Originally posted 7/15/25
Jocobed is not a name that is immediately recognized. Many times as our children are growing up, we are so and so’s mother. We are often recognized by our children. To this day I am still referred to as Sabrina and Ian’s mom.
Jocobed was pivotal in Biblical history. During the time of the Hebrew enslavement in Egypt, the midwives were instructed to take all male babies and toss them into the Nile River. It was during this time that Jacobed gave birth to a son. Fortunately the midwives feared God and did not comply with the orders of Pharoah.
Exodus 2:1-10, “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. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
We read in www.gotquestions.org, “Even Pharaoh’s own daughter disobeyed the decree when she found Moses in the basket and took pity on him, adopting him as her own child (Exodus 2:5–10). Moses was raised as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, and it was also Pharaoh’s daughter who named him. Jochebed, in an astonishing example of God’s providence and mercy, became Moses’ nurse and was paid by the king for her service (Exodus 2:7–9).”
The women in Moses’ life were instruments of God’s design. Jocobed placed him in a basket where he was found by Pharoah’s daughter. It is only by God’s providence that she also disobeyed Pharoah’s edict.
Jochebed placed Moses in a basket and placed him in the river in the reeds. She then sent her daughter, Miriam, to watch over the basket. When Pharoah’s daughter found the baby, Miriam offers to get a wet nurse for the baby. She quickly gets Jochebed to be the nurse. While Pharoah’s daughter raised him, Jochebed was still able to care for her son in the palace. One has to wonder if Pharoah’s daughter ever suspected the relationship between the two. Moses was raised with all the influences of the palace. God never ceases to amaze me the way he intricately weaves his plans through man.
In All the Women of the Bible, Herbert Lockyer says it this way, “Jocobed was the chief influence unto God in their preparation for the great tasks they were to accomplish in leading His people out of Egyptian bondage. It was Jochebed’s love, faith and courage that saved her child from a cruel death and preserved him to bless the world. A mother who loves the Saviour, and who has more severe anguish when she knows that, not the life of her child is at stake, but its soul, can rest in the assurance that Jochebed’s God still lives, and is able to save her dear one from eternal death.” p. 81
Jochebed can teach us some important lessons. It is always beneficial to trust God’s promises. She teaches us that God’s plan will always prevail and that God uses the ungodly as well as the godly to accomplish his purposes.