Jochebed - A Faithful Mother

[0:00] Exodus chapter 2, reading from the beginning. Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman.

[0:11] The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. So this evening we're continuing our study, our character study of some of the women in the Bible.

[0:33] And as you know, we've titled our study of the women in the Bible as the daughters of the king. And tonight the daughter of the king we're considering was a faithful mother in Egypt called Jochebed.

[0:48] And Jochebed was the mother of Moses. In fact, Jochebed was the mother of three children. She had two boys and one girl.

[1:00] And we know that the mother of Moses was called Jochebed because of the genealogy given in Numbers 26, verse 59. It reads there, the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt.

[1:16] And that's what we're told here in verse 1. Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. So the man of the house of Levi was Amram.

[1:27] And in the genealogy in the book of Numbers, we're also told that to Amram, Jochebed bore Aaron, Moses, and their sister Miriam.

[1:38] And so in Jochebed, we have a mother who brought up three children to serve the Lord. And she was a faithful mother in Egypt.

[1:50] But what's interesting about the narrative in Exodus chapter 2 is that no one is named except Moses. As the father of Moses, Amram isn't named.

[2:02] He is only known as the man of the house of Levi. As the mother of Moses, Jochebed isn't named. She's only known as the woman. And as the sister of Moses, Miriam isn't even named.

[2:14] She's only known as his sister. And even Pharaoh's daughter, she remains nameless. And what we see in the narrative is that no one is named except Moses in verse 10, where it says, When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she became her son.

[2:32] She named him Moses, because she said, I drew him out of the water. But there's a reason for this. There's a reason why it's only Moses' name that's mentioned.

[2:44] Because, of course, the book of Exodus is all about this man called Moses. Moses is central to the narrative. He's central to the whole story.

[2:55] Moses is the key figure and character. But he's not only the key figure and character in the book of Exodus. He's also the key figure and character in the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

[3:09] And that's because Moses was God's servant who was called to deliver the children of Israel from bondage and slavery in Egypt. But even though Moses is very much at the heart of Exodus, of the Exodus, Moses is not the hero.

[3:27] Because God is the hero. It's God who is doing the delivering. God is doing the redeeming through his servant, Moses. And in this, of course, we can see that Moses was a type of Christ.

[3:41] When Moses was used to deliver God's elect people, Moses was the prophet of God who spoke on behalf of the covenant king. Moses was the mediator who interceded on many occasions between God and his people.

[3:59] And Moses was the captain and the leader who led God's people out of Egypt through the wilderness and on towards the banks of the river Jordan. And yet, although Moses was a type of Christ in many ways, and we can see that in his life, as we know, Moses was a failure in many other ways.

[4:21] But behind this key figure and character, Moses had a good mother. Moses had a mother who brought him up within the covenant community of the Lord's people.

[4:34] And he was brought up to know the Lord and to love the Lord and to follow the Lord for himself. And although she remains nameless in the narrative, Jochebed played a crucial role in Moses' life.

[4:51] Because as his mother, she taught him and she shaped him, not only in his mind, but also in his heart. And so I'd like us to consider Jochebed this evening and see what we can learn from this faithful mother in Egypt.

[5:08] So the first thing I'd like us to see in this passage is a mother's trust. A mother's trust. If we look again at verse 2.

[5:19] The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. So the opening words of chapter 2 are of course built into the backdrop of what we were told at the end of chapter 1.

[5:36] In which Pharaoh, king of Egypt, sent out this great decree. For we're told at the end of chapter 1, Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, every son that is born to the Hebrews, You shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.

[5:52] And this decree, it sets the scene for what's to happen in chapter 2. But the reason for Pharaoh's desperate ploy to exterminate the sons who were born to Israelite parents, It wasn't just because Pharaoh feared that the Israelite families were increasing and taking over the nation of Egypt.

[6:14] That was one reason. We were told that in chapter 1 and verse 9. It says, And this is Pharaoh speaking.

[6:26] And then it goes on.

[6:39] But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied, and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves, And they made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick, And in all kinds of work in the field, In all their work, they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

[7:01] And yet, despite the oppression and the desire to murder an ever-increasing Israelite population, Pharaoh's fear didn't surface because of the prospect of a revolution and a revolt against his people.

[7:19] Pharaoh's fear and hatred for the people of Israel, It arose all because of his ignorance of God. That's the first thing we're told about Pharaoh in verse 8.

[7:30] Chapter 1 verse 8. Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And Joseph being a name which highlights the covenant promise that was passed down from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob to Joseph.

[7:49] And so Pharaoh's fear arose because he didn't know and he didn't respect the covenant king of the Israelites. But Pharaoh knew that there was something different about the Israelites, Which distinguished them from his own people, the Egyptians.

[8:06] And Pharaoh saw that even in the Hebrew midwives, When he commanded them to kill all the male children as they were being delivered in birth. And as we read it says, And so in spite of Pharaoh's decree, the Israelite sons were being spared because the Hebrew women feared God.

[8:31] And this is repeated again in the narrative in order to emphasize the distinction between the Israelites and the Egyptians. Where it says in verse 20, God dealt well with the midwives, And the people multiplied and grew very strong.

[8:47] And because the midwives feared God, He gave them families. But it was not only the midwives who feared God. The Hebrew mothers did too.

[9:00] Because as we enter into chapter 2, The focus moves from the situation of the nation of Israel in Egypt, To the situation of this particular family in Egypt.

[9:13] And we're told that Jochebed conceived and bore a son. And by the way it's presented to us in the narrative, We might be tempted to think that Moses was Jochebed's first son.

[9:28] But he wasn't. Because the narrative, In the narrative we can see that Moses had an elder sister called Miriam. And in fact Miriam was the eldest of the family.

[9:41] Because in chapter 7, We're told that Moses, When Moses was 80 years old, Aaron was 83 years old, When they spoke to Pharaoh.

[9:52] Which means that Miriam was the eldest, Being about 6 or 7 years old. And then you have Aaron, Who was about 3 years old at the time. Which means that Moses was the youngest born son to Jochebed.

[10:06] And ordinarily, With the birth of your own child, Or your grandchild, It would be a happy event. And one to cherish. But not so in Egypt.

[10:19] As Pharaoh's awful edict insisted that all the male children were to be drowned in the river Nile. And so what does a mother do with her newborn son, Who is helpless and utterly dependent upon her?

[10:33] Does she submit to the authority of the world and hand her son over to be put to death? Does she give her son into the grip of the world as soon as he is born?

[10:44] Does she deliver this precious life that she's carried in her womb for nine months And allow the world to do as they please with him? Or does she perform the instinctive duty of a mother And risk everything in order to try and preserve life?

[11:01] And of course, Jochebed preserves the life of her precious son, Moses. But there was a reason why Jochebed was willing to risk everything for the sake of Moses.

[11:13] Where she was willing to risk her own life by disobeying the decree of the king. Because disobedience would have surely meant deserving the death penalty. But not only that, Jochebed was willing to risk the lives of her own children.

[11:28] She was willing to risk the lives of Aaron and Miriam. And also her husband. All for the sake of Moses. It was all for the sake of Moses.

[11:39] And maybe we can try and understand to some extent what she was going through. Because who would want to allow their child to be put to death? But at the same time, Who would want to risk putting their whole family in jeopardy for the sake of another?

[11:56] For the sake of a little baby. And maybe on the outside looking in, We may think that Jochebed was acting recklessly by deciding to hide her son.

[12:08] Instead of giving him up. We may think that Jochebed was being perilous because her actions would end in disaster if she was found out. But what the narrative wants to make clear to us is that when Jochebed hid Moses for the first three months of his life, She was a woman who was acting in faith.

[12:29] She was a mother who was trusting in the Lord. Because although she remains nameless there too, Jochebed is found in that great list in Hebrews 11.

[12:42] And she's nameless. Because we're told in Hebrews 11 that by faith, Moses, when he was born, Was hidden three months by his parents.

[12:52] Because they saw he was a beautiful child. And they were not afraid of the king's command. And so the testimony of Jochebed is that despite the command of the king to have all these male children drowned, She acted in faith to protect Moses.

[13:11] And in both passages, both here in Exodus 2 and in Hebrews 11, We're given the reason why Jochebed was willing to risk everything in order to protect Moses.

[13:23] And we're told that it was because he was a beautiful child. He was a beautiful child. Now, of course, every parent would say that their child is the most beautiful child in the world.

[13:36] And their bias is simply because they love their children unconditionally. But that's not what it means when we're told that Jochebed thought that Moses was a beautiful child.

[13:49] It was nothing to do with his physical appearance, the way he looked. And the text gives no indication that the parents of Moses were given this special revelation about him.

[14:01] But it seems that what his parents saw about Moses, especially Jochebed, What she saw about him, she saw that he was a good child. That's what the text literally says.

[14:12] She saw that he was good. She saw that he was good. And that's the same phrase that was used in Genesis 1, when God was creating the world.

[14:24] When God looked upon his creation at the end of his working day, he saw that it was good. And so it was by faith that Jochebed saw that this baby Moses was not just beautiful, But a gift that had been entrusted to her by the Lord.

[14:42] That's why she was determined to save him and willing to risk everything for him. Because Jochebed was aware of God's divine purpose for her son.

[14:55] She knew at that young age that Moses was a chosen vessel of the Lord. And despite what the world told her, and despite what the world demanded of her, She did what's best for God's servant.

[15:10] And her fear of God, just like the Hebrew midwives, it caused her to act in faith. Jochebed feared God more than she feared man.

[15:22] Because her trust was firmly in the Lord. It was firmly grounded upon the Lord. And if there was any verse that would ever describe Jochebed and her situation that she was faced with, Just after she gave birth to Moses.

[15:38] If there was any verse that would describe her, it would be the words that we were singing in Psalm 56. Because when Jochebed was faced with such an awful dilemma, Her confession was the same as that of David.

[15:53] When he was fearing for his life and risking everything by hiding in a cave from the Philistines. Where David confessed, When I'm afraid, I'll trust in thee.

[16:07] In God I'll praise his word. I will not fear what flesh can do. My trust is in the Lord. And that was Jochebed's confession too. That even though she was afraid for her precious son Moses, Her trust was in the Lord.

[16:24] And her trust was in the word of the Lord. For her confession was, I will not fear what flesh can do. My trust is in the Lord.

[16:37] And so what we see with Jochebed is that When worry ends, faith begins. When worry ends, faith begins.

[16:50] And that's the testimony of Scripture. Where we are urged time and time again, Not to worry, but to trust in the Lord. We are not to worry, but to cast every care upon the Lord.

[17:02] We're not to worry, but to bring everything to the Lord in prayer. Because we often fall into the temptation of worry Instead of trusting in the Lord that he's sovereign.

[17:13] He knows what he's doing. This is his plan. And if worry ends when faith begins, Then worry begins when faith ends.

[17:25] If worry ends when faith begins, Then worry begins when faith ends. And yet the Bible reaffirms to us That we are not to be afraid, but to only believe.

[17:40] We're not to be anxious. We're to be anxious for nothing. It says we're to be careful for nothing. We're not to be so full of care that we lose sight of God and fail to trust him.

[17:53] That's why Scripture urges us. The wisdom of Solomon. The wisdom of Solomon. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not upon your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him.

[18:06] Acknowledge him. Acknowledge him. And he shall direct your paths. The reason we often worry is because we fail to acknowledge him.

[18:18] So worry ends when faith begins. Worry ends when faith begins. A mother's trust. But secondly we see a mother's task.

[18:31] A mother's task. Look at verse 2. The woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could no longer hide him, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch.

[18:49] She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what will be done to him. Jochebed hid her youngest son Moses in her home for the first three months.

[19:07] But three months wasn't long enough for Pharaoh's edict to come to an end. And by three months old, Moses was growing and he was getting a lot harder to conceal.

[19:19] As any baby would be. But at first, I suppose she would have been able to hide Moses. She could have hidden Moses' crying and said, well, it's his brother Aaron.

[19:36] Because Aaron was only a toddler at the time. I'm just thinking about this from my own experience. But hiding a baby in your home was never going to be a long-term solution. And again, Jochebed's faith was tested as to what she would do next.

[19:52] But at this point, it's John Calvin that says in his commentary, it's really interesting. He says that Jochebed's actions of making a basket to hide Moses inside, it was a collapse of her faith.

[20:05] A collapse of her faith. In fact, Calvin claimed that when Jochebed decided to create a basket and to put it into the river, she forgot her duty as a mother to protect her child.

[20:18] The beautiful child who had been set apart as a servant of God. But what we must be clear on is that Jochebed's actions were not a collapse of her faith.

[20:29] Jochebed was putting her faith into action. And she was trusting in the Lord to bless her actions of faith. It was in an act of faith that she made a basket.

[20:41] And she weaved together all these bulrushes that grew as long as 16 feet in length. And she made it waterproof by coating it and dobbing it with bitumen and pitch.

[20:53] And she made it floatable, I don't know, buoyant. And it was this act of faith that Jochebed had that she could lay it in the wreaths in the river.

[21:05] But what's interesting about Jochebed's actions is that she did exactly the same thing as Noah did. That was the interesting thing. Because the word basket in verse 3, it's the same word for ark.

[21:22] That's repeated throughout the narrative of Genesis. When it talks about Noah building the ark. And so Jochebed built an ark for her son.

[21:35] In the same manner as Noah built an ark for his own family. And like Noah's ark, it was to be the means of salvation. It was to be the means of deliverance.

[21:46] It was to be the means of safety. And Jochebed's hope and trust in the Lord was that the Lord would save her household. And that's what was also said about Noah in Hebrews 11.

[22:01] It says that by faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not seen, moved with godly fear. And that's what Jochebed was doing.

[22:22] Her faith wasn't collapsing. But she was moving with that godly fear in order to save her household. She was moving according to her faith.

[22:32] She was putting her faith into action. But when Jochebed laid Moses in his basket and placed him into the river Nile, praying and pleading that the Lord would be with her son and spare her son's life, she could never have expected or known what would happen next.

[22:53] It says in verse 5, Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. While her young woman walked beside the river, she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it.

[23:06] And if this was the first time we had ever read the book of Exodus, we'd probably have said that this was the last person you would have wanted to find Jochebed's precious son lying in the river Nile.

[23:22] The last person you would want is someone from Pharaoh's family finding this precious life. But when Pharaoh's daughter retrieved the basket from the river, we're told she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying.

[23:41] She took compassion or pity on him and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. Pharaoh's daughter opened the basket, and she saw Moses, the beautiful child.

[23:55] And he was crying, which obviously drew our attention to him in the first place. But then we're told that she had compassion on him. She had compassion on him.

[24:08] But this wasn't just a feeling of sympathy towards this baby. Because her compassion indicated that she was determined to spare his life. That's what the word means.

[24:19] She was determined to spare his life. And it was at that moment when Miriam steps out. Moses' sister, she'd been commissioned to watch over Moses and make sure that he was okay, rather than watching and witnessing his murder.

[24:37] And when the perfect opportunity arrives, Miriam comes out from among the reeds and offers this practical suggestion to Pharaoh's daughter.

[24:49] Because no Egyptian woman would have ever nursed a Hebrew child. And so she says, And what we see is that Pharaoh's daughter fell in with the plan.

[25:13] It all fell together. And without doubt, the news of Moses coming from Miriam must have been this huge relief to Jochebed.

[25:23] There would have been no delay as soon as she heard when Miriam was coming through the door to tell her, Well, he's okay. He can be saved.

[25:34] She would have been at the riverside straight away. And when Jochebed arrives at the banks of the river Nile, we're told, Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take this child away. Nursh him for me.

[25:45] And I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed him. And when we think of the situation Jochebed had been in, yet we see the provision the Lord had for her.

[26:00] That she is not only Moses' birth mother, but she's now getting paid to look after her own son. And so for Jochebed, the Lord was doing in her and for her, far above and beyond her asking or her thinking.

[26:17] But you know, when I think of Jochebed and her faith in the Lord, reminded of the words of Ecclesiastes 11 and verse 1, where it says, Cast your bread upon the water, and you will find it after many days.

[26:39] And in those words, Solomon was issuing to us a great principle for living a life of faith and hope in the Lord. He was using the analogy of throwing seed out into the water or into the soggy marshland, and then waiting for that seed to take root and germinate and grow and bear fruit.

[27:01] And in the same way as Jochebed cast her little bit of bread in the form of Moses, she cast it upon the water. She was placing him there and then into the Lord's hands.

[27:15] And she was waiting upon the Lord by faith. And maybe only after a few hours, in the Lord's perfect providence, that little seed came back to her.

[27:26] And that's what we have to do with our children and our grandchildren and the children in our Sunday school. We have to cast these precious lives into the hands of the Lord.

[27:39] We have to cast them, our bread upon the water, knowing that after many days, it will return to us. We have to cast these lives into the hand of the Lord.

[27:49] We have to give them over to the Lord in prayer. We have to place each and every one of them into the care of the Lord. Not only because he cares for us, but because he says he cares for them.

[28:06] He cares for our children too. And so when Jochebed cast her bread upon the water, it returned to her. And in returning to her, Jochebed had the important task of now training God's future leader.

[28:24] Which brings us to consider lastly, a mother's training. We've looked at a mother's trust, a mother's task. But lastly, we're reminded in this narrative of a mother's training.

[28:39] A mother's training. It says in verse 9, And Pharaoh's daughter said, Take this child away and nourish him for me, and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed him.

[28:50] When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, because she said, I drew him out of the water.

[29:03] When we read through the narrative of Jochebed's trust in the Lord, you can't help but see the Lord's providential care for Jochebed and Moses during the early years of his life.

[29:20] Not only when Jochebed hid Moses for three months, the Lord's providential care in that. And not only when she put him in a basket in the River Nile to be found by Pharaoh's daughter.

[29:32] Not only the providential care in that, but also the providential care that Pharaoh's daughter didn't pay Jochebed to come to her home and to teach her child there.

[29:44] Instead, Jochebed was paid and given the privilege to take her own son home and to care for him and to bring him up in his own home environment.

[29:57] And so the earliest years of Moses' life were in his own home and with his own family. And it was there that he would learn about his true identity as a covenant child of God.

[30:10] It was there that he would be brought up to know all the promises that are offered to him through God's covenant of grace. It was there in those early years of his life that Jochebed trained Moses and his siblings in the way of God where she brought him up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

[30:33] But what the narrative wants to stress to us with God's providential provision for Jochebed, with Jochebed being paid by Pharaoh's daughter to bring up Moses, the narrative wants to emphasize to us that Jochebed's calling as a mother was to train her children in the things of the Lord.

[30:58] And as parents and grandparents or aunties and uncles, the Lord's calling upon our lives is to devote ourselves and our time to these precious little ones.

[31:13] and doing it, sometimes it may seem repetitive or mundane or a lot of hard work, always looking after the kids.

[31:27] But the Lord has given to us the responsibility during the first few years of their lives to teach our little ones. We've been given the important role of teaching our children and our grandchildren and our Sunday school children about the Lord.

[31:44] We're accountable for informing these little ones about the Lord. We're accountable for nurturing them for the Lord and training them to grow up to be godly men and women of faith.

[32:00] Now, I know that there are those in here who have children who have had the privilege of being brought up in a Christian home surrounded by the gospel and as yet have shown no signs of faith and repentance.

[32:16] But your hope tonight is that the promises which were covenanted and sealed upon them at their baptism it will be upheld and they will be kept by the Lord who is faithful to his promises.

[32:35] And now that they have grown up and left home all we can do is plead for them. Plead the covenant promises that are to us and to our children.

[32:47] But as a mother bringing up her children to follow the Lord Jochebed's sole purpose was to bring glory to the Lord. That's what her name means.

[32:59] Jochebed means for the glory of the Lord. Jochebed means for the glory of the Lord. And so everything Jochebed did as a mother sought to bring glory to the Lord.

[33:12] Because Jochebed's greatest ambition for her children wasn't that they would go to university to get a first class honours degree. It wasn't that they would get a good job with a good income.

[33:26] It wasn't that they would get married and start a family. It wasn't that they would have a big house or a great pension. Jochebed's greatest ambition for her children was that they would love the Lord.

[33:38] That was her greatest ambition because that was the command given to the Jews. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your strength.

[33:50] These words I command you today says the Lord they shall be in your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house when you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise up.

[34:08] And that was Jochebed's greatest ambition for her children that they would be saved. And her calling as a mother was to train her children to fear the Lord and to walk by faith like she did.

[34:23] Because for Jochebed and for every parent time was short. Time was short. Those few short years would soon pass and the day would come when Jochebed would have to let go and hand Moses over to be the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

[34:50] Time was short and as you know the first few years of a child's life are critical years for training and input because it won't be long until we have to let go of them and they go their own way in life.

[35:05] It won't be long until they have to go off to school or university or they get married and they leave home and they go into the world with all its temptations. It won't be long.

[35:17] Which makes training our children and our grandchildren our God given responsibility. And my friend I know it's hard. I know it's not easy.

[35:28] It's not easy to be a Christian parent or a Christian grandparent or a Sunday school teacher or a leader of the youth fellowship. Especially when the world has such a grip upon our children even from birth.

[35:43] But our calling is to read the Bible with our children and our grandchildren. our calling is to pray with them and to teach them how to pray for themselves.

[35:54] Our calling is to teach them to give thanks to the Lord. Our calling is to speak to them about Jesus and make Jesus real to them.

[36:06] Not something in our imagination but a person whom we love and cherish and want them to follow and love and cherish. My friend our responsibility is to train our children and our grandchildren and our nieces and our nephews because it won't be long until we have to let go and hand them over to live in Pharaoh's palace.

[36:33] But the Lord has given to us this sacred assignment of training the next generation in the things of God because it's all for his glory.

[36:44] God will be but it's also that the gospel will still be in our community after we are gone. It's so that there will be a Christian witness amongst friends and neighbours when we have gone home to be with the Lord.

[37:01] It's so that the generation will herald the name of Christ in their day and in their generation. But you know as parents and grandparents and Sunday school teachers and even as a congregation God has given to us this calling of training the next generation because it is sealed with the assurance of his promise.

[37:26] Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. And if that was true of anyone it was true of Moses.

[37:42] Because in Hebrews 11 we are reminded not of Jochebed's faith but the faith of her son Moses. Because we're told that by faith Moses when he became of age he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season by esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.

[38:15] And is that not what we want for our children and their own grandchildren? To appreciate the death of Christ as greater riches than the treasures and the pleasures of sin in Egypt.

[38:31] My friend it's a great responsibility. but it's also a great privilege to train the next generation to love the Lord and to follow the Lord and to serve the Lord.

[38:49] Therefore in our day and generation when the world doesn't want the Christian or Christianity we need parents and grandparents and aunties and uncles, Sunday school teachers.

[39:01] we need them to be like Jochebed who was a faithful mother in Egypt. A faithful mother who had her trust upon the Lord.

[39:13] A faithful mother who carried out her task by faith in the Lord. And a faithful mother who trained her children to follow the Lord.

[39:25] Jochebed, she was a faithful mother. May the Lord bless these thoughts to us. Let us pray. O Lord, our gracious God, we give thanks to Thee for my covenant promises.

[39:42] We bless Thee, Lord, that they are yea and amen in Christ, sealed by His oath, sealed in His blood. And O Lord, we ask tonight for our children and even for our grandchildren.

[39:56] Lord, we do pray that the promises that are to them and resting upon them, that they would be fulfilled. That if there are those who are still outside the fold, that they would be brought in to taste and see that they were good.

[40:11] O, and to trust in Thee and be blessed. Remember us, Lord, as homes and families, as parents and as grandparents, as aunties and uncles. Lord, to train our children, to train them because they are the next generation.

[40:26] They are those who will carry the mantle after we are gone. And proclaim it to the generation following, that this God is our God and he will be our guide even unto death.

[40:38] O Lord, bless us, we pray. Bind us together. Help us to keep looking to Jesus, that he would be our focus, that he would be our desire, that we would long to tell others about him.

[40:51] Go before us then, we pray. Part us with thy blessing and do us good. for Jesus sake. Amen. We shall conclude by singing in Psalm 127.

[41:09] Psalm 127 in the Scottish Psalter, page 420. We'll sing the whole psalm.

[41:24] except the Lord to build the house, the builders lose their pain, except the Lord the city keep, the watchmen watch in vain. The whole of Psalm 127 to God's praise.

[41:37] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[41:48] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[41:58] Amen. Amen.

[42:15] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. ребен For it from rest to keep To meet on sorrows And so cares He is beloved stream O children are God's heritage The world's fruit gets reward The sun so pure as I rose down For strong men's hands prepare

[43:19] O happy is the love that I Is quiver filled with those They are not shared Med in the gate Shall speak unto their foes The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ The love of God the Father And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit Be with you all now and forevermore Amen