Jochebed, “Jehovah’s glory,” Chosen for a Mission

“Amram took as his wife Jochebed, his father’s sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses, the years of the life of Amram being 137 years.” –Exodus 6:20. “The name of Amram’s wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt. And she bore to Amram Aaron and Moses and Miriam their sister” –Numbers 26:59. “Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three month. When she could hide him no longer she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And the sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.” -Exodus 2:1-4 (ESV).

Jochebed is mentioned twice in the Bible by name—in Exodus 6:20 and Numbers 26:59. In the account of her determination to save her baby’s life, her name is not given in Exodus 2. Her name means “Jehovah’s glory,” and certainly her acts in defiance of the Egyptian Pharaoh’s edict to have all the male Israelite babies killed was to prove Jehovah’s glory in the future. The baby she bore and saved from the death sentence had a very special place in God’s future plan for releasing the Israelites from Egyptian bondage.

Note how this remarkable story progresses in the Exodus account. In Exodus 1:22 is written the terrible law from Pharaoh: “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nilek, but you shall let every daughter live.” The very next verse records the birth of a child who, because of a mother’s clever plan, escapes this death sentence. Many of the Hebrew women defied the Pharaoh’s order and did not use the Egyptian midwives at the time of birth. This, of course, angered the Pharaoh. Jochebed, who loved and wanted to keep her baby from harm, devised a way to hide him in a waterproof basket afloat on the Nile, the very river into which the midwives had been commanded to cast the newborn sons of the Israelites to their death. Would the basket be a safe place? It was the hope Jochebed had of saving her son. Much rested on young Miriam, too, as she was set to watch her baby brother from a distance. And when Pharaoh’s daughter saw the comely baby, she wanted him for her very own. But how would she feed him? Again, Mariam was quick to suggest a Hebrew nurse, and Jochebed had the distinct privilege of both physically and spiritually nurturing her son Moses. We are told in Exodus 2:9 that the Egyptian princess even promised to pay wages for this service. The thought has entered my mind, “Did Pharaoh not check on his daughter more closely to see what she was doing?” But then I reason that two causes were at work: The Pharaoh probably had several wives, even a harem, and maybe many daughters. It was not likely that he personally supervised what a single daughter did. She could adopt a Hebrew child and he would hardly know about it. But the overriding cause here is God’s will. He had a future purpose for the baby whom the Egyptian princess named Moses, “drawn out of the water.” Saved from death and drowning, Moses would draw the Israelite slaves from the clutches of Egyptian bondage and lead them to freedom and into God’s purposes. Does this story of Amram’s wife, Moses’ mother, not thrill you? God selects people through whom to accomplish His will on earth. Jochebed, a member of the priestly tribe of Levi, had, woven into her name, the name of Yahweh, “Jehovah’s glory.” What is God assigning to us today to bring glory to Him? Let us pray that we will find and do His will.