The Hall of Faith: Moses’ Parents

EXPOSITORY ARTICLE | Tyler Sams | San Antonio, Texas

“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command.” (Hebrews 11:23).

The first people in Hebrews 11 to be described as having faith, yet left as nameless in the text, are the parents of Moses: Amram (father) and Jochebed (mother). Like many others later in chapter 11, they are praised for their faith, yet their names do not appear in the text. Their names are not omitted because their actions were unimportant or inconsequential — their story is recorded for the overwhelming role that faith played in their lives! Let’s do justice to this godly father and mother and explore the faith they exhibited which is held up as an example for us.

As the text reveals, the occasion for Amram and Jochebed to display their faith was the birth of Moses. Following the death of the patriarch Joseph, the people of Israel were cruelly enslaved and oppressed in the land of Egypt under a new pharaoh. Despite the difficult circumstances, the Israelite people were increasing in numbers, a reality that did not escape the attention of the Egyptians. To remedy the possibility of the slaves becoming more numerous than their masters, the pharaoh decreed that every son born to the Israelites was to be killed: at first directly by the hands of the midwives (Exodus 1.16) and later indirectly through drowning and neglect (1.22). Immediately, there was resistance to the pharaoh’s plan. Shiphrah and Puah, two Hebrew midwives, refused to submit to Egypt’s demands; for this refusal, they were blessed by God (1.20).

At this point, a question needs to be addressed. The Law of Moses condemned murder. Yet, as we are talking about the birth of Moses, it is obvious that Israel has yet to receive the Law from God on Mount Sinai. If, therefore, the Law of Moses was not yet given, how could Shiphrah and Puah have acted in the fear of God (1.17) by “[saving] the male children alive”? The answer is found in Genesis 9.6. Upon exiting the ark, God gave Noah several instructions as he and his family set about repopulating the earth. One of those instructions concerned the sanctity of life: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man” (Genesis 9.6). The teaching was passed down by patriarchs. For example, Reuben invoked the phrase “Shed no blood,” when he counseled his brothers not to murder Joseph. This teaching he would have learned from his father Jacob, who would have learned it from his father. The particular message given to Noah concerning the sanctity of life, based on the creation narrative of Genesis 1, continued to influence Hebrew thinking and conduct. Thus, when Shiphrah and Puah — or more to our point, Amram and Jochebed — were instructed by the pharaoh to kill the baby boys, they refused because they recognized such a demand was inconsistent with the will of God as it had been expressed to the fathers. Faith demands antecedent communication (Romans 10.17); in that Amram and Jochebed acted by faith in preserving Moses alive, they acted from the basis of some communication from God. God’s command regarding the sanctity of life in Genesis 9.6 was that command.

In Hebrews 11.23 it is revealed that Amram and Jochebed spared the life of Moses for two reasons: he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king’s command. One of these things is seemingly unlike the other. To the modern mind, with the benefit of the fullness of scripture, it is understandable why Moses’ parents would not be afraid of the king’s command. But why would Amram and Jochebed spare Moses “because he was a beautiful child”? What does his beauty have to do with sparing a child from murder?

In his Notes on the Whole Bible, Albert Barnes remarks that “beautiful” in Hebrews 11.23 expresses the idea correctly: “His extraordinary beauty seems to have been the reason which particularly influenced his parents to attempt to preserve him. It is not impossible that they supposed that his uncommon beauty indicated that he was destined to some important service in life and that they were on that account the more anxious to save him.” In their Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, Robert Jamieson, Andrew Fausset, and David Brown note about Moses, “His beauty was probably ‘the sign’ appointed by God to assure their faith.” Keil and Delitzsch offer up a similar thought in their Commentary on the Old Testament: “The very beauty of the child was to her ‘a peculiar token of divine approval, and a sign that God had some special design concerning him.’” A majority of biblical scholarship seems to indicate that the exceptional beauty of Moses at birth served as a message to his parents to preserve him alive. While this idea is possible, it is not the only possibility. The Hebrew word translated as “beautiful” in Exodus 2.2 (from which Hebrews 11.23 is taken) is the same Hebrew word that is translated as “good” throughout Genesis 1 as God surveys His creation. While one may look at Exodus 2.2 and see a reference to physical beauty, such is not required by the text. What made creation “good” in Genesis was its consistency with the will and nature of God. Could not the same thing be said for Moses? Could not the same thing be said for any child? Moses was not the only Hebrew child spared from Egypt’s bloodthirstiness (cf. Exodus 1.18). What was it that led many other Hebrews to keep their children alive in the face of Egyptian persecution? The conviction of the goodness of these children! Looking into the face of Moses, Jochebed saw beauty — not simply physical beauty (what parent doesn’t think their child is beautiful?), but the beauty of a being free from sin, born in the image of God (Genesis 1.26; cf. Matthew 19.14). In a world that has sadly lost its way regarding the sanctity of life and the blessing of children, those who are godly look at infants and see them for what they are: good gifts from a gracious God.

Finally, Hebrews 11.23 notes that Amram and Jochebed preserved Moses because he was “beautiful” and “they were not afraid of the king’s command.” The parents of Moses spared his life for at least two reasons. First, as noted above, they preserved his life because they understood that children are “good”. Second, they saved Moses from death because they knew God’s will regarding murder — to shed the blood of the innocent was to forfeit their own lives (cf. Genesis 9.6). They could not have lived with the confidence of God’s blessing had they murdered their child: the child was innocent and God forbade the intentional taking of innocent life. Thus, the issue surrounding Moses’ life became a rather simple one for Amram and Jochebed: please the king or please the King. There could be no splitting of the proverbial baby. Moses’ parents would please one authority and displease the other. Who, then, to please and who to displease? Amram and Jochebed decided to please God. Making the decision to please God led them to be unafraid of what the pharaoh might do to them. Wonderfully, scripture reveals this experience as occurring frequently in the lives of the people of God. Whether Amram and Jochebed saving Moses, Abraham offering Isaac (Genesis 22.1ff), or Daniel refusing Nebuchadnezzar’s provisions (Daniel 1.3ff): when God’s people resolved to follow Him, what resulted was a removal of fear from their lives. It doesn’t mean that absolutely all anxiousness was removed (witness Jesus in the Garden: Luke 22.44), but such resolve did enable these men and women to accomplish great things with perfect peace: the peace of knowing that, whatever happens, God is pleased. If we can affirm nothing else about our lives except God is pleased, we have truly gained the victory, despite the world’s protests!

As the Holy Spirit notes and praises the faith of those in bygone generations, He notes for us the faith of Amram and Jochebed: a faith which saw a child as a gift of God, a faith which respected God’s revelation, a faith which defied a king in deference to the King of Heaven. Looking to their example, we better understand faith, a quality that is necessary if we are to come into the presence of God (Hebrews 11.6). May God help us as we seek to have the kind of faith that pleases Him!

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January 2024 | GROW magazine