Prepare
Opening Prayer
Father, you are amazing, and in your wisdom you have spoken understandable words. Give us spiritual eyes and hearts to understand, perceive, and apply your objectively true Word. In Jesus' name, amen.
Read
Scripture Passage
The Ritual After Childbirth
12 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a woman has conceived, and borne a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean. 3 And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. 4 She shall then continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled.
5 ‘But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her customary impurity, and she shall continue in the blood of her purification sixty-six days.
6 ‘When the days of her purification are fulfilled, whether for a son or a daughter, she shall bring to the priest a lamb of the first year as a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove as a sin offering, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 7 Then he shall offer it before the Lord, and make atonement for her. And she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who has borne a male or a female.
8 ‘And if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she may bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons—one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.’ ”
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Le 12:1–8.
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
God provides ritual purification after childbirth, including time for recovery, circumcision of a son, and offerings that accommodate poverty. These laws care for mothers and lead into the humble birth and covenant faithfulness of Jesus.
B — Best Verse
A Verse That Summarizes the Passage
Leviticus 12:8
Distilled from the devotional exposition; the speaker did not explicitly name a best verse.
Bryan does not explicitly choose a best verse in the complete transcript. Verse 8 best represents his emphasis on God's provision for the poor and his connection to the offering Mary and Joseph brought after Jesus' birth.
C — Called or Christ
C — Christ Connection
Care for pregnant women, nursing mothers, newborns, and families in seasons of recovery. Look to Jesus Christ, born in poverty under the law, who fulfilled righteousness and became the Savior of the world.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
welcome to God's word for you a Ministry of Sharon RP Church in mornings Sun Iowa check us out online at www. Sharon rc.org we pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your [Music] life hey hey good morning good morning welcome to coffee and devotions this where every day you and I we get together we have a little bit of coffee we get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together and this year 2023 Lord willing we'll make it from Genesis through Leviticus so glad to be with you this morning today we are at Leviticus chapter 12 we're going to look at the continue to look at the ritual Purity laws of the Old Testament and today it's about what happens when a lady gives birth to a child so let's have some coffee we'll pray and we'll get into God's word let's pray father you are an amazing God and we thank you that in your wisdom you have spoken to us in words that we can understand and we pray Lord that you would please help us now to understand those words not just historically true accurate words on a page though they are objectively true for they come from you but we also pray that we would understand them and that you would give us spiritual eyes and hearts to see perceive and apply them into our lives in Jesus's name amen okay so we are at Leviticus 12 let's go ahead and jump into the text now then the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the children of Israel saying if a woman has conceived and born a male child then shall she shall be clean for seven days as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean and on the Eighth Day the Flesh of the foreskin shall be circumcised she shall then continue in the blood of her P purification 33 days she shall not touch any hallowed thing nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are filled so she has a a boy then she's got 40 days right seven days of impurity on the eth day the boy is circumcised according to Genesis chter 17 10 and 12 and then for another 33 days she has almost the state of pure ification right where she's not supposed to touch anything holy she's not necessarily unclean she's able to be around her family and stuff like that but she's not allowed to touch the holy things so she's got 40 days now if she has a girl though verse five and six or verse five but if she Bears a female child then she shall be unclean two weeks and in her customary impurity she shall continue in the blood of her purification for 66 days so for a total of 80 Days uh she's unclean for two weeks and then she has 66 more days of purification so for 80 total days so some people have talked about why right is it well one is the blood involved in childbirth right we've had four children there's lots of blood there's lots that goes on and God says okay well that's unclean all right it's not necessarily mean sinful it's just impure unclean but I also think in God's great wisdom right I remember talking to my wife about this one time we I was reading an archaeological article one time and they found where almost they think that there's basically ministration rooms in some ancient Israelite houses so when a woman either had a child and was unclean or was uh have had child birth and was unclean she had to be secluded by herself for that time of her impurity and I remember Olivia saying oh that'd be nice like you know if I have a a baby for a whole week nobody's allowed to to come in right I two one or two weeks all by myself just me and the baby I just just get to care for the child right other people have to make the food bring it to me because I'm going allow to touch things or else like get unclean right I think this is almost like a sense of maternity leave as well I can't push that too hard but I think that's possibly what God is doing here but anyways uh verse six and following when the days of her purification are fulfilled whether for a son or a daughter she shall bring to the priest a lamb of the first year as a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtle dove as a sin offering to the door of the Tabernacle of meeting then he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her and she shall be clean from her the flow of her blood this is a law for her who has borne a male or a feale female and if she is not able to bring a lamb then she may bring two turtle doves or two young pigeons one as a burnt offering the other as a sin offering so the priest shall make atonement for her and she will be clean so she's got two different sacrifices to make once her days of of Purity are over right and those two different or a lamb and a pigeon or a turtle dove one as a burnt offering we need to know what a burnt offering was which is why we had chapters 1 through 7 uh but then also a sin offering but this is one of the reasons why I go back and forth whether this is a sin offering or a purification offering because this is the end of her period of purification and having child birth isn't a sin but did make the woman impure and so she has to have a offering for that now interestingly this is God wants this for all the people and so if somebody is so poor that they can't afford a lamb and there are gradient steps down in poverty to pay for this and so all the way down to two Turtle does now if we looked over interestingly at Luke chap 2 Luke Chapter 2 we read about the story of our own savior after Mary had had Jesus 21 and when the8 days were completed for the circumcision of the child his name was called Jesus the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb so she follows those seven days and then he circumcised given the name that the angel had told Joseph so he's named Jesus and verse 22 now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed so now it's been another 33 days they brought him to Jerusalem M to present him to the Lord as it is written in the law of the Lord every male who opens the womb Shall be Called holy to the Lord so you see they follow the period of of of purification and then they also follow that Jesus is the firstborn of Mary and so he belongs to the Lord and so they have to go and redeem so she Mary and Joseph have a couple sacrifices they need to make the burnt offering the purification offering and the Redemption offering and to offer sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord now here is where our text comes in a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons Mary and Joseph were so poor that they had to get the lowest level of offering they couldn't afford the ram they couldn't afford the lamb they had to bring the lowest level they had to bring Turtle does that is the humiliation in which Jesus was born into poverty he was not born amongst the rich and Powerful but to commoners to people who were in the lowest tax bracket but all of this was to fulfill the righteousness of God so this beautiful picture of of clean and unclean with God calling holy caring for mothers and even into the birth of our own Savior Jesus Christ God's law is his law for good I don't think that these laws apply to us anymore although I would say it's a good idea to give moms a break I think given moms 40 to 80 days to rest after going through through some of the most traumatic and blood loss scenarios that I I all I got to say is I'm glad I'm not a woman give them give them you know two to three months off right let let them recover it's a Godly thing it's a good principle but I think this points us also to Jesus Christ and the Beautiful plan that God had even amongst poor Jewish people that this is the Lord's plan and how he was going to bring about Redemption for the world let's pray father we thank you so much that you are the one who gives life and you are the one who loves your people Lord we pray that you would please care for us we we pray specifically for those who are pregnant nursing mothers those who have are going through this period of time in their lives Lord we pray that you would care for them watch over them watch over the children in their womb watch over the newborns who are born to them Lord we pray that you would please bless them and care for them Father we pray that you would please continue to remember your Covenant faithfulness and that you would let us look to Jesus Christ the one who was born of the Virgin Mary who opened her [Music] womb who was circumcised on the e8th day has true Jew of Jews and has become the savior of the world Lord we thank you thank you for our redemption in him in Jesus's name amen well may The God Who created the law and fulfilled the law fill your heart with joy in Jesus Christ I'll see you next time bye [Music] thanks for listening to this week's message from God's word for you a Ministry of Sharon RP Church in rural Southeast Iowa we pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week if you'd like to get more information about us feel free to go to the website Sharon RPC dorg we'd love to invite you to worship with us our worship time is 10:00 a.m. every Sunday at 2 25204 160th Avenue Morning Sun Iowa 52640 may God richly bless you this [Music] week