Leviticus 12

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◄ Leviticus 12 ►
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Purification Of The Church
Leviticus 12:1-8
J.A. Macdonald
At the commencement of his treatise on this Book of Leviticus, Cyril of Alexandria truly
says, that as the Word of God came into the world arrayed in flesh, in which bodily
appearance he was seen of all, while his divinity was seen only by the elect; so has the
written Word a letter, or outward sense, which is obvious to ordinary perception, and
an inward meaning which must be spiritually discerned. According to this rule, the
purification of the Church is the subject of the text, which is presented under two
aspects. It is -

I. DISTRIBUTIVELY CONSIDERED. The necessity of the spiritual birth may be

collected:

1. From the impurity of the natural.

(1) This is expressed in the ceremonial uncleanness of the mother. In case of the birth
of a son, she had to remain forty days in a state of impurity. During this period she
must not touch any hallowed thing, else it became polluted; and she must not enter the
holy place of the temple. In case her child were a daughter, the term of this
uncleanness was doubled. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?"

(2) Her uncleanness is in her blood, which is the same as saying it is in her nature. To
be "born of blood" is therefore a periphrasis for a natural birth in depravity, and it is
consequently opposed to the spiritual birth (see John 1:13).

(3) This maternal uncleanness is also described as her "infirmity," in allusion to the
pain, sorrow, and weakness through which she passes; and calls to remembrance the
curse upon the original offense (Genesis 3:16). The birth amidst this "infirmity" shows
the utter helplessness and sorrowfulness of our moral state by nature.

(4) No wonder, then, that the child also should be accounted unclean. Until the eighth
day he had no sign of the covenant upon him. But an infant could not have "sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression;" therefore this exclusion from the
covenant from the birth evinces hereditary depravity and guilt (Psalm 51:5; Ephesians
2:3).

2. From the rite of circumcision.

(1) It was the sign of introduction into the covenant of God (Genesis 17:9-14). This
supposes a spiritual birth, since the pollutions of the natural birth excluded the child
from the favour of God.

(2) The sign expressed this moral change to be the cutting off all that was forward in
fleshly desires (see Deuteronomy 10:16; Romans 2:28, 29; Philippians 3:3). These,
however necessary to the natural man, must not rule us here; for when the seven days
of the world are over, they will be no more (see Matthew 22:30; 1 Corinthians 15:50; 2
Corinthians 5:2-4; see also Homiletic notes on chapter 9:1-7).

(3) Hence, the "baptism of the Holy Spirit" is another way for expressing the
"circumcision of the heart," and therefore it is called the "circumcision of Christ," or of
Christianity (Colossians 2:11, 12). By parity of reason, the "baptism of water"
corresponds to the "circumcision which is outward in the flesh."

(4) Circumcision was proper to express the necessity of a spiritual birth in the
dispensation of the covenant before Christ came, as it figured his sacrificial death (the
"cutting off" of the" Holy Seed"), through which we claim the blessings of salvation.
Now he has come, the type is fittingly abolished, and the baptismal water introduced,
which is the emblem of the purifying spirit of the gospel.

II. COLLECTIVELY CONSIDERED.

1. The Church is the mother of the children of God.

(1) Every man was intended to be a figure of Christ. The first man was such (Romans
5:14). This privilege is shared by his male descendants (Genesis 1:26, 27; 1
Corinthians 11:7). So every woman was intended to be a figure of the Church of God
(1 Corinthians 11:7-9). The marriage union, therefore, represents the union between
Christ and his Church (Ephesians 5:22-32). And the fruit of marriage should represent
the children of God (see Isaiah 54:1-8; Isaiah 49:20-23; Galatians 4:25-31).

(2) But all this may be reversed. Men, through perversity, may come to represent Belial
rather than Christ. Women may become idolatrous, and represent an anti-Christian
rather than a Christian Church. Thus Jezebel, who demoralized Ahab, became a type
of those anti-Christian State Churches which demoralize the kings of the nations (see
Revelation 2:20-23; Revelation 17.).

2. In her present state she is impure.

(1) Under the Law she was far from perfect. The elaborate system of ceremonial
purifications imposed upon her evinced this. Her history and the judgments she
suffered go to the same conclusion. The uncleanness of the mother in the text is not
an exaggerated picture,

(2) Nor is she perfect under the gospel. The saints are in her. Many of her children
have experienced the circumcision of the heart. But many more have only had that
which is outward in the flesh. The "tares" - hypocrites and unbelievers - are mingled
with the "wheat," a state of things which is destined to continue "until the harvest"
(Matthew 13:30, 39).

3. But she is in the process of her purification.

(1) The first stage in this process was marked by the rite of circumcision. During the
time prior to that event, she was in her "separation," viz. from her husband and friends,
and those in necessary attendance upon her were unclean. This indicates the great
difference which the cutting off of the Great Purifier of his people makes to the spiritual
liberty of the Church (Romans 7:1-4).

(2) Still the period of her uncleanness was extended to forty days from the beginning.
Her "separation" terminated on the eighth day, but during the whole period she must
not eat the Passover, nor the peace offerings, nor come into the sanctuary (verse 4).
These forty days may be presumed to be similar in typical expression to the forty years
of the Church in the wilderness before it was fit to enter Canaan (see Deuteronomy
8:2, 16).

(3) In the case of the birth of a female this period of forty days was doubled. This may
be designed to show that under the gospel, where the distinction of male and female is
abolished (Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11), still the wilderness state of the Church is
continued. Our Lord was forty days upon earth before he entered into his glory, and in
that state represented the state of the Church that is spiritually risen with him, but not
yet glorified.

(4) The entrance of the mother into the temple when her purification was perfected
represented the state of the Church in heaven (see Ephesians 5:27). The offerings
with which she entered showed that her happiness is the purchase of the Redeemer's
passion. Her feasting upon the holy things expressed those joys of the heavenly state
elsewhere described as "the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:7-9). -
J.A.M.

Born in Sin
Leviticus 12
R.M. Edgar
cf. Genesis 3:16; Psalm 51:5; Luke 2:21-21; 1 Timothy 2:15. From the division of the
animals into clean and unclean, and the sanctity thereby inculcated, we are invited to
proceed to those personal liabilities to uncleanness for which due rites were provided.
The first of these takes life at its fountain-head, and refers to the uncleanness
connected with birth. Motherhood involved a longer or shorter period of ceremonial
separation - forty days in the case of a son, seventy days in the case of a daughter,
after which a burnt offering and a sin offering are to be presented to the Lord, and
atonement made for her that she may be clean.

I. LET US START WITH THE PHYSICAL FACT THAT NATURE HAS ASSOCIATED
WITH CHILDBIRTH A SENSE ON THE MOTHER'S PART OF PERSONAL
UNCLEANNESS. The "issue of her blood" (verse 7) stamps the physical process with
defilement. No mother can avoid this sense of personal uncleanness, not even the
blessed Virgin (Luke 3:22-24). Upon the fact it is needless to dwell.

II. THE MORAL COUNTERPART TO THIS IS THE FACT THAT SIN IS

TRANSMITTED BY ORDINARY GENERATION. As David puts it in Psalm 51:5,
"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." From
generation to generation is the legacy of evil transmitted. Hereditary sin must be
recognized as a much wider phenomenon than "hereditary genius." The law of heredity
must be accepted as at the bottom of human experience, if the mother, in spite of all
her fondness for her babe, finds that she has transmitted sinful qualities; if this is the
universal experience in ordinary generation, then the sense of uncleanness, physically
induced, contracts a moral significance.

III. THERE IS AT THE SAME TIME A SENSE OF JOY AND TRIUMPH ASSOCIATED
WITH THE BIRTH OF CHILDREN. If there is an element of sorrow and of judgment,
as God indicates by his utterance at the Fall (Genesis 3:16), there is also an element
of triumph, caught from the "protevangelium," which speaks of victory through the
woman's seed (Genesis 3:15). Our Lord even speaks of it as an appropriate figure of
the coming apostolic joy: "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her
hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more
the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world" (John 16:21). The sorrow is the
preliminary of joy, the joy is its crown.

IV. THE TWO ELEMENTS OF JOY AND JUDGMENT HAD THEIR EXPRESSION IN
THE BURNT AND SIN OFFERING THE MOTHER WAS DIRECTED TO PRESENT
TO THE LORD. The ritual is the same whether it be a son or a daughter. The
difference in the time of separation was due to a supposed physical fact that "a female
child causes the mother more labour and a longer illness. This belief," continues
Ewald, "(even though it may have little ground in fact), was itself caused by the well-
known primitive disfavour with which the birth of a girl was regarded." No moral
significance is to be attached, therefore, to the difference in the duration of the
mother's separation. But at the end of either period there is to be brought a burnt
offering and a sin offering. The burnt offering is to be, if the mother can afford it, "a
lamb of the first year," while the sin offering is only to be "a young pigeon" or a
"turtledove." It is evident, therefore, that, while a poor mother might bring as her burnt
offering a "turtledove" or "young pigeon," the ritual attaches emphasis to the burnt
offering rather than to the sin offering. It has even been supposed that the burnt
offering took precedence in the order of time in this particular instance. At all events,
the joy of consecration, which the burnt offering expresses, is more emphatic in this
ritual than the atonement for unavoidable defilement, which is expressed by the sin
offering. The undertone of judgment is certainly discernible, but high above it sound
the notes of grateful, holy joy. The mother rejoiced that, though unavoidably unclean in
her child-bearing, the Lord had put away her uncleanness, and she was ready to
dedicate herself and her child unto the Lord in the rite of the burnt offering.
V. THIS RITUAL RECEIVES PECULIAR EMPHASIS FROM ITS CELEBRATION BY
THE 'VIRGIN' MOTHER. Mary had the usual physical concomitants in the birth of
Jesus, we have every reason to believe, the termination of which this ritual of
purification was intended to celebrate. The sense of uncleanness was manifestly hers,
since she enters upon the ritual as no exception to the general rule and law. Not only
so, but Luke boldly states, "when the days of their purification, according to the Law of
Moses, were fulfilled" (τοῦ καθαρισμοῦ αὐτῶν, not αὐτῆς), including Jesus along with
Mary, for Oosterzee's notion that it is Joseph and Mary, not Jesus and Mary, will not
satisfy the case. In what sense, then, was Jesus associated with his mother in a ritual
of purification? It is certain that there was not transmitted to Jesus any sinful
disposition or qualities, as in ordinary generation. His whole life belied this idea. He
was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." But this does not prevent
the idea being accepted that there was transmitted in his extraordinary generation
responsibility for human sin. In other words, Jesus Christ was born with a liability on
account of the sins of others. Having entered into the human family, having
condescended to be born, he became liable for the responsibilities and debts of the
human family, and the ritual so regarded him. Not only so, but our Lord had entered
upon his "bloody passion" when at eight days old he had passed through the painful
operation of circumcision. The rites in the temple thirty-three days after only expressed
in legal form the liability on account of human sin upon which he had already entered.
But if the atonement of the sin offering has thus a distinctive meaning in this
exceptional case, the burnt offering had also its fulfillment. Mary dedicated, not only
herself, but her Son, according to the Law of the Lord, "Every male that openeth the
womb shall be called holy to the Lord." Simeon and Anna recognized in the infant the
dedicated Messiah. Thus did Mary, as mother of Jesus, fulfill all righteousness.

VI. WE ARE SURELY TAUGHT HERE THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE THAT IT IS

THROUGH SORROW AND HUMILIATION THAT TRIUMPH IS REACHED. The hope
of a triumphant woman's seed sustained Jewish mothers in their sorrow. They looked
for salvation through child-bearing, according to the idea of the apostle (1 Timothy
2:15). God's meaning was through the child-bearing (διὰ τῆς τεκνογονίας), that is, the
motherhood of the Virgin. Yet the hope sustained multitudes of mothers in their
agonies. At length the Conqueror of the devil appeared. He came as an infant, and
braved the dangers of development, and became "the Man of sorrows," and passed
through death to victory. To the same law we must constantly conform. Humiliation is
the price of exaltation in the case of Jesus and of all his people. The apostles had their
season of sorrow in connection with Christ's crucifixion, and so sore it was that our
Lord does not hesitate to compare it to a woman's travail; but at Pentecost they got the
joy and exhilaration which compensated for all. The law of the kingdom is that we enter
it through much tribulation. "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Luke 14:11).
When we humble ourselves under a sense of sin, when we humble ourselves under a
sense of unprofitableness, then are we treading the path which leads to power and
triumph. - R.M.E.

The Statutes On Maternity

Leviticus 12:1-8
W. Clarkson
We may seek -

I. THE EXPLANATION or THIS STATUTE. And we shall find the explanation

(1) not in the notion that any actual sin is involved in it;

(2) but in the fact that there is connected with it that which is painfully suggestive of sin.
(There was nothing actually "unclean" in the camel or hare, but it was constituted so
because it was fairly suggestive of it.)

1. The sorrow of maternity (John 16:21) points clearly to the primeval curse, and
therefore to the primeval sin (Genesis 3:16).

2. The birth of a human child means the entrance into the world of one in whom are the
germs of sin (Psalm 51:5; Psalm 58:3; Ephesians 2:3).

3. Maternity suggests the sexual relation, and that suggests the abounding and baneful
sin of impurity. Hence sin is associated with the birth of the human infant, and the
physical condition (verse 7) attending it is typical of sin, constitutes "uncleanness," and
necessitates purification.

II. THE THOUGHTS WE GAIN FROM THIS STATUTE. We learn:

1. The communicativeness of sin. We transmit our follies, our errors, our iniquities, by
ordinary generation. Our children, because they are our children, will go astray, and
will be in danger of those very errors into which we ourselves have fallen. Those who
become parents must take the responsibility of bringing into the world children like
themselves, who will inherit their dispositions, their habits of thought, their character.
Sin is communicated from generation to generation through heredity, and also through
the contagiousness of evil example. There is nothing more diffusive.

2. The extension of the consequences of sin. How sin sends forth its stream of sorrow!
The pangs of maternity, answered by the opening cry of the infant as it enters the
world - do these not speak the truth, that a world of sin is a world of sorrow, that
succeeding generations of sinners are succeeding generations of sufferers, and that
this will he so to the end of the world?

3. The removableness of guilt from the sight of God. The "uncleanness" of the mother
was not irremovable. It did temporarily but did not permanently separate her from the
sanctuary (verse 4). After a limited retirement she might come with her sin offering and
her burnt offering to "the door of the tabernacle" (verse 6). If she were poor she might
bring an offering within the reach of the poorest (verse 8), and the priest would "make
atonement," and she would "be clean" (verse 8). Whatever guilt we contract, whether
in communicating evil to others or as the indirect consequence of the sin of others, by
whatsoever our souls have been defiled, our lives stained and corrupted, we may all
come to the cross of the Redeemer, and through his atoning sacrifice be made clean in
the sight of God. And thus coming, our sin offering will not be unaccompanied by a
burnt offering; the forgiveness of our sin will be followed by the dedication of our whole
selves to the service of the Lord. - C.

Ceremonial Purifications
Lev 12-15
R.A. Redford
For defilement from secretions and from leprosy. The double object - to exalt the
sacred laws, to honour the natural laws of health and cleanliness. Thus we are taught -

I. RELIGION PRESERVES, PURIFIES, EXALTS HUMAN NATURE. The facts of family

life are to be connected with the sanctuary. The more we think of both the joyful and
the sorrowful events of our individual and social life as intimately bound up with our
religion, the better we shall be prepared to find God's blessing always both preserving
and sanctifying.

II. ALL REGULATIONS WHICH CONCERN THE BODILY LIFE AND THE TEMPORAL
HAPPINESS OF MEN SHOULD BE SURROUNDED WITH RELIGIOUS
REVERENCE. Science is a curse to the world unless it is the handmaid to religion. Oar
bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost. Our earthly life is the threshold of eternity.
III. TYPICALLY. Leprosy represents human depravity and misery. We see it brought
into relation to the cleansing blood of atonement. The sin which works death both by
the individual acts and by contact with others, both in person and in condition, is
cleansed away both in guilt and in power. The leper is not excluded from mercy, but is
dealt with by the priest as having his place in the covenant. Our vileness does not shut
us out from the love or' God, but his love is revealed as an atoning love. "He is able to
save unto the uttermost," but it is "those who come unto God by him." - R.

Woman Under The Law And Under The Gospel

Leviticus 12:2-7
S.R. Aldridge
Every childbirth re-echoes in the ears of woman the sentence passed upon her
ancestress Eve. That such a season of rejoicing should be attended with such throes
of agony speaks loudly of the curse entailed by sin. There is no earthly pleasure
entirely free from its shadow, pain. Great movements of society, deep thoughts, even
inspiring melodies, are not ushered into the world without the pangs of travail.

I. THE LAW REMINDS US HERE OF WOMAN'S CONNECTION WITH THE PRIMAL

SIN.

1. She is to be considered "unclean" for a fixed period after bringing forth a child. In the
first part of "separation for her infirmity," she communicates defilement to whatever she
touches, and must therefore, as far as possible, remain apart. But in the succeeding
thirty-three or sixty-six "days of her purifying," she may fulfill her domestic duties, only
she must not come into contact with hallowed things, not partake of sacrificial meals,
nor enter the sanctuary, Thus the fulfillment of her maternal hopes renders her unfit for
a season to join in the worship of the holy God. She is led to rejoice with trembling; she
is at once exalted and depressed. She sees that the new life is not separate from
corruption, is allied to uncleanness and death, and in order to be redeemed requires
hallowing by obedience to God's ordinances.

2. To cleanse the mother from the stains of childbirth and to allow of restored
fellowship with God, atonement is requisite. First a burnt offering, that the life spared
and secluded temporarily may be wholly surrendered in spirit to the Author and
Sustainer of life. Then a sin offering to expiate all ceremonial offenses connected with
the begetting of children. If these rites appertain simply to the parent, yet must the
knowledge of them afterwards acquaint the child with the state of separation from God
into which it was the unwitting instrument of introducing the parent, and there is at least
a hint that the origin of life is not free from taint.

II. THE LAW INDICATES THE INFERIOR ESTEEM IN WHICH WOMAN WAS
ANCIENTLY HELD.

1. The uncleanness contracted by bearing a female child lasted twice as long as when
a boy was born. This has indeed been explained on physiological grounds, as formerly
maintained, But there is ample warrant for the other view (see 1 Samuel 1:11;
Jeremiah 20:15, and John 16:21, for the joy caused by the birth of a male child). In
Leviticus 27:5, the female is esteemed at half the price of the male. Each mother of a
male might cherish the hope that to her was granted the promised seed - the Messiah.

2. No rite of initiation into the covenant for the female. The Jews regarded circumcision
as the badge of honour, the mark of privilege and blessing. Woman entered the nation
without special recognition. She was not capable of becoming the head of a family, on
whose proved nationality so much depended, for if she married she became a member
of her husband's family.

III. THE GOSPEL DIGNIFIES THE POSITION OF WOMAN.

1. It abolishes before the Lord distinctions of sex. "There is neither male nor female; ye
are all one in Christ Jesus." "There is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision." Woman
has equal rights with man, saving only what natural modesty forbids her claiming, and
what is the general law promulgated from the first (Genesis 3:16), that the husband
shall rule over her. Both men and women are baptized (Acts 8:12) and endowed with
the Spirit.

2. It is the glory of woman to have been the medium of the incarnation of the Son of
God. Her shame is removed. Even the poverty of woman is ennobled by the example
of the Virgin Mary bringing her "pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons."

3. Woman's quick appreciation of truth and steadfast fidelity are specially notable
under the preaching of Christ and the apostles. Ready to adore the Lord. as an intent,
to supply his wants during his ministry, to bathe his feet with repentant, grateful tears,
to anoint him before his burial, to follow him on the road to Calvary, to be nearest to
him at the cross, and the first at his grave on the Resurrection morn, woman occupies
a place in the gospel records alike conspicuous and honourable. Nor are the faith and
love and devotion of woman less marked in the Acts and the Epistles. Well has woman
striven to erase the stigma of the first transgression. Eighteen centuries of the
continually progressive elevation of woman in the social and mental scale have only
attested the cardinal principles of Christianity. The position of woman in any nation now
serves as an index to the stage of civilization which it has reached. - S.R.A.

The Pulpit Commentary, Electronic Database.

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