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A portrait of a Godly mother

Bible Truths, with Pastor Tom Kline, Castlegar Baptist Church
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Pasto Tom Kline

“And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, ... and put the child therein; and she laid it ... by the river’s brink.” – Exodus 2:1-3

In all of Israel’s long and colourful history, filled with hundreds of famous and infamous names, perhaps none stands as high to the Jew as the name of Moses. This one man left such an impression on not only his country, but the world that his name is still a household name around the world today. He was the great deliverer and law giver; he went to God on behalf of the people and to the people on behalf of God. Yet it is interesting that Moses was born at a time when the king of Egypt decreed that every male child born into a Hebrew home was to be killed. Were it not for the faith of his mother, Jochebed, Moses would not have survived. This illustrates the powerful position of a mother. Moses was born in a place where false gods were worshiped, cruel dictators ruled and God’s people were treated with disdain. Everything seemed against his ever knowing and serving the true God, but He had one thing going for him – a godly mother and that was enough!

When Moses was plucked from the river by the daughter of Pharaoh she hired Jochebed to nurse him and act as a nanny for a time. Jochebed’s time with her son was brief yet clearly she started him off in a direction that would later in life guide him to become a great man of God. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”. As a slave in Egypt, Jochebed was not able to provide many material things, but she instilled something far greater – a strong faith in God. Clearly it took great faith on her part to put her son in a basket and place him in the river. She had to do something very difficult but something every Christian mother eventually must do; commit their child’s future into God’s hand.

Like Moses, I had a Godly mother who influenced me for God. Dear Christian mom, may I encourage you, stay faithful, pray for your children, and raise them for the Lord; your example is not lost on your children! Friend, if you have a mom who raised you to love God and honour the Lord, you should thank God and if she’s alive, thank your mom too.