By Kingsley Baehr

Mothers mean much to most of us. Minus mothers, where would we be? Missing in action!
Here is a story from the Bible about a magnificent mother, even though she was a slave, whose son would most definitely have been missing in action, if it were not for her Godly life!
It is found in Exodus 1:7 – 2:15; Acts 7:17-22; and Hebrews 11:23-26
The timing could not have been worse, must have been the thought plaguing Jochebed’s mind just about every waking minute. She would glance down at her growing abdomen and wonder if her unborn baby would be a boy or a girl. How long would she be able to hide her pregnancy under her loose-flowing clothing from Pharoah’s secret service men who were keeping a list of pregnant Israelite slave women for future reference.
Pharoah’s new edict to drown their newborn baby boys in the Nile River was causing her great stress. How should she pray? All around her, her people were abandoning the God of Israel Who seemed helpless to deliver them from their slavery.
But she would not do so! Her faith in Jehovah sustained her through the uncertain days of her pregnancy.
And yet, the timing, it seemed, could not have been worse!
“As for God, His way is perfect” the Bible tells us in 2 Samuel 22:31. Moses’ mother, Jochebed, had no way of knowing that as we do. She had no Bible. What was happening in her life certainly did not look perfect to her. Yet we know that she remained faithful to God. We also know that our times are in His hands [Psalm 31:15]. God’s timing is also perfect, even when it seems that it could not be worse!
The anticipated and feared day arrived. Jochebed held in her arms a magnificent baby boy! When he screwed up his face to cry, his whole family frantically tried to shush him. He just could not be heard outside the house! Jochebed knew as soon as she saw him that she would never be able to abort his life in the Nile River.
Acting quickly to put their agreed-on plan into motion, the parents were able to hide their new baby boy for three months! “How?” you might ask. I have no clue! But they did, and they succeeded.
Then even their ingenuity was not sufficient. They had to do something else. What? I am sure Jochebed pleaded with God for an idea of what to do.
Quickly it came! She took him to the Nile just as Pharoah had ordered. She put him in the Nile, but not just as Pharoah had ordered. He was in a waterproofed basket, floating gently among the papyrus reeds along the bank, just a little distance from where Pharoah’s childless daughter came daily to bathe. If God was with Jochebed, her son would be saved.
“O, God of my fathers, work it out, I beg You,” Jochebed prayed as she went about her work. “Keep him safe, even if I have to lose him. Protect little Miriam, standing watch out there.
Keep the crocodiles away. Thank you, God, for little Aaron and his hugs. I—”
   “Mommy, Mommy, you’ll never guess what happened!”
   “What, Miriam, what?!”
   “O, Mommy, Pharoah’s daughter found him—”
   “She did?!”
   “Yes, Mommy. How wonderful! She wants to keep him, and when I offered to find a nurse for him, she said yes! Mommy, come quickly! You’re the nurse! Come, she’s waiting for you!”
   And that is how Jochebed’s precious son was returned to her home and heart by no less than Pharoah’s daughter herself!
Since God’s timing is perfect, I am sure that this whole plan was His idea, communicated by Him to that faithful, praying mother. “Faithful,” and “praying” are words which should characterize each one of us if we desire to see God’s perfect plan worked out in our lives. This faithful, praying slave woman thwarted the most powerful potentate in the world at that time because of her connection to the God of heaven and earth!
We all know how Moses turned out. During his first three or four years that he spent in his mother’s home before she had to relinquish him to Pharoah’s daughter, she diligently taught him about her God and the history of her people, the Israelites. She crammed his head full of God and Israel.
How did she do as a teacher? About forty years later, after spending most of his life in Pharoah’s palace, being taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians and enjoying all the pleasures and treasures of that great country, Moses chose to suffer with God’s people—his own people—instead, and we know the rest of the story!
What a mother Jochebed was! What an example for us to follow! Are we trusting in God? Are we faithful to Him? Are we in constant communication with Him through prayer and meditation on His Word, the Bible? Only then can we see His perfect will and timing at work for His glory in our lives.