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Have you ever felt far from God? What or who helped you find your way back?
 

Bible passage

Leviticus 12:1–8

Purification after childbirth

12 The Lord said to Moses, ² ‘Say to the Israelites: “A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period. ³ On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised. ⁴ Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over. ⁵ If she gives birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean, as during her period. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding.

⁶ ‘“When the days of her purification for a son or daughter are over, she is to bring to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting a year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a dove for a sin offering. ⁷ He shall offer them before the Lord to make atonement for her, and then she will be ceremonially clean from her flow of blood.

‘“These are the regulations for the woman who gives birth to a boy or a girl. ⁸ But if she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for her, and she will be clean.”’

New International Version - UK (NIVUK) Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Explore

Another passage that offers more questions than answers! Childbirth is a good and God-ordained thing (Genesis 1:28), and yet somehow, in ancient Israel, giving birth made the mother unclean (vs 2,5). The remedy was a period of purification. Only when that period had ended could she approach God’s house (v 6) and offer her sacrifices, resulting in her becoming clean (vs 7,8).

Why should childbirth make a woman unable to enjoy God’s welcome? Some would suggest that God’s presence is life and anything that has the shadow of death over it puts it at the opposite end of a spectrum from God himself. Childbirth, with its loss of blood and bodily fluids, appears to bring the mother near to death and thus in the symbolic world of the Old Testament, makes her unclean and far from God. 

But there was a way back (vs 7,8), and Jesus’ mother herself fulfilled these acts of ritual purification (Luke 2:22–24). How wonderful though that Mary’s son abolished them altogether! He could touch a bleeding woman and even a dead child, and directly transmit healing and life (Luke 8:40–56). No temple needed, just a touch.

Respond

Do you know someone who needs a healing, life-giving touch from Jesus? Or perhaps someone who feels that they have made so many mistakes that there is no way back to God for them? Pray for Jesus to touch them now.

Deeper Bible study

Are there rituals to do with blood in your culture or other cultures known to you? Pray about them and the people involved today.

Israel had just come out of its bondage from Egypt, redeemed by the Lord who had chosen the people be his own.¹ This was the background to the Law that he gave to the people on Mount Sinai. Obeying it is part of the process of making Israel the holy nation God wants it to be, an example to the rest of the world. 

Our passage today has to do with the purification of women from the blood of childbirth. Different cultures have their own rituals connected with the three main stages of life: birth, marriage and death; this is part of what God ordained for his people. Why does the blood of childbirth make a woman unclean? Does it perhaps relate to the curse of Eden, regarding the pain of childbirth?² No one knows for sure, but this ritual uncleanness is evidently linked to that which attends the discharge of bodily fluids (v 2; and see chapter 15, which also addresses male discharges). Both here (vs 2,5) and elsewhere in the Law,³ there is a clear distinction in practice based on the gender of the child. 

Whatever the case, this ritual purification involves the shedding of animal blood: a burnt offering in thanksgiving, followed by a second sacrifice as a sin offering. A lamb is the preferred animal; and we can readily see how this looks forward to the one whom John the Baptist addressed as ‘the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’⁴ Significantly, the parents of Jesus fell into the class of those too poor to afford a lamb for this sacrifice when the Son of God came into our world (v 8).⁵ 

There are about 100,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body. Find out more about the blood and praise the Lord in the words of Psalm 139:14.

¹ Exod 19:5,6  ² Gen 3:16  ³ Lev 27:2–6  ⁴ John 1:29  ⁵ Luke 2:22–24  

Bible in a year

Read the Bible in a year: Exodus 13,14; Matthew 23

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