MOSES PARENTS HAD FAITH IN THE OVERULING GOD

THE FAITH OF AMRAM AND JOCHEBED

Exodus 2:1-10

"By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw he was a goodly child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment."—HEBREWS 11:23

            No, this is not the account of faith on the part of Moses. As the text is read casually and a little superficially, the first words might deflect our thought, and we hurry on, getting to the next verse: "By faith, Moses." But there is nothing about Moses' faith in this verse. The only action of his on record proves he had no faith. The only thing we are told about him is that the baby cried. I am not surprised. When those dear little eyes looked up into a strange woman's face he was fright­ened. I well remember when my daughter was born; I was the only person in the hospital room when she delivered with my wife. I took her in my arms, and she began to wail! I was not her mother who had carried her full term. Thank God she cried for I needed a bed afterwards.

            That is all you know about Moses here, although it was not faith, there was no blame attached to him. When the lid was lifted, and Pharaoh's daughter opened the receptacle, the baby wept. Im­agine the baby of a Hebrew mother who had grown to love the face of his mother, and Miriam, his sister, look­ing up and seeing a strange Egyptian woman looking at him. Of course he cried. That is all there is in the account about Moses. This had nothing to do with his faith. The faith referred to here is that of his parents, and that is our theme. "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw he was a goodly child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment."

            The narrative in itself which I read only speaks of the action of his mother; but the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, I have no doubt inspired, and fully ac­quainted with the facts, said "parents." His father had part in the business. I think the father had a share in the preparations. I can imagine the father preparing that little cradle of papyrus, daubing it with bitumen, and getting it ready. At any rate the writer of the let­ter to the Hebrews says "his parents."

            Now who were they? I do not know whether other preachers feel as I do. I am tempted now to be tre­mendously rude. I may be all wrong, but I do not be­lieve one out of a hundred could tell me the names of his parents. I am talking of the great generality, and yet the names are distinctly given. His father's name was Amram, and his mother's name was Jochebed. You will find his father is mentioned fourteen times in genealogical tables and in no other way. Twice he is referred to as the husband of Jochebed. Four times he is referred to as the father of Moses and Aaron. Jochebed is only mentioned twice, both times as the wife of Amram, once as the mother of Moses and Aaron; once as the mother of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

            Amram and Jochebed, two of the crowd, yet the very fact we do not remember their names is a very interest­ing and very significant one. Who were they? Two of the common crowd of slaves, not outstanding personali­ties. They were just two, son and daughter by succes­sion, of Levi, and they had joined their lives together, but they were in slavery. Think with me for a moment, and only a moment, of the conditions then exist­ing. Moses was born sixty-four years after the death of Joseph. A great deal can happen in sixty-four years and, as we know, a great deal of tragic happenings had taken place in that period; as the writer of the book of Exodus tells us in his first chapter, another Pharaoh had arisen that knew not Joseph. It is quite evident that he resented the presence of these people in the land of Goshen, and their great success, and their rapid multi­plication. The result was the whole of them had be­come reduced to slavery, and it was a brutal slavery, too. There came a time when they had to make bricks without straw. Think of that when you next look at the pyramids. They were built at that time, and by those people. As I hurry over this, I want you to no­tice they were enslaved and still multiplying so rapidly that Pharaoh adopted a new policy. He had deter­mined to prevent the growth of the people by killing every boy born. That was the edict of the king. There had been an interesting event in the Case of the Egyptian midwives, who refused to carry out the king's command. Since they would not do it, it became a national order; when a boy was born, the king's order was he should be flung into the Nile, and drowned. Those were the conditions. This baby was born under those conditions. It is just a beautiful human account if read in that way all through; and seeing he was a goodly child, his parents hid him for three months, and when the baby's crying was louder than it was at the beginning, when it was impossible to hide the fact that the baby was there—I do not know where they hid him for three months—but when they could no longer hide him, they then took action.

            What was the action? They committed him to the river of death. They put him in that ark of bulrushes, or papyrus, covered him over, and took the little precious ark, with the child in it, and put him down in the flags or reeds growing there, and sent his sister to watch what would happen.

            Well you know the issue, and here is seen the sublim­ity of faith in its simplest manifestation, and that is the thing that obsesses me, that possesses me, as I follow this history of the triumphs of faith. These two un­known, hidden people, two of the slave crowd! Now when the writer of the letter to the Hebrews says that their action was one of faith, you have a revelation that does not appear in Exodus. We can read the Exodus account and imagine their action was one of pure love and affection for the baby. I have little doubt it was that; but now I have found out something else. These two people of the oppressed race, in slavery, believed in God. "He that cometh to God must believe that he is." They believed somehow He was an over-ruling God. He that cometh to God must not only believe that He is, but that "he is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek him." I am quoting from the context, as you know. And there when they made that ark, and when they put the baby therein, and when they placed him on the river of death in the flags, and watched, it was an act of faith. Simple folk, but very sublime faith.

            I want to name four elements in the faith of those two people. First of all it was faith inspiring hope.

            Second, it was faith creating courage. Third, it was faith acting rationally. Finally it was faith, all uncon­sciously co-operating with the purpose of God. This was not Abel, Enoch, Abraham; it was not Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, those great towering figures. Just two slaves, two of the common crowd, but what they did, they did by faith. I want very briefly to take those four things, asking you to look at them.

            First it was faith inspired by hope. Of course, there was a sense of love and affection. They saw he was a goodly child, but they knew the utter hopelessness of circumstances.
         Whenever a boy was born, he was be­ing slain, flung into the waters of the Nile; but these two people knew this, that, in spite of all apparent hope­lessness, God remained. I am not suggesting that they knew what would happen. The text shows they did not know at all, but their action was a venture made upon God, and in their souls, the souls of father and mother, those parents, there was a hope, and they had faith in God that inspired hope, the hope that the little life might be spared. It was a great and venturesome faith in the presence of apparently the most hopeless circumstances.

            Again it was faith creating courage. Notice what the writer says: "They were not afraid of the king's com­mandment." Now of course that is ultimate finding, and it is true. There is a sense in which they knew the danger of the king's commandment, and that if they did not cast the baby into the river, if the word reached the king or court, the boy would be cast in; and what they did they did in spite of the king, in spite of the king's commandment. In other words, they were convinced that there was an authority and power higher than that of Pharaoh. Pharaoh said, Kill these boys. These two said: We will not kill this boy. In faith we are thinking and believing in a higher Power and Authority.

            Then the account is very interesting because I see here faith acting rationally. You say, what do you mean by that? Look at that ark of bulrushes. It was an act of reason, carefully prepared. Look at that girl, the sister, sent to watch what would happen. It was a rational activity, and yet mark the ready wit, whether the ready wit of Miriam or the mother's instruction. When the daughter of Pharaoh came and lifted the lid, and the baby cried, Miriam at once said: "Shall I find thee a nurse?" Faith is never foolhardy. Faith is always rational. Faith believes in God, and does the thing that appeals to the reason.

            They prepared the ark, they put the baby in it, closed the lid, and by the river of death they laid it, if, per­haps, something might transpire, and they put Mir­iam to watch; and when the thing happened that must have surprised Miriam, she with ready wit—I shall al­ways think her own wit rather than her mother's instruction, because Jochebed would not have an idea it would happen—she saw something kindling in the eyes of that Egyptian woman, some smile passing over her face; and she said: Shall I fetch a nurse for the child? And that rational action was at once responded to. The daughter of Pharaoh said, "Go," and she went, and she found Jochebed, and she took the child and nursed it.

            We are told that when the child grew she took him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. I won­der if anyone has sure information—I have not; if so, I shall be glad to have it. I can speculate with any man born—but I wonder how long Jochebed had him before she handed him over to Pharaoh's daughter. There are old expositors who believe she had full charge of him until he was twelve. It is far more likely she was in the palace to which she, a slave woman, would be ad­mitted, the nurse of the adopted boy of Pharaoh's daughter. You read in the Bible of a child being weaned. Of course, this is going away back to the very beginnings of Hebrew history. Do you know when it was a child was weaned? Weaning did not mean what it does now to some of you today. The age at which the child was said to be weaned, when it ceased to be a helpless infant and become a child clinging to his moth­er's apron strings, was twelve years. Now I am doing a little speculating with the rest in believing Jochebed had charge of Moses until he was twelve at the court, under the watchful eyes of Pharaoh's daughter, and surrounded by court attendants; but I think his mother watched over him. I think in those years she told him stories of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Joseph, that wonderful leader, through whom the people had gone down into Egypt before the new Pharaoh arose. I think she stored the mind of the boy with the history of her people. We are taking next the account of Moses himself. How did he know he was a member of that race? What inspired him to take the part of a member of that race and get himself into trouble? What made him try to mediate between two members of the race? I think he knew his history. You have the baby com­mitted by faith to the care of the mother.

            Very well, faith inspiring hope, faith creating cour­age and rational thinking; and now the greatest thing of all, something Jochebed did not know something Amram was unconscious of. What were they doing? Faith unconsciously was co-operating with God. What was the human issue of this act? The cry of the baby admitted him to the heart of a woman. That woman admitted him to the court of Pharaoh. She adopted him and, moreover, educated him, for Stephen in his great Apologia says in the Acts: "Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; and he was mighty in his words and works." That was not a reference to what happened later on, but in all those years. That is the issue, but that is the human level, but it is a wonderful issue.

            But look again. What did they do when they put that child in the ark, and committed it in faith, a faith that groped, and did not actually know; certainly did not know how the thing was going to turn out, but a faith that was certain of God, and made a great venture upon that consciousness? What were they doing? They were finding and preserving the life of a man, and such a man. No, I am not going to follow that any longer except to say this. If you want to know how great he was, well, listen to this from the last chapter of Exodus: "The Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend."

            That is the baby that they saved. Or turn over to Deuteronomy, its closing chapter, and in that chapter, added by some other hand after his passing, what does he say? "Moses whom the Lord knew face to face."

            Amram and Jochebed did not foresee this thing; but they believed God, they believed in God. They did not know what was going to happen, or what would take place. They did not know what the issue would be; but believing, by faith they prepared the ark. They put the baby in it; they committed it to the waters of death, and then waited, and that was the issue.

            There is no need for me to hold you at any length to drive home the lesson. Let me state it in briefest words. The principle of faith operating works mightier issues than it knows. Is your principle of faith operating in the case of your children? You will not be here: will have crossed over long before the issue. What will be the result of your training? Many years ago there was a brilliant writer in her young days. She married, and after a number of years she went to see an old college friend, who said to her: "My dear, we have had no books from you for many years. I think it is a pity you gave up writing books." To which she replied to her friend: "I have not given up writing books. I have written two." "What are their titles?" she asked. "'Ethel' and 'Albert,' those are my children." "Your children!" "Yes, and I am trying to write living epistles known and read of all men that they have been with Jesus." No, you cannot put the measurements on the issue of your act of faith upon the immediate. I repeat therefore, the principle of faith operating works mightier issues than it knows.

            And the other thing is that this principle of faith is possible to the lowliest slaves, and may act in appar­ently trivial matters, and yet it may be the way of bringing about the higher things which are the highest and the most inspiring of them all. Let us thank God that in this marvelous chapter recording the triumphs of faith the writer was led, as I believe of the Spirit, to in­clude this action of two people, little known, hidden away among the crowds of slaves; and so much so that even to this day very few people really know their names; and yet they by an act of venturesome super­lative faith marched with God, and created vantage ground upon which He marched forward in the fulfillment of His high purpose.