Celebrating New Life Lev 12:6-8

 

There are times in life when whether we know it or not, we touch the fabric of eternity:  Births, weddings, and deaths.   This passage is about births.   It is a tender moment in the life of a mother when she is welcomed back into the fullness of life after childbirth.   

Some have said the Torah is archaic.   And I will agree that many interpretations of it are more about the temporal ideas of the interpreter than about God’s intentions.  

But the Torah was cutting edge in its time.  To my knowledge, it is the first written civil and spiritual code in history that does not treat women as property.  On the contrary,  it encouraged women to own property and to engage in business.   Read about such an eshet chayal, a woman of valor, in Prov 31.   

The Old Testament is very sensitive about blood, so many laws involve it.   Because, a few chapters after this one, God explains to Moses that “the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls Leviticus 17:11    We are about to celebrate Passover, where death PASSES OVER us because of the blood of a lamb on the doorposts of our houses.   It is the blood of a suffering Messiah that gives us eternal life.

What is described here is how a woman is brought back into the fullness of community life after giving birth.     

• She is told that a male child and a girl child are equally valuable and special.   זכר או נקבה  "male or female"

• Is she put upon as a young woman to make an expensive sacrifice of a lamb?    God understands she is a young woman with a new family.  A simple dove or pigeon will do.  

• Is she told she is her husband's property?.  No, She offers this offering by herself, her husband isn’t even mentioned (!)  She goes with the priest לפני יהוי וכיפר עליה  "BEFORE THE FACE OF GOD" by herself, and her sins are covered. 

• Finally, she is told that her חתעת,  (chata’at) her sin offering covers her sin,   And her עולה  SACRIFICE ASCENDS TO GOD.   

I can’t help but notice how fitting this scripture is about a woman coming before the presence of God when we are praying for healing, especially of two of our women with serious illnesses, and we lift up their needs, (a sacrifice of fire, that ascends (Olah) to God and is a "pleasing aroma to God". We lift our prayers to Yeshua, our Cohain/Priest, as a fragrant aroma, before the Lord before the presence of God face to face.  

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ובמלאת  ימי טהרה לבן או לבת תביא כבש בן־שנתו לעלה ובן־יונה או־תר לחטאת אל־פתח אהל־מועד אל־הכהן Leviticus 12:6 ‘When the days of her purification are completed, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the doorway of the tent of meeting a one year old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. והקריבו לפני יהוה וכפר עליה וטהרה ממקר דמיה זאת תורת הילדת לזכר או לנקבה 7 Then he shall offer it before the LORD and make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, whether a male or a female. ואם־לא תמצא ידה די שה ולקחה שתי־תרים או שני בני יונה אחד לעלה ואחד לחטאת וכפר עליה הכהן וטהרה 8 But if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.’”