WHAT’S A MOTHER TO DO?
Exodus 2:1-10
INTRODUCTION
Today is Mother’s Day. What a day for guilt trips!. Today there are more long distant phone calls made than even at Christmas. Father’s Day once did out – do Mother’s Day on one thing: back when there were land lines there were more collect calls made that day.
And probably every year some Mother says, “It’s so much harder to be a Mother today than ever before.” Not really, it’s just the hardest for that Mother. Don’t worry Mom, it will get harder!
This brings us to an interesting question: What is a Mother to do in rearing children? What is a Mother’s job description?
Maybe that is one of the great problems with being a mother, most people do not understand the job description of a mother.
God loves moms; He talks about them so much in the Bible. Moms play some of the most pivotal roles in all of history. Where would we be today without the mother of Abraham, Samuel, David, Solomon, Jesus or the Apostle Paul? This is not just a trite observation. We are not discussing the giving of birth. Not everyone of these women mentioned have their name recorded for history. But their children’s names are well recorded. To them, that is better. The influence they had on their children influenced the world, and eternity.
We now find ourselves asking a most important question: What is the absolute minimum for a mother to do to rear a child? And the answer found to this question is profound for every mother present.
THEME: WHAT DOES GOD REQUIRE OF EACH MOTHER REGARDING HER CHILD?
I. GOD REQUIRES THAT EACH MOTHER PROVIDE PROTECTION vs. 1-2
A. Even When She Feels Insignificant
1. Our mother of the day today is Jochebed
2. Her name is only given twice in the Bible
3. Our passage begins by talking about a man
a. But he is quickly forgotten
b. She is the one who takes the action for her child
B. She, Not Her Husband, Took The Leadership In Protecting Their Son
NOTE: By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. Hebrews 11:23
1. She saw him
2. She hid him
3. She made an ark
4. She put him in the ark
5. She closed the lid
6. She left him to God
NOTE: Only his sister watched what was going to happen to him
T.S. WHAT DOES GOD REQUIRE OF EACH MOTHER REGARDING HER CHILD?
I. GOD REQUIRES THAT EACH MOTHER PROVIDE PROTECTION
II. GOD REQUIRES THAT EACH MOTHER PROVIDE PROVISION vs. 3-4
A. Not All Provision Is What The Mother Plans vs. 3
1. The great issue of the day – death of all Hebrew boys
2. Maybe she did not plan to have a child at this time
a. Our plans are not God’s plans
NOTE: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. Isaiah 55:8
b. Our timing is not God’s timing
NOTE: But when the fulness of the time was tome, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman … Galatians 4:4
a. Mary could have said, “Not now God … ”
b. “Wait until I’m married to Joseph and won’t be embarrassed”
c. “People won’t understand”
3. ‘But God …‘
a. This is found almost fifty times in the Bible
b. We have a plan … but God …
c. The world has a plan … but God …
B. Not All Provision Is Within The Power Of The Mother vs.4
1. She has done what she could … Mark 14:8
2. Our job is not to do great things; our job is to be faithful
3. Our task is to do what is before us; it is God’s task to make the greatness in His time
NOTE: The value of the ointment that the woman put on the head of Jesus was worth a year’s salary, three hundred pence
a. Many mothers may feel that their role of motherhood is a waste of their talents and time
b. And Jesus said, let her alone; why trouble you her? she has worked a good work on me.
For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.
Mark 14:6-7
C. The Mother Is To Do What Is In Her Power vs. 3
1. She built the ark (floating basket)
2. She did her best to make it waterproof
3. She put her child in the ark
4. She laid the ark in the water
NOTE: What is not said here
a. No note of despair
b. No note of great faith
c. No note of being angry at:
1) Pharaoh
2) Her husband
3) Her lot in life
4) God
T. S. WHAT DOES GOD REQUIRE OF EACH MOTHER REGARDING HER CHILD?
I. GOD REQUIRES THAT EACH MOTHER PROVIDE PROTECTION
II. GOD REQUIRES THAT EACH MOTHER PROVIDE PROVISION
III. GOD REQUIRES THAT EACH MOTHER PROVIDE PREPARATION vs.5-10
A. The Power Of A Mother’s Preparation
1. Nothing overcomes a mother’s love
NOTE: … but the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:13
2. Nothing overcomes a mother’s determination
3. Nothing overcomes a mother’s faithfulness
B. The Power In The Formative Years Of A Child
NOTE: In the Middle Ages there was an educational war between the Catholics and the Protestants as to who would win the minds of the children. The Jesuits said, “Give us a child until he is six and then you can have him.”
1. Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6
2. But Hannah went not up; for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the LORD, and there abide for ever. I Samuel 1:22
a. Hannah prepared Samuel to serve the Lord
NOTE: Sewell’s Law # 1- Aim at nothing; hit it every time
b. Hannah left Samuel at the Tabernacle at about age six or seven
c. The priest, Eli, and his sons, was not faithful to God
d. Samuel was faithful his whole life
C. The Powerlessness Of Pharaoh
1. Moses was named by Pharaoh’s daughter vs. 10
2. Moses was adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter
NOTE: He was the only one; the other Jewish children were dead
3. This child was immune to the death sentence of Pharaoh
4. This child was taught the paganism of the Egyptians
5. The decision of Moses
NOTE: By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,
esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
Hebrews 11:24-26 NKJV
NOTE: … I drew him out of the water. vs. God drew him out of the world to be used of God
C. The Impossibility Of Preparing A Child For Every Detail
1. Train up a child in the way he should go … Proverbs 22:6
2. Not control everything that child will do from now on
3. The wisdom of giving the child to God
a. Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there. I Samuel 1:28
NOTE: The choices he faced
a. What his mother wanted him to do
b. What he wanted to do
c. What God wanted: he worshipped the LORD there
NOTE: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom … Psalm 111:10
b. The faith of the mother allows the child to grow as God chooses, not as she chooses
4. He went beyond what his mother had planned
a. He became a judge of Israel
b. He anointed the first kings of Israel
c. He was the first of the prophets
CONCLUSION
WHAT DOES GOD REQUIRE OF EACH MOTHER REGARDING HER CHILD?
I. GOD REQUIRES THAT EACH MOTHER PROVIDE PROTECTION
II. GOD REQUIRES THAT EACH MOTHER PROVIDE PROVISION
III. GOD REQUIRES THAT EACH MOTHER PROVIDE PREPARATION
Sermons And Lessons From The Old Testament 