“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 Meetings a year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a dove for a sin offering.”
~ Leviticus 12:6
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you think that having laws is good? What do you think that life would be like if there were no laws? Your grandpaa believes that if there were no laws, guys, gals and kids will kill and steal at will. Laws bring societal order. Laws do not allow a guy, gal or kid to kill or steal at will. Laws protect the lives and rights of individual guys, gals and kids. A law defines what is legally right to do and the consequences for passing the line when a guy, gal or kid disobeys a law. There is the rule of the law and then there is what is the right thing to do. Laws protect good from evil. Good always needs help. Evil never needs help. Punishments reinforce doing good. House rules are quasi laws. It is good when a dad and/or ma make and enforce house rules. A house rule can help a kid understand better the rationale and importance of a country mandated law. God about 3465 years ago gave His specially chosen guys and gals – who are the Israelite people group guys and gals, a new religious paradigm that He underpinned with laws and mandates – which are called the Mosaic or Levitical Laws, to always to live by that were to be religious/spiritual and social/cultural separation parameters from all the other people groups that existed at that time. God gave Moses the Mosaic or Levitical Laws when Moses met with God at the top of Mount Sinai. God’s ultimate purpose for giving His specially chosen guys and gals a complete new set of religious worship norms and everyday life laws was for His sake so that His specially chosen guys and gals would only honor and glorify His name versus trying to appease, pacify and mollify inanimate manmade gods that are nothing more than carvings from pieces of wood, sculptures from chunks of stone, moldings from lumps of moist clay and images from molten metals.
God through the Mosaic or Levitical Laws communicates wanting the very best for the Israelite people group guys and gals – who are His specially chosen guys and gals. The Mosaic or Levitical Laws were primarily worship based with predetermined sacrificial offerings that were to be offered to God on an alter at pre-designated times. Some of the Mosaic or Levitical Laws have a health focus. Leviticus 12 is all about a gal who has just had a kid. Because God about 3465 years ago put a high premium on blood sacrifices – such as the sacrificing of bulls, goats, lambs and doves or pigeons, as substitutions or atonements for the lives of His specially chosen guys and gals, God assigned time constraints to when a gal who just had a kid could again make a sacrifice to God – as God the Father, for His name’s sake. Having a kid is not painless or bloodless. Even though having a kid is a real blessing to a ma, God communicated through a Mosaic or Levitical Law that a new ma has to be physically healed before she went again into His presence where animal sacrifices were made to Him. A ma who had just given birth to a baby boy or girl is to do what Moses scribed in verse 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 Meetings a year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a dove for a sin offering.” The time between when a new ma had a baby and when she could be purified to again make sacrifices to God depended on whether she had a baby boy or a baby girl. If the new ma had a baby boy, she was to wait for seven days and then have the baby boy circumcised on the eighth day. The new ma during this time would be unclean in God’s eyes. The new ma at the end of the thirty days was to go to the Tent of Meetings and give to a priest either a lamb that was one year old or a young pigeon or a dove for him to sacrifice to God. If the new ma had a baby girl, the new ma was considered unclean in God’s eyes for fourteen days. The new ma at the end of sixty days was to go to go to the Tent of Meetings and give to a priest either a lamb that was one year old or a young pigeon or a dove for him to sacrifice to God.
When God allowed Himself – as God the Son, to be brutally hung and nailed to a cross so that His death could be a substitute or replacement for the animal and bird sacrifices that God was expecting His specially chosen guys and gals to make to please Him, the Mosaic or Levitical Laws were nulled and voided. Grace replaced legalism. Liberty replaced bondage. Hope replaced fear. Even though God – as God the Spirit, awakens the measure of faith that God embedded in each one of His specially elected guys, gals and kids – giving each guy, gal and kid access to His grace which allows each guy, gal and kid the total freedom to enter into His presence through talking with Him, walking with Him, . . . cultural and societal expectations way too often interfere with the joy of being in the close presence of God – as God the Spirit. Even though having a baby for some gals can be a rather intense, fearful time, it also can be a really joyous, euphoric moment when the gift of a new life makes his or her first appearance in the cruel outside world on planet Earth. During the three years that your grandmaa and grandpaa were the administrators of the rural resident Bible education program that they started in 1982 in Concepcion, Nuflo de Chavez – in Bolivia, several wives of Centro de Capacitación (Center of Learning) students had kids born to them. Your grandmaa would stay with these mas to help them however she could as they were having their kid. Your grandmaa enjoyed helping these mas have their kids. A baby is a very special gift that God allows a ma to have to rear. The ultimate gift though is having been elected by God – as God the Father, before God created planet Earth to be one of the guys, gals and kids who He will adopt at the moment that He has appointed. God’s adopted kids will at some point during their lifetimes make a decision of faith believing that God – as God the Son, is his or her Lord and Savior.
Leviticus 12 (687)