The point behind laws on ‘redeeming’ mother and child after birth (Leviticus 12)

The laws in Leviticus 12 about the “purification” of mother and newborns after delivery are perplexing. How could giving birth make the mother and babies so “unclean” before God they would need a sin offering for restoration and be separated from God’s House for so long? In the Torah, the physical requirements are a window into what God is doing to restore the world to the way it was at Creation. And these purification laws are a window into a prophecy God gave “the mother of all the living” and “the father of lies.”

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I was fascinated when I dug deeply into the Hebrew of Leviticus 12. I did some research that you may or may not find significant. God has something in mind here. God is teaching us heavenly thoughts, not human thoughts. What is the Torah of childbirth?

When a woman has a child, she is planting a seed, sowing a seed. She is not reaping it, she is sowing it, growing it. The woman plants life, not death.

We see in Genesis 3 God told Satan that He would create enmity between Satan’s “seed” and the woman’s seed. Satan’s “seed” is lies. Yeshua told us Satan is the “father of lies” and “father of deception.” Satan can’t tell the unadulterated truth. His seed, his deceptions have taken over the earth.

The seed of the woman will crush the serpent’s head, but the serpent’s seed also strikes out and bruises the seed of the woman.

God tells us in His word that women are very important. Adam called his wife “the mother of all the living.” That was God’s prophesy coming out of Adam’s mouth.

There are no sacrifices when eating unclean food or touching dead animals or people, but when a woman gives birth, she is to bring an offering. Is it a sin to give birth?

When the woman gives birth to a male child, she is “unclean” for seven days. Then on the eighth day, the son is circumcised.

For the first seven days after giving birth to a son, she is to retreat or isolate herself for that time from her husband. She she shall “remain in the blood of her purification” for 33 days. She had to go through a process of purification for a total of 40 days after the birth of a son.

She can’t touch any holy. She can’t come near the Sanctuary. This is not where Moses and Aaron lived, but where God lived.

If she gave birth to a girl, the mother was “unclean” for two weeks, and the daughter was not circumcised. Then she had to “remain in the blood of her purification” for 66 more days, for a total of 80 days.

I’ve heard all sorts of theories in the physical as to why the wife’s rest time was doubled after giving birth to a girl than a boy, but I’m more concerned about what God’s mind is about. It is the woman who plants the seed, not the man. I am not clear about God’s thinking on why the purification time is doubled after the birth of a girl than after the birth of a boy, except to acknowledge that it is the daughter who will bear seed in the future, not the son.

At the end of this time period, the mother is to bring specific offerings to the Tabernacle. If the wife did not commit a sin, why is she bringing a sin offering? She is “unclean” because of the spilled blood. Being unclean for a period of time is not a sin.

We live in a society that claims women are “liberated,” but that’s all politics. God is not a politician; He is the Creator. When I hear men accuse women of bringing sin to come in the world, that corrupt thinking makes no sense to me. They will generalize about “all women” being the source of all evil, yet when you challenge them about whether their own mother is “evil” they demur. You can’t generalize about “all women” being the source of evil and then try to absolve your wife or mother of that “evil.” That type of hypocrisy annoys me to no end.

Men need to ask themselves how well do they really treat their wives, mothers and sisters? There’s a mystery about the relationship between the Messiah and the Assembly of believers. He takes care of this Body.

It is the job of the priest to break down the barriers between God and the people. The priest is to discern between holy and unholy and clean and unclean. Holiness and cleanliness before God are not the same thing, and neither are unholiness or uncleanliness. When we blur these distinctions, the TaNaKh (Torah, Prophets and Writings, i.e., the Hebrew scriptures or “Old Testament”) becomes confusing. When we understand the differences between these key word lessons, we can read the TaNaKh more clearly.

Reader: Jeff. Speaker: Richard. Summary: Tammy.