Birth and Purification

Leviticus 12:1-8 

1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a woman has conceived, and borne a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her customary impurity she shall be unclean. 3 And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. 4 She shall then continue in the blood of her purification thirty-three days. She shall not touch any hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled. 5 “But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her customary impurity, and she shall continue in the blood of her purification sixty-six days.
    6 “When the days of her purification are fulfilled, whether for a son or a daughter, she shall bring to the priest a lamb of the first year as a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove as a sin offering, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 7 Then he shall offer it before the Lord, and make atonement for her. And she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who has borne a male or a female.
    8 ‘And if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she may bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons—one as a burnt offering and the other as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.’”

The complete understanding of these verses leaves room for possibilities, but some things are clear.  Giving birth involved blood which made a woman impure or not clean for a week as during her menstrual cycle.  This same seven days allowed the male child to be circumcised on the day when she was clean, the eighth day.  But she was then to continue purification for over a month, not being permitted to touch holy things, similar to when the priests defiled themselves.  The unclean were not to touch what was clean, spiritually and physically.  These times doubled for bearing female children, perhaps for better recovery in the first two weeks since circumcision on the eighth day was not required.  The two months instead of one for purification could be in anticipation of the female child later growing up to have children of her own, but that is an assumption without biblical backing.  The one thing clear is that after the mother’s purification, she was to sacrifice a burnt offering for atonement.  Hers, not the child’s.  This cleansed her in her atonement.  Likewise, we are atoned for by the blood of Christ Jesus and His sacrifice, no longer unclean in our sin but made holy in His sight by His atonement for us.  His blood cleanses us and purifies our souls in God’s reckoning for sin’s penalty and punishment, forever satisfied and ever accepted in our Beloved.  As His children by a second birth, we rejoice in the circumcision of our hearts made clean and our ongoing purification of sanctification!