There is perhaps no love more selfless than the love of a mother. A loving mother willingly endures pain so her child can experience joy. She sacrifices sleep, comfort, security, and often her own dreams for the sake of someone else. History, literature, and Scripture are filled with stories of mothers who placed the welfare of their children above their own.
One memorable example comes from Mark Twain’s novel, Pudd’nhead Wilson. In the story, a slave mother secretly switches her infant son with the child of her wealthy master. She risks everything because she believes her son deserves a better future than the life of slavery awaiting him. Whether one agrees with her actions or not, the story captures a mother’s willingness to sacrifice herself for the good of her child.
The Bible presents an even greater picture of sacrificial love. Long before Moses was born, Pharaoh became fearful that the Hebrew people were growing too numerous. To weaken Israel, he commanded the Hebrew midwives to kill every male child at birth. When the midwives feared God more than Pharaoh and refused to obey, the king escalated his decree. He ordered all the people of Egypt to throw every newborn Hebrew son into the Nile River. Imagine what pregnancy must have felt like for every Hebrew mother.
Today, expectant parents eagerly schedule sonograms, announce gender reveals, and celebrate each milestone with joyful anticipation. Every kick is exciting, every doctor’s appointment brings reassurance, and every new detail fuels hope for the future.
For Hebrew mothers living under Pharaoh’s decree, pregnancy carried an entirely different emotion. There were no celebrations over the possibility of a son. There was fear. Every expectant mother wondered what would happen when her baby was born. Every labor carried the terrifying question no parent should ever have to ask: Will my son be allowed to live? Into that frightening world, Jochebed gave birth to Moses.
When Jochebed looked into the face of her newborn son, she saw more than another Hebrew child. Scripture tells us she recognized that he was a beautiful child, and she refused to surrender him to Pharaoh’s command. For three months she hid him, protecting him as long as she possibly could. Eventually, however, hiding him became impossible. A crying baby could not remain hidden forever. Jochebed now faced the most painful decision of her life. She carefully prepared a basket, waterproofed it with pitch, placed her precious son inside, and set him among the reeds along the Nile River. To human eyes, it must have appeared that she was sending her child away with no guarantee he would survive.
There was no promise that Pharaoh’s daughter would discover him. She simply entrusted her son to God. Her sacrifice required faith because she released what she loved most without knowing how God would work. The Lord honored that faith.
Pharaoh’s own daughter discovered the child, had compassion on him, and even arranged for Jochebed herself to nurse and care for her son before he eventually entered Pharaoh’s household. The very family that had ordered Hebrew boys to die unknowingly financed the upbringing of the man who God would later use to deliver Israel. Jochebed could not see all of that when she placed the basket into the river. She simply obeyed.
Many years later, Moses stood before Pharaoh and declared God’s command: “Let My people go (Exodus 9:1).” The little baby once hidden in a basket became the great deliverer of an entire nation. Jochebed’s sacrifice reached far beyond her own lifetime.
Centuries later, another mother would face a different kind of sacrifice. Mary’s pregnancy was unlike any other in history. An angel announced that her child would be conceived by the Holy Spirit. Wise men traveled from distant lands to worship Him and present precious gifts. Shepherds came with stories of angels filling the night sky. Simeon, the elderly prophet who held the infant Jesus in the Temple, blessed the child but also delivered a sobering prophecy to His mother. One day, he said, a sword would pierce her own soul.
Even before Jesus could speak His first words, Mary knew His life would not be ordinary. She also knew danger surrounded Him. King Herod ordered the slaughter of the male infants in Bethlehem, attempting to destroy the promised Messiah. Once again, a faithful mother found herself protecting the son God had entrusted to her.
Luke tells us that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Then, when He was twelve years old, His family traveled to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. On the return journey, Mary and Joseph discovered that Jesus was missing. After searching anxiously for three days, they found Him in the Temple, listening to the teachers and asking questions that amazed everyone present.
When Mary expressed her concern, Jesus gently replied, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business” (Luke 2:49)? His answer confused His parents. Luke tells us that Mary treasured these things in her heart. She did not fully understand everything God was doing, but she trusted Him even when His purposes were beyond her comprehension.
People often ask, “Mary, did you know?”
The answer is both yes…and no.
- Mary knew Jesus was extraordinary.
- She knew He had been conceived by the Holy Spirit.
- She knew He was the Son of God.
- She knew angels had announced His birth and that prophets had spoken about His future.
But there was much she could not yet know. She could not have imagined seeing Him turn water into wine. She could not have foreseen Him walking upon the sea, calming storms with His voice, opening blind eyes, cleansing lepers, or raising the dead. Most painfully, she could not fully comprehend that the baby she cradled during His first breath would one day hang upon a cross as she watched Him take His last breath. Yet she remained faithful.
Unlike Jochebed, Mary lived to witness much of the fruit of her sacrifice. She saw Jesus begin His earthly ministry. She stood near the cross during His crucifixion. She rejoiced in His resurrection, and after His ascension she was present in the Upper Room with the disciples as they waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit. As it says in the song, “Oh Mary Did You Know, by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene, “The child she delivered would soon deliver her.”
That beautiful truth reminds us that God’s greatest blessings often emerge from our greatest sacrifices. The sacrifices of Jochebed and Mary continue to bless the world today. One entrusted her son to God, and Israel received its deliverer. The other surrendered her Son to the Father’s Will, and the world received its Savior. Their stories remind us that faith rarely sees the full picture in advance. It simply obeys God one step at a time, trusting that He is accomplishing something far greater than we can imagine.
The same principle remains true today. Many of the sacrifices we make for God’s kingdom will not produce immediate results. Parents pray for children who have wandered. Believers faithfully serve without recognition. Christians give generously, forgive freely, and obey God even when the outcome is uncertain.
Faith does not demand to see tomorrow before obeying today. It trusts that God honors every act of obedience offered in love. Perhaps the greatest lesson these two mothers teach us is this: today’s sacrifice often becomes tomorrow’s reward.
Because Jochebed trusted God, a nation found freedom. Because Mary trusted God, humanity found salvation. And because Christ willingly went to the cross, we have forgiveness, eternal life, and the hope of resurrection.
May we never allow His sacrifice—or the faithful obedience of those God used in His plan—to be wasted in our own lives. Instead, let us respond with grateful hearts, steadfast faith, and the same willingness to trust God with whatever He asks us to place into His hands.