5/9/2021 What Great Lengths ~Rev. Benjamin Chung

Many of us are familiar with the story of Moses. His names means, “one who is drawn out”, as we know that this is what happened to him in the Nile river. After being placed in the river by his mother, Moses’s sister, Miriam, watched his basket from a distance. But, it didn’t cross my mind until now that Moses’s father isn’t mentioned after verse 1. It appears that all the deception (after all, she defied the king of Egypt’s instructions) in order to conceal their child, was planned and executed through his mother, Jochebed. Take a look!

“The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 3 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” (Exodus 2:2-3 ESV).

What great lengths Jochebed took! She hid him for 3 months, then made a basket by hand to protect him in, before finally placing Moses and the basket that contained him in the river, with the express hope that he would somehow make it out alive. And alive he was, in the end! A miraculous introduction to a miraculous life story.

This is a great example of the extent to which a mother will go for her children. To very much the same extent, but in the exact opposite way, this is the depth of the love the Heavenly Father has for us. For He sacrificed the life of His Son to save us instead. Romans 5:8 says, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. Thank you moms for your love. And thank you Heavenly Father, for your love, too!