“Jocha-who?” You might be thinking. Jochabed is a somewhat obscure Bible character whose name is only mentioned twice in the Bible, but her life is a wonderful example for every woman.
Jochabed was the mother of Moses whose name means, “Jehovah is her glory.” The Bible doesn’t tell us anything about her appearance, but we do know that her family lived under very difficult circumstances. The Hebrews at the time of Jochabed’s life were in slavery in Egypt. She and all her family were the slaves of Pharaoh, who was a cruel taskmaster.
The Bible tells us that Pharaoh began to feel threatened by the Hebrews. Their population was growing quickly so that there were more Hebrew slaves than there were Egyptians. He was afraid that they might try to take over the kingdom, so he issued a decree that all Hebrew babies were to be killed at birth. Midwives were instructed to murder the babies immediately after delivery. Thankfully, some of the midwives refused to go through with their orders.
The Bible says that when Jochabed gave birth to Moses she decided to hide him. For three months she concealed him. Can you imagine the fear she must have felt as she tried to keep him quiet so no Egyptian would know she had a baby? She must have gone to great lengths to keep Moses quiet while always fearing she would be discovered and her baby killed. She was willing to risk her own life, if she was discovered, to protect her son.
After three months she knew she could no longer keep Moses hidden, so she made a basket of bulrushes and placed Moses inside. You probably know the rest of the story, the princess of Pharaoh discovered Moses and decided to keep him for herself. Miriam, Moses’ sister asked the princess if she would like her to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the child. Moses got to go home to live openly with Jochabed until he was weaned, which was two or three years of age in Bible times. The Bible even says that the princess paid Jochabed for her services!
Jochabed received an unparalleled blessing from God because of her faith. Her baby not only survived, but he got to be raised in the palace and eventually was the man God used to lead his children out of Egypt! Jochabed’s other son, Levi, became the first high priest. Miriam became the first prophetess. Jochabed’s example of faithfulness in adversity is one that we can and must follow to experience wonderful blessings from God.