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Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

David Shin

Mothers in Israel

Imagine that there is on the screen a picture, there it is, all right, of Thomas Edison.

Thomas Edison was born in 1847 and he was the youngest of 7 children and he grew up with that community.

He is arguably known as 1 of the greatest inventors of the modern era, and Thomas Edison was not a particularly precocious child.

He, oh there he is, okay, Thomas Edison, he was not particularly a precocious child, meaning that he did not have a rapid developmental childhood.

He did not learn to talk until he was 4 years of age, and when he was in school, he overheard his school teacher tell the superintendent that he thought that Thomas Edison was adult.

Now that is 19th century speak for having a scrambled brain.

Now Thomas Edison went home and he told his mother and this is his account of what his mother did.

So this is from Thomas Edison's own words, then I found out what a good thing a good mother is.

Mother's love was aroused, mother's wounded pride to the quick.

She brought me back to school and angrily told the teacher that he didn't know what he was talking about.

That I had more brains than he himself and a lot more talk like that.

In fact, she was the most enthusiastic champion a boy ever had and I determined right then that I would be worthy of her and show her that her confidence was not misplaced.

What a mom defending her son and she he says in his own account that this motivated him to read.

And by the age of 12, Tom had not only completed Gibbon's Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, Sears' History of the World, and Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, he had devoured the World Dictionary of Science and a number of works on practical chemistry.

It lit a fire under this young man, the inspiration of his mom, that his mom believed in him and he became a voracious reader.

Edison said many years later, my mother was the making of me.

She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt that I had someone to live for, someone that I must not disappoint.

The influence of Thomas Edison's mother, And here's the famous quote from Thomas Edison.

All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.

And it is Mother's Day, so here is your classic Mother's Day weekend sermon this morning.

Now, I wanna be very sensitive because Mother's Day, for some, is a source of good memories and things that we can recollect on of our own mother, but for others, perhaps, memories are a little bit more complicated than that.

But I praise God that He's our heavenly parent, amen, and that the Lord Jesus believes in us, regardless of the circumstances.

And all of us may not be mothers, but all of us have a mother.

And today I wanted to spend a few moments reflecting on 2 mothers in Israel.

And for the first 1, I invite you to open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 2.

We go to the first mother in Israel that we want to focus on for our spiritual reflection this morning.

And let's actually go to the last verse of Exodus chapter 1, and this mother's name is Jochebed, the mother of Moses.

And in Exodus chapter 1 verse 22, so Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, every son who is born of you shall be cast into the river and every daughter you shall save alive.

It was the most difficult time, perhaps in Earth's history, to be a pregnant woman.

You can imagine that every mother in Israel during this death decree was nervous when she found out that she was pregnant, was with child.

Because they knew immediately that if it was a boy, it meant death.

Now typically when you have baby showers, it's a boy or it's a girl, it determines the color of the paint on the walls or whether you get boys' clothes or girls' clothes, but in this instance, it meant that if you found out upon birth, they didn't have ultrasounds back then, that you had a boy, that the soldiers would take that child and cast them into the river.

And so the fateful day came when Jochebed found out that she was pregnant and the anticipation during those 9 months of pregnancy, I can't even imagine what that must have been like.

Finally, she was getting those contractions, and then they called the midwife, and then the baby was born, and the midwife said, it's a boy.

Elation that they have a son, but fear and intrepidation and dread because they knew that it was just a matter of time before the soldier would find that child.

The Bible indicates that they hid that child for 3 months.

I can't imagine what those 3 months must have been.

The feeding schedule probably had to be rearranged as that baby for 3 months was hid from the soldiers of Pharaoh.

And finally, they decided after 3 months that they could not continue on.

So they got the idea, you know the story, that they would make an ark, a boat out of the reeds in the River Nile.

So, Jacobet, and this is in, you know, this is some sanctified imagination here, come on.

All right, so I imagine Jacobet goes to the River Nile and she picks out the best reeds for that ark.

What a, what a time that must have been as she weaved that basket boat with her own hands, and I believe she probably weaved every reed with a prayer.

She sealed that with pitch, probably took it out on the River Nile as a test to make sure the thing would float.

And then the entire family goes down to the riverside, takes that baby, Jochebed no doubt likely has taken the favorite blanket of Moses and tucked it into that boat, that ark, and places that baby into that ark.

Tears streaming down the face of Jochebed with a kiss and a prayer that only a mother can pray.

Can you imagine placing that baby, 3 months old, in the ark, sealing the top?

What a walk it must have been for Jochebed from the banks of the River Nile back to her home.

Do you think that she was praying for her son?

Well, the book Patriarchs and prophets says that as Jacob said that prayer, placed the baby Moses into that ark, that it was in that moment that angels were commissioned, praise God, to watch over that little boat.

And it also says that angels led the daughter of Pharaoh right to that location.

I wonder what it must have been like as as the Pharaoh's daughter is going by the River Nile and the maidens are saying, hey how about this spot?

Finally, she says, that must be the spot.

So they walk over there and they see this little craft floating on the water.

The maiden, it goes out to get it, brings it back.

And in that moment, it's love at first sight, no doubt under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Pharaoh's daughter decides she's going to adopt this Hebrew boy.

And Miriam, who's playing by the river's bank, sees what is taking place, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, walks up to Pharaoh's daughter and says, do you need a nurse?

Pharaoh's daughter says, yes, do you know 1?

And I can just imagine the eyes of Miriam saying, do I know 1?

And Miriam's little legs run as fast as she can Her mind spinning with what she's going to say she goes to Jacob and it says you are never going to believe what happened Pharaoh's daughter found Baby Moses and wants to adopt him and wants you to be the nurse Jacob its eyes well up with tears God has saved her son They run back to the River Nile The Bible indicates quite a deal because the daughter of Pharaoh says I'll pay you to take care of the son.

Pictures and prophets add some more detail and indicates that Jacobed raised Moses to about the age of 12.

What do you think those 12 years were like?

Most treasured 12 years a mother could even imagine, knowing that there would come that day when the chariot would arrive outside their house and Moses would be gone.

Those 12 years would form the foundation for the rest of his life because Hebrews chapter 11 tells us about Moses that when he went into the palace that he refused in his heart to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

In other words, that education, that foundation, the things that Moses learned from the knee of his mother, Jacobet, formed the foundation that would frame his entire life.

What a work must have been done by that woman.

And patriarchs and prophets says, and this woman was a slave.

This is from Patriarchs and Prophets, page 244, commenting on the life of Jacobet and the influence, the whole future life of Moses, the great mission which he fulfilled as the leader of Israel testifies to the importance of the work of the Christian mother.

There is no other work that can equal this.

She is dealing with developing minds and characters working not alone for time, but for how long?

Then it will be found out that many who have blessed the world with light of genius and of truth and holiness owe the principles that were the main spring of their influence and success to a praying Christian mother.

A lot of that credit of the first 5 books of the Bible that you hold in your hand today go to a praying mother.

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Mothers in Israel

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