Exodus 2:3
And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.
Pharaoh had decreed death for every Hebrew male child, and when Moses' mother could no longer keep him hidden safely she sought another way to protect him. She made a small ark, vessel or basket of bulrushes or rushes, daubed and sealed it with slime and pitch to make it watertight so that water could not enter. She put the child in it and laid it among the flags or reeds at the river's edge or brink.
She entrusted her helpless child and his life to God with earnest prayer, prayers and tears. His sister Miriam watched nearby to see what would happen to him. Angels and the heavenly host guarded and watched over the infant with interest, and guided and directed Pharaoh's daughter to the place and to the vessel. There she found him and took compassion on him, and the Lord guided all that followed so that Miriam brought his own mother to nurse him without fear.
God placed this history on record by the same divine Instructor who gave the prophetic records of Revelation and the history of Christ's life, condemnation and crucifixion. It was written to teach God's care in the smallest details of life and that all human actions are seen by Him and by the heavenly angels. The mother was Jochebed, a Hebrew mother strong in faith who was not afraid of the king's command, and her son Moses became Israel's deliverer.
The verse belongs to Moses' early life in the lowly cabin home in Goshen, where home and school were one and his father and mother themselves gave him instruction. There thoughts of God were joined to all the events of daily life, the mighty works of God in delivering His people were told with eloquence and reverence, and the great truths of God's providence and the future life were pressed on his young mind with the true, the good and the beautiful. Lessons were illustrated and fixed in memory by figures and symbols, so that almost from infancy he was initiated into the mysteries, wisdom and hopes of his fathers and guided to think and feel and anticipate beyond things seen and transitory to the unseen and eternal.
That godly home training was the same given to Samuel, David, Daniel, Christ and Timothy. From this training he came forth vigorous in body and mind, quick to perceive and strong to act, with the heart prepared like good ground for the growth of truth and precious seed and the mind trained to see God in the words of revelation and the scenes of nature. His twelve years among his Hebrew family laid the foundation of his greatness through the care and influence of his mother, a woman little known to fame, as she faced his removal from her care and sought to prepare him to remain faithful to God, showing that her influence began before he entered Pharaoh's household.
His mother was one Hebrew woman, an exile and a slave, whose influence had far-reaching results in his whole future life and the great mission he fulfilled as the leader of Israel. Her example proves the importance of the work of the Christian mother, which no other work can equal, because to a very great extent the mother holds the destiny of her children in her own hands. She deals with developing minds and characters, working not alone for time but for eternity, sowing seed that will spring up and bear fruit either for good or for evil, and impressing upon a human soul the image of the divine rather than painting beauty on canvas or chiseling it from marble.
Especially during their early years the responsibility of forming children's characters rests upon her, for a mother's influence and power to shape character is strongest then and the impressions then made upon developing minds will remain through life. Parents should therefore direct the instruction and training of their children while very young to the end that they may be Christians, trained not as heirs to the throne of an earthly empire but as kings unto God to reign through unending ages. Every mother's moments are priceless and her work will be tested in the solemn day of accounts, when many failures and crimes will be found to have resulted from ignorance and neglect in guiding childish feet in the right way, and many who blessed the world with light and genius and truth and holiness will be found to owe the principles that were the mainspring of their influence and success to a praying Christian mother.