Jim Beilstein

Love, joy and peace from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

What an amazing man this Moses of the Bible. This man who was a great leader of the people we know today as the Jewish race. This man of God who parted the Red Sea and led his people out of slavery in Egypt. This man who some of us might picture as Charlton Heston in the movie “The Ten Commandments.” The Bible tells us many stories about Moses but as we focus on mothers this month, what about Moses’ mother? Maybe the following passage will help us get to know her.

“Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 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. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.” Exodus 2:1-4

The passage gives us a little information but we still do not know the name of Moses’ mother until a later passage.

Her name is Jochebed. This is a very unusual name and my spell checker even underlines the name as being misspelled. But Jochebed was a loving mother and she was guided by great motherly wisdom. She saved her baby’s life as the Pharaoh of Egypt was doing everything in his power to limit this Hebrew or Jewish minority even to the point of killing babies by throwing them in the Nile River. Knowing this, Jochebed placed Moses in a basket and he floated down the Nile where Pharaoh’s daughter plucked him from the river and allowed Jochebed to raise Moses for a lifetime of service to God and the Hebrew people.

As we remember the name Jochebed, I pray each of us will remember our mother on May 10. Maybe your mother does not have the wisdom of Jochebed but I pray that your mother does love you. But if you did not or do not have the love of a mother, there is one with great wisdom that does love you and that is God the Father. He loves you so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die for you. The Father’s promise is that you are loved as His child on earth and for eternity.

Pastor Jim Beilstein

Shepherd of The Hills Lutheran Church

Lake Isabella