Faith Can Be
Strong Or Weak
But Never Big Or Small
We usually associate faith with qualities that many people don’t have: confidence, focus, boldness and assertiveness.
High profile types have faith. Low profile folks just watch.
That’s how we see it anyway, so the general assumption is faith must be big, like the people who express it.
Can that be true? Were great examples of faith outspoken and obvious or did they carry their faith a little more quietly? One example doesn’t fit the big faith mold.
Jochebed, The Mother of Moses
You probably know Jochebed’s story. She lived under the oppressive rule of Pharaoh. He had enslaved the Israelites to reduce their numbers. He was afraid they were getting a little to numerous to manage. When enslavement didn’t reduce their numbers, he took a more drastic step. He decreed the destruction of all male born children.
Fortunately, that plan didn’t work either. The midwives who managed the birth of these children disobeyed, allowing the males to live. But Moses’ mother went a step further.
She devised a plan not only to save Moses but to insure he got the benefits not afforded any other Israelite child. The outcome was he was adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter and raised as one of Pharaoh’s own.
Maybe it was a mother’s sixth sense, I don’t know, but she saw Moses as a potentially great leader. That was important because God had promised to delivered Israel from bondage. She believed that promise and knew God would need someone to lead the charge.
I won’t go through all the details but her plan worked. Moses was raised in the wisdom of Egypt and, if tradition is accurate, he learned the art of military leadership also.
But what about Jochebed’s faith? This is where the story becomes most interesting.
Her faith wasn’t loud or boisterous. She carried no placards. She made no public declarations. She expected great things from God but she didn’t publish it in the Goshan Gazette.
Everything she did was below the radar. As far as we know, she kept the whole thing very quiet. The Bible doesn’t even tell us what she prayed. She acted quietly and secretly.
And she probably acted alone. I don’t doubt her husband supported what she did, if he was even aware of it, but he was a slave. Slaves don’t work 9-to-5 and who knows whether they got home at night very often. I doubt he had much energy to contribute.
One last observation.
This faith was directly related to parenting. This had nothing to do with political action. Meaning, of course, you don’t have to change the government to protect your children. There is a lot a parent can do for their kids, by faith, in spite of the political environment.
Conclusion: The effect of her faith was big, bigger than she would ever know. But her faith, though decisive, active and strategic, was quiet and almost off the record.
Faith doesn’t have to be loud.
THINK!AboutIt
