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The Man With Two Moms
Exodus 2:1-10
No, this isn't a sermon
about Rosie O'Donnell and her same sex partner and their adoption.
It's actually a great true tale about someone in the Bible who had 2
mothers.
read text
Moses became the kind of
man he was because of the type of mother he had. In fact, who he was, was
very much determined by the type of MOTHERS he had, because God gave Moses
two mothers. And they were both
good mothers because they both had some of the same instincts for their
roles.
For example: They both loved babies
Now, that may seem like
a given… but not every woman loves kids.
ILLUS: I once read the story
of a woman who went shopping for swimsuits with her mother. In the
department store, though, she was having a hard time finding one that fit.
After trying on at least 10, all to no avail, she grew increasingly
frustrated. Trying to calm her, her mother said "Look at it this way: what
would you rather have – the husband and three children who adore you, or a
swimsuit that fits?" Before she
could answer, a faceless voice from the next dressing room stall replied
"I want a swimsuit that fits!"
Not every woman wants kids.
But these two did. And
that WAS no small thing in their day because Moses’ 2 mothers lived in a
culture of death.
A decree had gone out from the throne of Pharaoh
that every male child born to a Hebrew was to be thrown into the
Thus, she had a choice to make.
The society in which
she lived made it virtually impossible to keep her child and she could have
decided to simply allow her child to be thrown away. I mean - her son was
not wanted.
She could have chosen death (the easy choice)… but she chose
life instead.
And this was not an easy decision for Jochebed to make.
It required her to hide her child for 3 whole months always fearing that
Egyptian soldiers would discover the baby… and not only would they kill her
child but punish her entire family for disobeying the law.
Choosing
life was not an easy decision.
But then consider Pharaoh’s daughter.
She knew who this baby was.
She knew he was a Hebrew.
Her father had decreed these
children should die. Her society
had decided that these babies shouldn’t live.
Common wisdom had determined that these children were a threat to
their nation.
It would have been so easy to let the child die.
But she chose life instead.
Both mothers lived in a culture of
death. Both mothers lived in a
society that has decreed certain children shouldn’t live.
And so do
we.
Now I want you to understand something:
God punished
When God punished Egypt He brought 10 plagues down upon them. Do you
remember what the last one was?
God decreed:
Exodus 11:5
5
And all the firstborn in the
But Moses lived because
Jochebed and Pharaoh’s daughter never accepted that culture of death.
They chose life.
I know there are many in our nation that have
had abortions, and some here. Our culture has made it so acceptable that
it’s often chosen before a woman or girl has had time to consider its
implications. But the aftermath of that decision is often devastating.
I want you to remember that:
Our God is a forgiving God (REPEAT).
In
Today God tells us that we escape
judgment – from ALL of our sins - when we apply by the blood of the Lamb of
God (Jesus Christ) to our lives. By the blood of Jesus, God removes all of
our sin from our lives.
When we get saved, God removes our sins as
far as the East is from the West. He buries it in the depths of the sea. He
removes it from our lives and remembers it no more.
Moses lived… and
became the kind of man he became… because his 2 mothers loved life, and
loved babies.
2ndly – Moses became the kind of man he was because his
mothers did everything they could for him.
Jochebed hid Moses in
order to save his life. Other
Hebrew mothers probably hid their children as well, but that very rarely
worked. I mean it’s kind of hard
to hide a pregnant woman.
Pregnant women kind of stick out in a crowd.
And the Egyptians would have been watching. They would have been
waiting for the day when she would no longer be pregnant – and then they’d
come for her child.
So what was she to do?
How is she going to save her baby?
Well, she decides to get a bit creative.
If Pharaoh wanted her child to be thrown into the river… that’s where
she’d put him. But not before she had given her boy an edge, an advantage in
life.
1. She built a little boat for him. A basket covered with pitch
so it would float.
2. And she placed that boat in the bulrushes along the
shore of the
3. And it’s very likely that she scouted
around for the best place for him to be found. If he’s to be found… she
wants him found by someone who has the power and influence to make sure he
isn’t put to death. And the only person with that kind of influence would
seem to be Pharaoh’s daughter.
Jochebed had done an awful lot of
planning to make sure her child survived.
Jochebed did everything she could for her son.
And then
there’s Pharaoh’s daughter - Moses’ adoptive mother.
She loves this boy -
takes him into her home and makes him her son.
She (like Jochebed) did
everything she could for this boy as well.
Acts 7:22
22 And Moses was learned in
all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
Pharaoh’s daughter wanted Moses to
have all the advantages her culture could supply.
She wanted him to more than a common laborer.
She wanted him to be a leader of men/ a ruler of nations.
And she succeeded in building him into a man who was powerful in
speech and action.
And so, she did everything in her power to give
him an edge - an advantage fitting for the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
Both of Moses’ mothers loved him so much that they did everything they
could think to do to give him every advantage he could have.
But only
Jochebed gave Moses the one thing that changed his life.
Pharaoh’s
daughter supplied Moses a knowledge of the wisdom of
And yet Hebrews 11:24 tells us that
the time came when Moses “…refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s
daughter.”
There was something Pharaoh’s daughter had not supplied
him with.
Something was missing from his extensive education in the
universities of
(pause…) What
was missing was a different kind of knowledge… a knowledge of who God was.
As parents and grandparents and uncles/ aunts we need to realize that
even with the most advanced education our society can supply - without God
at the center of our children’s lives there will be an emptiness that
nothing else can fill.
In Ecclesiastes, Solomon looks at all the
advantages a man can have in life. Wealth, and education, and power, and
success.
Toward the end of his book he declares "Vanity! Meaningless!"
Ecclesiastes 12:8
But at the very last verses, Solomon ends his book
on the meaninglessness of life with this advice:
Ecclesiastes 12:13
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the
whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the
whole duty of man.
What did
Solomon mean?
He meant that – without God – life become meaningless and
empty.
Only God can help us to reach the potential.
Only God can help
us to realize our promise and possibility.
Once we know who God is…
then we can realize that we’ve been made in His image, we are part of His
plan, we have been created for a purpose and we have a reason to exist.
And that’s what Jochebed gave her son.
She couldn’t read to him from
the Bible. None of that had been written yet.
She may have told him the stories of great men like Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob. But I think she did
even more than that. I think she
gave that knowledge of God by sharing HER faith in God.
She told him what she believed.
She told him what God had done in her life… and in his.
And because God was REAL to her… God became real for him as well.
She knew this was a hard and difficult world. And there would be times
when Moses would doubt whether he was loved by anyone. When that time came,
she wanted him to remember that he WAS loved by at least one individual:
God. She wanted him to remember that God always cared for him and would
watch out for him.
Max Lucado has intriguing explanation of this
truth in "A Gentle Thunder. p. 46 (given with some modification)
Moms: WHY do you love
your newborn child?
I know, I know; it’s a silly question, but indulge
me. Why do you?
For months this baby has brought you pain. They’ve made
you break out in pimples and waddle like a duck. Because of them you craved
sardines and crackers and threw up in the morning. They punched you in the
tummy. They occupied a space that wasn’t theirs and ate food they didn’t
fix. You kept them warm. You kept them safe. You kept them fed.
But did
she say thank you? Are you kidding? She’s no more out of the womb than she
starts to cry! The room is too cold, the blanket is too rough, the nurse is
too mean. And who does she want? Mom.
Don’t you ever get a break? I mean,
who has been doing the work the last nine months? Why can’t Dad take over?
But no, Dad won’t do. The baby wants Mom.
She didn’t even tell you she
was coming. She just came. And what a coming! She rendered you a barbarian.
You screamed. You swore. You bit bullets and tore the sheets. And now look
at you. Your back aches. Your head pounds. Your body is drenched in sweat.
Every muscle strained and stretched. You should be angry, but are you?
Far from it. On your face is a longer-than-forever love. They’ve done
nothing for you; yet you love them. They’ve brought pain to your body and
nausea to your morning, yet you treasure them. Their face is wrinkled and
their eyes are dim, yet all you can talk about are their good looks and
bright future.
She’s going to wake you up every night for the next 6
weeks, but that doesn’t matter. I can see it on your face. You’re crazy
about her.
Why? Why does a mother love her newborn? Because the baby is
hers?
Even more. Because the baby
is her. Her blood. Her flesh. Her sinew and spine. Her hope. Her legacy.
It bothers her not that the baby gives nothing. She knows a newborn is
helpless, weak. She knows babies don’t ask to come into this world.
And God knows we didn’t either. We are his idea. We are His. His
face. His eyes. His hands. His touch. We are Him. (end of Lucado’s comments)
The love a mother for her child is only a small taste of the love God
has for you. When He looks at you He sees His finest creation. But there is
one thing that mars the beauty that He desires for your life. It’s called
sin.
And sin is what separates you from the completeness of His love for
you. Get saved today.
Moses had 2 mothers...make
sure you have 2 fathers. Is God
your heavenly Father?
[from message by Jeff Strite]
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