Purification after childbirth
12
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 📚“Speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a woman conceives and gives birth to a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days; she shall be unclean 📖, just as during the days of separation for her infirmity 📖. 3 📚And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. 4 📚And she shall then remain in the blood of her purification for thirty-three days; she shall not touch any consecrated thing, or come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purification are completed. 5 📚But if she gives birth to a female child, then she shall be unclean for two weeks, just as in her separation; and she shall remain in the blood of her purification for sixty-six days.6 📚“And when the days of her purification are completed for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring as a sin offering a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a dove, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to the priest.
12:6 A sin offering was required at the birth of a child. Having a child is not sin. The teaching here is by symbol and picture. The teaching is that every woman who brings forth a child, and every child born in the natural course, is a sinner and needs the atonement. Since the fall of Adam and Eve a sinful nature is transmitted from parents to children. This is the meaning of David’s words in Ps 51:5. He did not mean that his mother was an exceptionally sinful woman. Indeed she may have been, for all we know, a very righteous person.🪶
7 📚He shall offer it in the presence of the LORD and make atonement for her; and she shall become clean from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her who has given birth to a male or a female.
8 📚“And if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two doves, or two young pigeons, the one for the burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean”.
12:8 Mary, the mother of Jesus, also offered a sin offering at His birth. This was not for Him but for herself. Jesus had no human father. He was born of a virgin by the power of God’s Holy Spirit and was perfectly sinless (Luke 1:34-35. Luke 2:22-24 speaks of the offering of Mary and shows the poverty of the family).🪶