Leviticus 12

The story of the fall of mankind includes words from God in response to the sin of Adam and Eve. Not all of those words could be called curses. The Lord also spoke of His intention to bless. God had warned Adam that in the day that he ate of the forbidden fruit he would die. While a whole new day of death was inaugurated in man's revolt against the Lord's instruction, God also announced at that moment that there would continue to be life.

When the Lord spoke to Eve, He did say that there would be pain in childbearing, but by saying this He had also promised that there would be children. There would be life, though all men would die. In the Old Covenant ceremonies, the birth of children would be marked with a ritual that drew the attention of the community to the blood associated with the birth of a child.

Blood was important to God. We have already seen that the sacrificial rituals required special handling of the blood of animals. In God's eyes, the blood stood for the life of the victim, but it was also associated with the death of the offering. Blood was about life and death. See Leviticus 17:10-14. Life could only exist when blood was flowing rightly along its hidden pathways within the body. The death of a person would often be accompanied by the hidden life of the blood fatally appearing. In God's eyes, there could be no forgiveness of sins without the life and death signified in the shedding of blood. See Hebrews 9:22.

Life involves blood, not only for life to be and to continue, but for the process of a new life to come into being. The Lord has given the menstrual cycle to women of child-bearing age. That cycle is necessary to provide the right environment for a baby to be conceived and for the embryo to be able to grow successfully within the body of his or her mother.

The revealing of the hidden blood of a woman was unclean according to the law. This was true both for menstruation and for birth. The specifics of clean and unclean were different for the birth of a male child than for the birth of a female child. In the case of a male child, the woman was to be unclean for seven days, and then the baby would be circumcised on the eighth day. The mother would continue in “the blood of her purifying” for thirty-three days. After that she could offer the sacrifice appointed to make atonement for her bleeding. But in the case of the birth of a girl, the mother would be unclean for two weeks, and she would continue in the blood of her purifying for sixty-six days before the sacrifice could be offered.

During the time of the blood of her purifying, whether thirty-three days or sixty-six days, the mother could not touch anything holy or come into the Lord's sanctuary. The private time between mother and child was twice as long for a mother and her girl than for a mother and her boy.

The only other difference between boy and girl was the circumcision of the boy on the eighth day. That cutting ritual was a solemn identification of the child with the requirement of law-keeping, and the need for a substitute who would keep the law for the child, and then be cut off from the people of God for the sake of the child. See Galatians 5:3, Romans 4:11 and Colossians 2:9-14.

The sacrifice for the mother's atonement was the same either way, regardless of whether she had a boy or a girl. The only variation in that sacrifice was based on the poverty of the mother. If she could afford it, she was to bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. If she could not afford the lamb, she was to bring two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and one for a sin offering. In either case, this was the ritual for atonement, for the ceremonial cleansing of the mother from the uncleanness of blood.

When the atoning sacrifice for mankind came in person, He was born as a baby, and these rituals were followed. On the eighth day, Jesus, the Son of God, the Savior of sinners, was circumcised. Later, the appropriate cleansing ritual was followed. The mother of Jesus of Nazareth was Mary, a poor woman. She and Joseph came to Jerusalem to the temple in order to offer the sacrifice. Luke quotes from this chapter in Leviticus, noting that the option for the poor was the relevant portion of the law for this couple.

For centuries these laws had been followed by observant Jews, marking the uncleanness of blood, and the need for an atoning sacrifice not only for the mother, but for every boy who was given the sign of circumcision, that seal of righteousness by faith first given to Abraham. But now, a virgin had conceived and given birth to a child. The baby, whose name was given by an angel, was called Jesus, the “I-AM” of salvation. He has saved His people from their sins. He is Immanuel, God with us, and His death on the cross is the one shedding of blood that has finally brought us life.