Tanak Foundations-Concepts in Leviticus-Chapter 12

Lev 12.1-8 tells us about the laws of purification after childbirth; this is a very short chapter but it is very eschatological.

Holiness is…

v 1…Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

v 2…Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘When a woman (a type of Israel (Rev 12) gives birth (Hebrew (Thazria”) and bears a male child (man is from Adam, but not the Messiah), then she shall be unclean (“tamai” or out of place) for seven days, as in the days of her menstruation she shall be unclean (in a ceremonial way).

v 3…And on the eighth day (new beginning) the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

v 4…Then she shall remain in the blood of her purification for thirty-three days (alludes to Yeshua being 33 and “cut off”-Dan 9.26; and the thirty-third day of the counting of the Omer); she shall not touch any consecrated thing, nor enter the sanctuary (because she is unclean ritually) until the days of her purification are completed (this gives us an idea about the birth of Yeshua; Yeshua is born and Herod tries to kill him, so Mary and Joseph take him to Egypt; they stay there until the death of Herod; then Mary comes to the Temple to complete the rituals for purification forty days later in the Temple, so Herod died within the forty day period described here, between his birth and Mary being in the Temple for this ritual-Matt 2.19-21; Luke 2.21-24).

v 5…But if she bears a female (Israel gave birth the the bride, the Eschatological Kahal), then she shall be unclean for two weeks as in her menstruation and she shall remain in the blood of her purification for sixty days (the time is doubles, alluding to 66 AD and the beginning of the Jewish revolt against Rome after Israel rejected the testimony of the Kahal about Messiah Yeshua, so there is a “double uncleanness; in addition, this alludes to the two comings of the Messiah).

v 6…And when the days of her purification are completed for a son (like with Yeshua) or 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 (did Mary sin and had to bring this offering? No, it was part of the ceremony because the sin offering is a “purgation” offering as with other cases of uncleanness where no sin was committed (15.30), and the burnt offering symbolized her rededication to God after a period of abstention from the Sanctuary).

v 7…Then he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement (restore a covering) for her ; and she shall be cleansed from her flow of blood. This is the law (Torah/instruction) for her who bears a child, whether male of female.

v 8…But if she cannot afford a lamb (no matter how spiritually poor we are, we can always come to the Lord to be cleansed), 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 shall be clean (Luke 2.24 says that Mary brought these, so that means she could not afford a lamb; but what happened to the gold, frankincense and myrrh that was given at his birth? Those gifts were probably given to God by the Magi, and they brought them to the Temple when they returned from Egypt, and Mary and Joseph could not make any personal use of them).

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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