“When the days of her purification are over, whether for a son or for a daughter, she is to bring a lamb in its first year for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or dove for a sin offering to the entrance of the tent of meeting, to the cohen. He will offer it before Adonai and make atonement for her; thus she will be purified from her discharge of blood. Such is the law for a woman who gives birth, whether to a boy or to a girl.”-Leviticus 12:6-8
Leviticus 12 is very informative because it gives us the building blocks we need in order to understand how Yeshua’s blood atones for us in our daily lives.
Recall awhile back I told you that the normal state for most things is CLEAN or ritually pure.
Exceptions to this in the physical world would be those animals the Lord has declared UNCLEAN by divine fiat.
Also when mankind engages in certain behaviors, like touching a dead body for instance, UNCLEANNESS is the result.
The God-principles at play here are as follows:
CLEAN things can be degraded into a state of ritual impurity or UNCLEANNESS by committing certain acts or coming into physical contact with UNCLEAN things (like a corpse for example).
On the other hand, CLEAN things can also through a process of sanctification can become elevated to a state HOLINESS.
But, and this is a big but, an UNCLEAN thing can NOT enter directly into a state of holiness!!!
It must FIRST be made CLEAN.
An UNCLEAN thing cannot just skip over the step of being made CLEAN before being made HOLY.
An UNCLEAN thing is not eligible to become HOLY until it has first become CLEAN.
Got it?
I hope you’re getting this, because the same principles carry right over into the New Testament.
And Leviticus chapter 12 is a perfect case in point.
A new mother is declared by God to be UNCLEAN immediately after giving birth to a child.
During her period of UNCLEANNESS (40 days if a boy is born, 80 days if a female is born), she is barred from participating in regular worship practices with her family or joining the religious community.
Because she is UNCLEAN, she must be kept separate from HOLINESS.
After the waiting period concludes, the mother will immerse herself in a MIKVAH (ritual bath) and then she will become clean BUT HER RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD HAS NOT YET BEEN RESTORED.
It is only after she offers up the proper sacrifices that her relationship with HASHEM is fully renewed.
So again, notice the progression that unfolds.
After childbirth, the new mother is UNCLEAN.
In order to get back to a state of CLEAN, she must go through a waiting period that concludes with immersion in a MIKVAH.
Only after that is she eligible to approach the Lord with her sacrifices to become HOLY again.
There are no shortcuts to this process.
And again, remember that the cause of the new mother’s impurity was not the baby (the baby is a good thing) but rather the discharge of blood that occurred when the baby was born.
The Torah likens this level of resulting impurity due to childbirth to a woman who is in the midst of her monthly cycle because in both instances there is a FLOW OF BLOOD.
So a couple of questions posed to me by a reader was this:
“What about a woman’s purity in the “church” age now?”
“She still goes through the same process of child birth, does he just not care about all the ritual stuff to make one pure now?”
“She had to take the 3 sacrifices, what does she do now?”
The answer to all of those questions is simple.
A believer in Yeshua no longer faces UNCLEANNESS.
That’s right.
Fellow lady believers, and I say this with total confidence, you do NOT become ritually impure every month nor do you become UNCLEAN during childbirth.
Because of your faith in Yeshua, YOU REMAIN HOLY AND CLEAN.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is practically impossible for a believer to fall into an UNCLEAN condition as long as they remain a faithful believer walking in the Lord’s commands.
Yes, Yeshua’s atoning blood is that powerful and is at work every moment 24/7.
From an earthly physical perspective, Yeshua’s sacrifice was a one-time event.
Or from a Torah perspective, you could say Yeshua’s sacrifice fulfilled all matters as concerns ritual sacrifice and atonement.
However, from a spiritual world perspective where neither time nor space exist, Yeshua’s sacrifice is eternal and ongoing, always at work atoning for us as long as we trust in Him.
HALLELU-YAH!!!
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