Day: March 19, 2023

Sunday, March 19, 2023

“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 KJV).

Dear friend, would you be able to name Moses’ parents?

The writer of the Book of Hebrews lists nearly 20 saints by name in the eleventh chapter (the context of today’s Scripture). However, the Holy Spirit did not move him to identify Moses’ parents. Who were they? What could account for this omission?

Let us consult the familiar, original passage of Exodus 2:1,2: “And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.” Again, neither Moses’ father nor mother is named. Moses himself, writing Exodus, withheld their identities.

If we make our way through the Book of Exodus, we eventually arrive at chapter 6, verse 20, and we make a striking observation here: “And Amram took him Jochebed his father’s sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven years.” If we move over to Numbers, chapter 26 and verse 59, it is confirmed: “And the name of Amram’s wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom her mother bare to Levi in Egypt: and she bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister.”

These two verses supply us with their names, but this is simply in the context of genealogical records. Regarding their actual sparing of Moses, they are unknown in Hebrews 11:23, Exodus 2:1-2, and even Acts 7:20 (“In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months:”). One obvious reason is it did not really matter what their names were. What was more important was their faith (today’s Scripture). It was not so much what they did, but what the Lord did in and through them. God knew their names. While He ultimately did reveal them in the Bible record later on, He kept their names a secret again as we move toward the end (Acts and Hebrews).