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Moses and his mothers

The mothers in Moses’ life played a key role in the future liberation of the nation of Israel. The story of Moses begins at the closing of the book of Genesis. Joseph was taken in captivity to Egypt, promoted to second in command, and later received his brothers and father there to save their lives during a famine that swept the region.

The people of Israel survived the famine while in Egypt but, over time, were enslaved by Egyptian rulers and in need of a leader who would liberate them from bondage. Moses became that leader. A new pharaoh who didn’t know Joseph and his role in saving the nation from drought and famine came to power. The descendants of Joseph and his brothers were subjected to harsh labor and were used ruthlessly by the Egyptians, yet the Israelites continued to grow in number.

Fearing the Israelites’ growth, the pharaoh of Egypt instructed Hebrew midwives to kill any boys born and only allow girls to live. But the midwives who feared God didn’t do what the king ordered.

In desperation, the pharaoh ordered his people to throw every boy born into the Nile. When Moses was born, his mother Jochebed hid him for three months. But then he became too active, too loud to hide any longer. She put Moses into the Nile in a papyrus basket among the reeds along the bank, where Egyptian soldiers weren’t likely to look for a newborn.

Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe with her attendants. Walking along the banks of the river, she finds Moses in the basket and feels sorry for him. Moses’ sister Miriam, who had been watching from a distance with protection over her brother, offers to go and get a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby for her.

Miriam goes and brings back Moses’ mother, Jochebed, whom Pharaoh’s daughter asks to take and nurse the baby for her (Exodus 2:9). Through this, Moses’ mother and father maintain the opportunity to teach him all they knew about the God of his fathers. Jochebed is delivered from a prison of fear to the security of being paid to nurse her own son.

God turned unimaginable circumstances into hope and salvation.