Isaiah 55:9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
Considered for a moment the incredible life of Jochebed. You may remember her name as the mother of baby Moses. But rest assured her story runs so much deeper. If possible, stop here and read her story in Exodus 1-2, and if you dare, visualize yourself in her place. Contemplate her heartbreak and how you might have reacted under her dire circumstances. What plan might you have devised to save your precious baby?
Jochebed’s life defies comprehension, and if you were able to place yourself in her story, you may be in desperate need of therapy right now. What anguish this new mother must have felt as she feared the life growing within her would be a son. Imagine how she feared Pharaoh in the case he discovered her secret and placed her child at the mercy of hungry crocodiles. Think of her gratitude for the midwives who feared Jehovah above Pharaoh, allowing her son to breathe the air of life. Think of her fear throughout those sleep deprived three months as she tirelessly quieted her newborn.
Jochebed had no time to celebrate her child’s birth. She dared not show him off to friends and relatives. A precious baby’s life that should have brought so much joy, brought heartache and anguish instead.
Jochebed must have poured out her soul to God as she fervently prayed for a plan. Not just any plan. A good plan. A foolproof plan. A plan that would save her son. Surely, many tears fell upon her sleeping baby as she nursed and rocked and began to weave a most desperate and bizarre plan in her head. No mother’s heart can imagine the amount of desperation Jochebed must have felt that would lead her to this:
“But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.”
How could her best plan be to place her baby in the very river from which she so desperately tried to save her baby? Obviously, the imminent dangers were overwhelming: drowning, being eaten by crocodiles, or being swept away downstream, never to be seen again. Oh, how Jochebed must have tarried over her final kiss on her baby’s cheek before placing him in that basket!
However, there is one important piece of Jochebed’s plan not mentioned in Exodus but revealed in Hebrews 11:23: Jochebed devised her crazy plan through a lens of faith in Jehovah. Her faith trumped her fear and as her story unfolded, God’s mighty hand was visible throughout Jochebed’s absurd plan. And, an absurd plan in the hands of a mighty God can bring incredible glory. Jochebed’s ultimate purpose in the plan was different than God’s ultimate purpose in the plan. Jochebed used a simple little basket to save her son. God used that same simple little basket to save a nation.
So, sisters, when it seems things are hopeless, when we call out to a loving Father for a plan, and when it seems none exists, remember the story of Jochebed. Jochebed’s foolish plan was God’s foolproof plan. Oh, the greatness of a mighty God!
Father God, may we always trust your mighty plans.
Blessings,
Rita Cochrane