Parenting like Jochebed

In our sermon text this morning we will consider the story of Moses’ birth and deliverance from the hand of Pharaoh. The story of his rescue by Pharaoh’s daughter is a fitting analogy of what Christian parenting is all about. Our children are conceived and born in sin and under the curse of death, and in faith we bring our children to the river of baptism, believing that only God can save them by his mighty working. There in baptism, our children are taken into the royal family of God and given a new name. But then God gives our children back to us and asks us to care for them and nurture them. He even promises blessings for our faithfulness. Your children are not yours; they belong to God. Our task as parents is to bring them up to be faithful in his royal courts, to be prepared to serve in his palace. This can be a challenging and daunting task, but God has promised to give you all the resources you need. But we live by faith from first to last; the same faith that gives our children up to God at the beginning of their lives is the same faith that gives our children up to God every single day of their lives. They are his, after all. This means that our task as parents is to continually ask and consider how our children’s Father would have them brought up. We are just nurses, what does their Father in heaven prefer? How ought they to be disciplined? How should they be spoken to? How should they be educated? How should they be instructed? These questions cannot be answered rightly by reading popular magazines or psychiatric journal reports. The Scriptures are our unbreakable directions in these matters. God has given us these children to care for them for a few short years, and he has given us instructions in His Word. These children belong to God; they are his, and therefore we are required to bring them up in his nurture, in his culture, and in his way of life.