From "Pressure" (Heavenward Bound, June 2026)
In this issue of HB, we examine three incredible women of scripture who lived in high-pressure situations and consider some lessons we can learn about handling various forms of pressure in a godly manner.
In Exodus 1 we find the account of Israel suffering under Egyptian bondage, and ch. 2 highlights the refusal of a Levite woman to obey the despicable edict issued by Pharaoh: “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.“ (1.22) Jochebed, the wife of Amram (6.20) instead hides the infant for three months. Third, once it became clear that she could no longer hide the infant, she constructs an “ark” (same word as Gen. 6.14 for Noah’s “ark”) that would float, places the child in the ark, and then leave it in the reeds near the banks of the Nile.
Consider the pressure Jochebed would have felt for the better part of a year. Imagine being pregnant in a situation where there’s about a 50/50 chance you’ll have to drown your own child immediately after birth. The day of childbirth comes, which is an incredibly perilous process, and seeing that your child is a fugitive from the moment you see its a boy. Imagine trying to hide an infant for 3 months. Can you even begin to imagine such a task? Consider too that others would have known, surely, that Jochebed was pregnant. Perhaps they assumed that she had done as the Pharaoh had commanded. Finally, imagine the weight of placing your child in a basket in a crocodile-infested river, and then going home to await the news of what happens to the child.
And yet, under imaginable pressure, Jochebed refused to fear the Pharaoh more than God. Under the absolutely crushing pressure of knowing what would happen to the child (and potentially she and Amram, her husband) if they were discovered, Jochebed REFUSED to heed the Pharaoh’s evil edict. Why?
The answer comes down to a single word: Promises.
First, why bring a child into that world of slavery and suffering? God had promised to bring them out of Egypt as a mighty nation. (Gen. 15.13-14) The coming together of husbands and wives among all Israel was ultimately done in view of this promise of deliverance. Second, Jochebed refused to extinguish a life given by God because Pharaoh decreed it. Jochebed feared God more than the feared the Pharaoh. God had promised that whoever killed others would be guilty of their blood (Gen. 9.6). The Hebrew writer confirms the properly-placed fear of both Amram and Jochebed: Heb. 11.23: “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.”
Pressure tests the strength of our resolve to fear God and trust His promises.
Think about it: Temptation applies pressure to us to change whom we will fear and distrust God’s promises. In Gen. 3.1-5, Eve was pressured by Satan to abandon her fear of God, influenced to believe that God was holding her back, keeping her from having what she deserved! On the other hand, when Peter and John were pressured to change their gospel message (Acts 4.13-20), they responded by noting that they were obligated to obey God rather than men!
Jochebed shows us that no amount of pressure placed on us by the wicked is worth abandoning the fear of God nor doubting the veracity of His promises. The God we serve cannot lie (Heb. 6.18), and He has promised to deliver the faithful and judge the wicked. Remember: The one whom God chose to deliver the Israelites from the Egyptians was the child of a woman who trusted God’s promise to do so.
Promises withstand pressure.
Josh. 21.45: “Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.”
Kyle Sanders
Kyle has been preaching since 2016 in Chiefland, Florida and Clinton, Mississippi before coming to work with the Jamestown church of Christ in 2021. Before preaching, he spent several years as a high school mathematics teacher in Indiana, Kentucky, and Florida. Kyle is a teacher at heart and brings his love of studying and interacting with students into his preaching and teaching efforts. He and his wife, a native Hoosier, have been blessed with five children, two dogs, a full house and zero leftovers.