until he washed up in the palace reeds. The princess took special interest in the abandoned baby and she required a wet nurse. Big sister Miriam’s quick thinking gave her mother a second chance to nurture her son at his most vulnerable age. Then the woman we now know as Jochebed fades from the story. We never hear of her personally again, save this one obscure reference in Numbers. But seeing her here, listed among the people on their way to the Promised Land almost 120 years later, that’s amazing.
I’m fixing to preach on fear of failure next week, and Jochebed may very well be the heroin I’m looking for. Her extreme commitment to growing her son God’s way is remarkable. She valued his life too much to take it, despite the extreme risks his existence imposed on her family. She was determined to live by divine principle, even when it broke the local law. When Jochebed entrusted Moses to that basket in Egypt, she put all her hope in an unseen God and His ability to carry her son from death to life.
Look with me how her choice magnified across the ages! Every last soul standing on the edge of the Promised Land possessed that opportunity because of the profound faith of a hard pressed mother: putting her baby in a basket on the Nile. We credit Moses for his failings and triumphs, his ability to hear from God, his bravado with Pharaoh and his forbearance with a wayward people, but the impetus for the Exodus actually predates Moses. One mother’s willingness to place her infant into the hands of God affected generations.
Friend, what we entrust to God never returns void.
Look at our Jochebed: her son returned to her for a season. And then, they spent another almost eighty years apart as he grew up in the palace, wrestled with his identity, clashed with his step-brother and was exiled to Midian.
But one day, her boy came back. He was a man, then, muscular and commanding. “Let my people go!” Her son spoke for God and people listened. Jochebed listened. She was counted among the exodused Israelites. She regained her son in the same season she obtained freedom from slavery. God writes a remarkable story, doesn’t He?
It’s additionally astounding to me how Jochebed made it to the land of milk and honey. All who believed the bad report were considered terminal. Good as dead. But Jochebed made the second census. She was one of the very few souls that lived to experience both the exodus and the entrance to the Promised Land. None of her kids did; she outlived them all. In fact, Moses died on the last mountain overlooking Canaan. His failure to honor God at Meribah (Numbers 20:2-13) had consequences. But his mother made it across the border.
It would seem that one momentous decision to do things God’s way all those years ago set her up for a lifetime of belief. Jochebed was able to trust God at every turn and believe His promises even when others were bailing. Her faith paid off for her children, her people, and her personally.
As a mom with an empty nest, I’m encouraged. The decisions we have made to honor God early in our parenting will continue to have lasting effects. The faithfulness of a mother has generational implications. (My own mother’s faith supports this.)
Like Jochebed, I’m in that stretch between palace and wilderness. The contact with my kids feels limited in this season and for a woman who has dedicated the last two decades to their care and keeping, it’s unnerving. I busy my hands and mind with other tasks, but my two children are never far from my heart. I’m spurred on by Moses’ mother. I doubt a day went by without her on her knees for her sons and daughter. She surely continued to push her proverbial children into the current of God’s care day after day, especially after they faced off with Pharoah and set out into the wilderness with two million folks in tow.
Mothering still matters.
Even when our kids begin to think they’re grown. When they call less because their lives are busy and their friends are prolific. When visits are condensed to an hour’s drive for dinner and desert. When the text thread takes days to ding to life again. Moms know the truth: our children still need us from time to time and what they need most is our prayers on their behalf.
Jochebed entrusted her son to the Lord, not just once on the banks of the Nile but over and over again as his life expanded ever-further out of her reach. She gave him over to Pharoah’s daughter and to exile and to God-appointed leadership and, eventually, to death.
We look at Jochebed and remember that the faith required for mothering never lessons, it only enlarges as our kids take stronger and stronger flight from the proverbial nest. We trust God for our children over and over again until we all arrive safe at Home.
Empty nest momma, stay the course! New momma, entrust that baby to a good God! Busy momma, pray as you pack those sandwiches, intercede in the carline, and get your kids to church! Keep putting your children in the sturdy basket of God’s care. Dare to believe that He loves them even more than you possibly could. His love is purer, stronger and further-reaching than ours could ever be. His plans for our kiddos are amazing and our part is far more prayer than action. Let go and trust God to do what He does best: saving people.
"She believed that God would keep His promise." (Hebrews 11:11 NLT)
Lord, we are bad at letting go. We want to keep our babies close and in our care. But we know that You alone are aware of what is best for them. Give us the courage to put our babies in the basket and push them into Your current. Today we’ve gotten a glimpse of how our commitment to Your values can affect generations. Increase our faith as we follow Your parenting plan. Help us to trust the process as we confer our kiddos to You. Amen.