January 29, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Leviticus? Here’s today’s reading:
Leviticus 12 (NIV)
Purification After Childbirth
1 The Lord said to Moses, 2“Say to the Israelites: ‘A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period. 3 On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised.……Continue Reading
Leviticus 12
Leviticus 12
Leviticus 12
So in digging a little further into this time when a woman is considered unclean after childbirth it seemed like it was like our modern day maternity leave with a little twist. Being considered unclean left a woman out of most social obligations and really home to care for her new baby. The twist being that as one commenary shared “as wonderful as a new baby is, God wanted it to be remembered that with every birth another sinner was brought into the world, and in this symbolic picture, the mother was responsible for bringing a new sinner into the world.” The time was longer when a mother had a daughter because she in turn would one day bring more sinners into the world. It does give us reason to pause and take a look at the importance of raising a child and teaching them right from wrong and to follow God being aware that our sin nature is something we will forever be in conflict with.
Leviticus chapters 12,13
Leviticus 12
Thanks Kelly. If I don’t know what to say. I read your comments. Just replace the word sinner with baby
Just another lie I was told growing up in catholic religion. If a baby died before baptism. That baby went to limbo. 🤦♂️
It is difficult to say why the distinction between times of purification. But birth was and is a messy affair with lots of different things coming out of a woman’s body, so the need for purification and protection of the mother and child is clear. And maybe the longer time with the daughter was for the mother to have more concerted time with the gender she would have the most responsibility for.
Leviticus 12. My mother told me that the Catholic Church had very similar restrictions when she had her children such as she could not enter the sacristy for one month after birth. She was not allowed to see her children baptized. That was over 72 years ago.
It seems that whenever something involves the handling of a lot of flesh and blood, purification is in order. Childbirth is a messy process, so it makes sense. Boy vs girl, I am not sure, but I do know that some of moms hormones may effect baby girls differently than baby boys.