Unfortunately Sandy has strep again, so I am doing her post for her today.
Today's passage in Leviticus deals with clean and unclean things. God is holy and He decided what was clean and not clean. There may have been reasons for His declaration of what was and wasn't clean, or they may have simply been arbitrary choices by our sovereign God. The bottom line is, things are clean or unclean because God declares them to be so.
And it comes down to love. If we love God, we will love what He loves and detest what He detests. And if we love our fellow man, we will not do anything to cause them to stumble.
The part of our passage that bothered me was chapter 12 and why the birth of a daughter was different from the birth of a son. And why a woman was unclean for something that was not only not her "fault", but that was a wonderful event.
When I researched it, I found numerous different explanations.
First, it separated sex and worship. In the other cultures of the day sex and worship were often intertwined with each other, and these designations (along with Chapter 15) would make the Israelites stand apart from the other cultures.
Second, it was a reminder of man's sinfulness, from womb to tomb. We sin because we are inherently sinful. A newborn baby has inherited a fallen and sinful nature.
Third, she might be unclean because of the postnatal discharge of blood. Blood symbolized life doves instead of a lamb and a pigeon or dove. We see in Luke 2 that Jesus' parents were poor as they brought the two pigeons for their sacrifice (which also shows that the Magi's visit was sometime later or they would've been able to afford the lamb). Jesus and His parents were a recipient of this grace!
Finally, why was it a longer purification period for a daughter than a son? No definitive answer, but it could be suggested that it was a reminder to women of the fall, of Eve's sinful decision, of the curse of the pain of childbirth and all the other consequences brought on by the fall.
This sermon had a lot of detail on this chapter.
The OT Law was given to demonstrate our need for a Saviour, our need for grace, our complete inability to fulfill all that the law required. In our NT passage we see that the Pharisees have, instead, wrapped themselves in their perceived robes of righteousness to appear holy and to receive attention for their status. Not only that, they had added their own rules and declared them to be God's.
God is concerned about our hearts.
Yes, our actions are important. But the thing is, we can have the right actions but have wrong hearts and motives. But when we have right hearts and motives, right actions flow from it. That's why the greatest command is to love.
Tomorrow's passage: Leviticus 13, Mark 7:14-37
3 comments:
I did some research on that, too, because it bothered me as well. It's tough to find anything on this chapter, but I did manage to find two theories that make sense.
1. Charles Wesley theorizes that the only reason the purification period for a male child wasn't the same length as for a female was because he had to undergo circumcision on the 8th day after birth. So male children had to endure serious pain to be purified while female children just had to wait a little longer. From this perspective, I think the females got the better deal!
2. David Guzik presents a better theory, I think. He cites two potential reasons, one being that because female children were generally not as highly valued, this gave a more generous period of bonding with female babies.
But his strongest argument ~ and I believe the strongest one I've read altogether ~ is that this time of impurity was required for its symbolic responsibility of bringing other sinners into the world. When giving birth to a female, a mother brings a sinner into the world who will bring still other sinners into the world.
What I find interesting about these chapters on clean/uncleanness is that none of these things are really the "fault" of the people. It was completely unavoidable whether one contracted a skin disorder or had a mould/mildew problem in the house or followed God's command to "be fruitful and multiply," yet the result was uncleanliness in the sight of God.
"When giving birth to a female, a mother brings a sinner into the world who will bring still other sinners into the world."
Yes, this combines what I was saying in point 2 and the part about female children. I think that makes sense.
The difference bothered me too. Thanks for doing additional research and sharing what you learned.
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