Moses' Faithful Parents

April 27th, 2026
by Lance Waldie

Hebrews 11:23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

After Joseph died, the Israelites continued to live in Egypt. They increased in numbers over the years until a king arose that did not know Joseph and who apparently had no regard for all that Joseph had done for Egypt. In Exodus 1:9, we are informed that the new Pharaoh feared the growing numbers of Israelites, and thus subjected them to slave labor.

This is where the next hall of faith-ers enter in Hebrews 11:23: the parents of Moses. Exodus 2:1 says that both of Moses’ parents were Levites—Amram and Jochebed (Ex. 6:20). They would have married during a particularly dismal time for Israel, for by the time Moses was to be born, the Egyptian Pharaoh had called for all male babies of the Israelites to be killed by their midwives. When the midwives refused, Pharaoh demanded that all newborn boys be cast into the Nile, presumably to be eaten by the Nile crocodiles (Ex. 1:15-22).

Valuing human life, especially that of their own son, Amram and Jochebed refused the order of the Pharaoh, choosing to obey God rather than man (cf. Acts 4:19; 5:29). By faith “they saw he was a beautiful child” (cf. Acts 7:20). This is odd given that every parent believes their child is “beautiful” (Gr. asteios), with or without faith. It is therefore evident that Moses was not just a beautiful child; there was something obviously special about him, perhaps something similar to the Christ-Child when He was born. John Calvin comments on this, saying, “It seems contrary to the nature of faith that he says that they were induced to do this by the beauty of his form. We know that Jesse was rebuked when he brought his sons to Samuel in the order of their physical excellence, and certainly God does not hold us to external appearances. I reply that the parents of Moses were not induced by his beauty to be touched with pity and save him as men are commonly affected, but there was some sort of mark of excellence to come, engraved on the boy which gave promise of something out of the ordinary for him.” Well said!

Now the fact that Moses was, and is, the greatest of all Israel’s prophets (aside from Jesus), it is clear that Amram and Jochebed were not simply observing the beauty of their child when they disobeyed the king’s order. They rightly knew that something was extraordinarily special about him. They thus hid him for three months after his birth. Then once it was no longer possible to hide Moses, they bundled him up in a basket and sent it up the Nile right into the Pharaoh’s home where his daughter would discover him and fall instantly in love with him. All the while the older sister of Moses, Miriam, was watching the basket come into the arms of Pharaoh’s daughter. Miriam was therefore present to suggest a convenient mother to nurse the baby Moses—his own mother Jochebed! She even got paid to do so (Ex. 2:7-9).

The faith of Amram and Jochebed proved to be mighty, for it not only saved their son, their son later saved their nation. Were it not for the faith of his parents, Moses would not have been around to lead his nation out of Egypt. Moses’ faith therefore began with his parents.

Food For Thought
If you’re a parent, you have great power and enormous responsibility to your children. As any sane parent would do, they no doubt prayed fervently for their unborn child and prayed all the more after they saw him born—for his protection and his future. No, there are no guarantees that God will preserve our children or make them special, certainly not to the extent that Moses was. But the very practice of praying for our children, for God’s will to be done in their lives—this is what faith looks like for a parent in relation to a young child. We believe God knows us, our children, and has a perfect plan for all of us. Let us therefore be faithful to pray for them.