And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Leviticus 12 opens with God starting a new subject: after the laws about clean and unclean animals, He turns to man. There the birth of a child calls for purification and sacrifice — so why should new life need cleansing at all?
God gives this word to Moses for Israel. Why does the audience matter?
Here the point is uncleanness before God as the universal effect of the dark inheritance of sin. One could not speak of sinning in babies, male or female, but there was uncleanness in all. And Jehovah took care that Israel should learn of this from Himself, in the case of their own children. Here He is not speaking about the nations but about the chosen people, so that no flesh should boast.
The child has done nothing. That is the point.
Leviticus 11 dealt with the natures of creatures. The chapters that follow bring man before us. In chapter 12 we find him to be of such a nature that his birth itself called for a sin offering — "brought forth in iniquity … in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5). He had not yet done a single thing, good or bad.
For the mother, this was not theory. It cost her something she could count.
To bear children was woman's lot, yet that made her unclean, and she had to feel it and own it. She felt it: during those days she could not eat the holy things or come near the sanctuary. She owned it when she came with the appointed sacrifices. Those sacrifices declared her need of atonement, and her need of a substitute to die for her.
The chapter adds two details worth pausing over.
Leviticus 12 is short. Its theme shows that sin has entered the world, and its defiling power reaches the very beginnings of human life. Both child and mother were unclean, and both needed cleansing. For a boy, circumcision on the eighth day completed that cleansing. In the New Testament that rite means "putting off the body of the flesh" (Colossians 2:11) — the refusal of the flesh, which stands condemned in the cross of Christ. When a daughter was born, the mother stayed defiled twice as long as for a son — a reminder that sin came in through Eve.
The mother brought two offerings, and they are not the same thing twice.
Here the death of Christ comes before our thoughts in its two great aspects. Only that death could meet the defilement connected with man's natural birth and remove it completely. The burnt offering presents the death of Christ as God values it. The sin offering presents that same death as it bears on the sinner's need.
Verse 8 allows two birds where a lamb was beyond reach.
God's tender care comforted the poor: He accepted a pigeon or a turtledove for the burnt offering. Even the richest could bring no more than a pigeon or a turtledove for the sin offering. The atoning clearance of the evil demanded the same from everyone. Rich and poor stood on the same level. For the joy of acceptance the poor woman's pigeon was as valid as the rich woman's sheep. What a rebuke to every form of favouritism!
Mary kept this law herself. Her offering says two things about her at once.
The offerings she brought — two birds — showed her poverty on the one hand, and her condition as a sinful creature on the other. Her burnt offering and sin offering spoke plainly of her condition as a child of Adam, but also of God's grace, which could meet it by sacrifice. The occasion for those offerings was the birth of Him by whom that atonement would be fully and finally accomplished. He was perfectly holy, and this law said nothing about the child. Mary was unclean as a mother, and nothing but the shedding of blood could atone for her.
- Ruin at the root. Sin's defiling power reaches the very start of human life. The sin offering came before the child had done anything, good or bad.
- Ruin owned. The mother had to feel it — shut out from the sanctuary — and own it, by drawing near with a substitute to die for her.
- Remedy in death. Circumcision pictured the flesh refused, as condemned in the cross. The two offerings showed that same death — as God values it, and as the sinner needs it.
- Remedy within reach. God accepted two birds where a lamb was out of reach. The poor woman's pigeon was as valid as the rich woman's sheep.
- Remedy embraced. Mary brought the poor woman's offering for her own cleansing; the law said nothing about her child, for He was perfectly holy.
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman conceive seed, and bear a male, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of the separation of her infirmity shall she be unclean.
After the rules about clean and unclean animals, God turns to people, and He starts at the very beginning of life. Birth is a joyful thing, yet here it leaves a mother unclean and in need of a sacrifice — so what is God teaching about human nature?
The law puts the uncleanness on the mother. The reason reaches back to what she is, not to anything she has done.
The woman is made unclean because she is a sinful creature. And because she is a sinful creature and unclean, her child is sinful and unclean too, for "who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" What David confessed later is already seen in these childbirth laws: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5).
The chapter does not accuse the newborn of wrongdoing. It names a condition that is there before anyone makes a choice. And God says it about His own people, not about outsiders.
This is uncleanness before God — the universal effect of the dark inheritance of sin. You could not speak of babies as sinning, boy or girl, but there was uncleanness in all of them. And Jehovah made sure that Israel heard it from Him, about their own children. Here He is not speaking about the nations, but about the chosen people, so that no flesh should boast.
Verse 2 sets seven days of uncleanness for the birth of a son; a few verses later that figure is doubled for a daughter. Writers point to the account of the fall to explain the difference.
When a girl was born, the days of uncleanness were double: fourteen and sixty-six. But why? The key to the spiritual meaning of this chapter lies in that very fact. "Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor" (1 Timothy 2:14). It was through the woman that the fall came about by the serpent. This short chapter makes three things known: that sin is in the world, how it came into the world, and that each generation passes sin on to the next.
The seven days of verse 2 run up to the circumcision commanded in verse 3. The timing itself carries the lesson.
Once these seven days are over, the child is circumcised. The eighth day shows us that cleansing can only come through new creation — so deep-rooted is the evil he has inherited. In its spiritual sense, circumcision is also the "putting off the body of the flesh" (Colossians 2:11), condemned in the cross of Christ: "our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing" (Romans 6:6).
At the end of the waiting time the mother brings two offerings. What God asks for matters, and so does what He leaves out.
In each case, when the time was completed, whether for a male or a female, the mother was to bring the priest a year-old lamb as a burnt offering. She also brought a young pigeon or turtledove as a sin offering (v. 6). Notice that there was no trespass offering. It was not a matter of her having done anything wrong. But the sin offering deals with the sinful nature we inherit at birth. So this offering speaks of God condemning sin in the flesh by the cross of Christ (Romans 8:3). The burnt offering tells us that God's glory is the first consideration here. When God is glorified and sin condemned, He makes the unclean clean (v. 7).
Verse 8 allows two birds where a lamb is beyond reach. The concession touches both the equality of the worshippers and the circumstances of Jesus' own birth.
Such was the tender care of God, that poverty was comforted by His accepting a pigeon or a turtledove for a burnt offering, while the richest could not offer more than a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. What was required for the atoning clearance of the evil was the same. Rich and poor stood on the same level. For the joy of acceptance the poor woman's pigeon was as valid as the rich woman's sheep. What a rebuke to every kind of favouritism!
Luke records that the mother of Jesus came with the two birds of verse 8. What she brought tells us about her own state.
The law counted her unclean for seven days after the birth of her son. At the end of the appointed forty days she came with two birds, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering, and the priest offered them to make atonement for her. The two birds she brought showed her poverty on the one hand, and her condition as a sinful creature on the other. He was perfectly holy, and this law said nothing about the child. She was unclean as a mother, and nothing but the shedding of blood could atone for her.
- Cause — No baby has done wrong, yet all are unclean. We inherit the stain, and God taught it to His own people so no one could boast.
- Source — The doubled days for a daughter point back to the fall. The woman was deceived, sin entered the world, and every generation passes it on.
- Cut off — The eighth day and circumcision say the same thing: cleansing comes only by a new beginning, with the flesh condemned in the cross.
- Covered — A sin offering, but no trespass offering. God deals with a nature, not a deed, and the burnt offering puts His glory first.
- Owned — Mary brought the two birds of a poor woman and owned her own need of atonement. The child born to her was holy, and the law said nothing about Him.
And on the eighth day shall the flesh of his foreskin be circumcised.
Leviticus 12 deals with the uncleanness that follows childbirth. In the middle of the rules about the mother, God gives one command about the baby boy. He is to be circumcised on the eighth day. Why does a newborn need this sign at all? And why the eighth day?
Birth itself called for cleansing. Commentators read this as God's verdict on what every child inherits.
Here the point is uncleanness before God, the universal effect of the dark inheritance of sin. One could not speak of sinning in babes, male or female, but there was uncleanness in all. And Jehovah took care that Israel should learn of it from Himself as to their own offspring. Here He is not speaking about the nations but about the chosen people, so that no flesh should boast.
The rest of the chapter deals with the mother. Verse 3 is the child's part, and it comes first.
Leviticus 12 was about purifying the woman, not the child. Circumcision purified the child, at least if he was a boy, and it came before the woman's purifying.
Another writer puts the same order plainly, adding what the sign accomplished for the boy: "If a man-child, purification was complete by circumcision on the eighth day."
Circumcision did not begin with Moses. Where God placed the sign on the body was deliberate.
Its sign was not to be in the clouds for every eye to see, but in the flesh. With the flesh it declared open war, proclaiming death on it as unclean. It did not merely demand purity; it demanded death — a figure of Christ's death for His own, who are by nature as unclean and ungodly as others. It was not of Moses but of the fathers, as the Lord told the Jews (John 7:22), who were proud of a law that none of them really kept. As a shadow, of which Christ was the substance, it taught much. It was the confession that the flesh is cut off without sparing, so that they might be God's people, instead of the useless attempt to improve it by ceremony, morality, or philosophy.
Seven days complete a week. The eighth starts a new one, and that is where writers find the meaning of the timing.
Eight shows that something is complete by pointing to a new beginning. The eighth day is the first day of a new week. So it speaks of what is new in contrast with the old, and so of the new covenant and new creation. This is why circumcision took place on the eighth day: "the putting off the body of the flesh" (Col. 2:11) is connected with the new creation in Christ Jesus for good works (Eph. 2:10).
One reference work links the same day to resurrection and to a new start.
EIGHT. A new departure outside of, but connected with, creation-order — hence resurrection. Circumcision was on the eighth day, when a new fellowship began. Eight people were saved in the ark, to begin a new world.
Colossians speaks of "the circumcision of Christ." One writer traces where those words point.
The words in Colossians 2:11 in no way refer to the circumcision of the Lord Jesus at eight days old (Luke 2:21). The expression "circumcision of Christ" can also be read as "cutting off of Christ." Those words remind us of familiar verses in Old Testament prophecy. "For He was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people" (Isa. 53:8). "And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing" (Dan. 9:26; older translations read "Messiah shall be cut off"). These two Scriptures make it clear that Paul's words, "circumcision of Christ," point to the Lord's death on the cross — the place of judgment, where He was cut off.
If the flesh has been condemned there, the response is not partial repair but total refusal.
The refusal of the flesh is not to be merely an outward neglect of the body, which the world can see. It is the refusal of the flesh in all its inward workings in the heart — its self-confidence, self-righteousness, vanity and lusts — as that which has been condemned in the cross (Col. 2:11).
Luke records that Jesus Himself received this sign on the eighth day.
We now see the Lord Jesus under the law of Moses, as in the earlier verses, born of woman. For "at the end of eight days, when He was circumcised, He was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb." This name refers both to His being Jehovah and a Saviour.
- Unclean — Birth itself made mother and child unclean. Boy or girl, every baby came with that reminder of an inherited condition.
- Cut — God set the sign in the flesh, not in the sky. It pronounced death on the flesh, not improvement.
- Eighth — Seven days close the old week. The eighth opens a new one, and ties this sign to resurrection, new covenant and new creation.
- Cross — Colossians reads the "circumcision of Christ" as His being cut off in death. That is the reality behind the sign given to the child.
- Refusal — For the believer this means no trimming of faults. It means refusing self-confidence, self-righteousness, vanity and lusts as things already judged at the cross.
And she shall continue thirty-three days in the blood of her cleansing; no holy thing shall she touch, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her cleansing are fulfilled.
After a son's birth, a mother waited thirty-three more days before she could touch anything holy or enter the sanctuary. Why should the birth of a child shut a mother out of God's presence, and what could bring her back in?
Commentators read the counted days as a statement about human nature rather than about the mother's behaviour. The point is not what she did but what she is, and what her child is.
This chapter teaches us that the conception and birth of a male child made the mother ceremonially unclean for seven days, and kept her from the sanctuary for thirty-three days more. For a female child both periods lasted twice as long. Has this no voice? Can we not read a humbling lesson here? Does it not tell us, in words that cannot be mistaken, that man is an unclean thing, and that he needs the blood of atonement to cleanse him?
The law worked in two stages. First the mother felt her condition during the long wait. Then she owned it with the sacrifice at the end.
To bear children was woman's lot, yet that made her unclean, and she had to feel it and own it. She felt it, because during those days she could not share in the holy things or come near the sanctuary. She owned it, as she came with the appointed sacrifices. Those sacrifices proclaimed her need of atonement and of a substitute to die for her. She had brought a living creature into the world, and for that she needed the death of the sacrifice on her own behalf.
When the days ended, she still had to bring offerings. Which offerings God asked for — and which He did not — shows what He was dealing with.
Notice here that there was no trespass offering, for it was not a matter of her having done anything wrong. But the sin offering deals with the sinful nature we inherit at birth. So this offering speaks of God condemning sin in the flesh through the cross of Christ. The burnt offering tells us that God's glory comes first in this matter. When God is glorified and sin condemned, the unclean becomes clean.
A wealthy woman brought a lamb; a poor one brought a bird. Yet money could never buy a better cleansing.
God's care was so tender that He comforted the poor by accepting a pigeon or a turtledove for a burnt offering. Yet the richest could not boast of more than a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. The offering that made atonement for the evil was the same for both. Rich and poor stood on the same level. For the joy of acceptance the pigeon of the poor was as valid as the rich woman's sheep. What a rebuke to every form of favouring people by their position!
Luke's Gospel records that Mary kept this same law after Jesus was born. What she brought to the altar shows her own need.
The law counted her unclean for seven days after the birth of her son. At the end of the appointed forty days she came with two birds, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. The priest, whoever he was, offered them to make atonement for her. The two birds showed her poverty on the one hand, and her condition as a sinful creature on the other. … She confessed her need of atonement by blood as she stood before that altar and watched the birds die. But what called it out was the birth of Him by whom that atonement was to be truly, fully, and finally accomplished.
The child in her arms was the one exception, yet He too took His place under the law.
When we turn to Luke 2 and the birth of our Lord, we note that Mary brought this smallest of offerings, a witness to the poverty of Joseph and herself. We also note that our Lord was circumcised on the eighth day, according to the law, though there was no sinful flesh in Him to be "put off." This fits with His baptism at the hands of John, where He fulfilled all righteousness, though He had no sins to confess, as the people had.
- Birth exposes. The counted days say nothing about the mother's conduct. They speak of the nature every child inherits: man needs the blood of atonement to cleanse him.
- Distance teaches. Shut out from holy things and the sanctuary, she had to feel the uncleanness before she could own it.
- Sacrifice clears. The law asked no trespass offering, because she had done nothing wrong. The sin offering met the inherited nature. The burnt offering put God's glory first.
- Grace levels. The atoning offering was the same for rich and poor. The poor woman's bird counted for as much as the rich woman's sheep.
- Christ fulfils. Mary brought the offering of the poor and confessed her own need. The sinless Child in her arms came under a law He had no defilement to answer.
And if she bear a female, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her separation; and she shall continue sixty-six days in the blood of her cleansing.
Leviticus 12 sets a time of uncleanness for a mother after childbirth. For a daughter every number doubles: two weeks instead of one, sixty-six days instead of thirty-three. Commentators read this short law as God's account of where sin begins in a life, and how He deals with it.
The chapter is not describing a fault the mother committed. It marks a condition that human life carries from its start. One writer draws that lesson straight from the doubled numbers.
"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5). "How can he who is born of woman be pure?" (Job 25:4). In this chapter we are taught that the conception and birth of a son brought the mother seven days of ceremonial defilement, along with thirty-three days of separation from the sanctuary. For a daughter, both periods were doubled. Does it not declare, in words that cannot be misunderstood, that man is an unclean thing who needs the blood of atonement to cleanse him?
No baby has yet sinned, and still the law speaks of uncleanness:
Here the point is uncleanness before God, the universal effect of the dark inheritance of sin. One could not speak of sinning in babes, male or female, but there was uncleanness in all. And the LORD took care that Israel should learn it from Himself about their own offspring. Here He is not speaking about the nations but about the chosen people, so that no flesh should boast.
One writer traces the doubled time back to how sin first entered the world. He calls this the key to the whole chapter.
In the case of the birth of a maid-child the days of uncleanness were just double, fourteen and sixty-six. But why was this? The key to the spiritual meaning of this chapter is found in this very fact. "Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor" (1 Timothy 2:14). It was by the woman that the fall was brought about through the serpent. This brief chapter makes known that sin is in the world, how it came into the world, and that sin is inherited, passed on from generation to generation.
The same fact reaches into the New Testament, and one writer marks its limits.
The Lord never forgets how sin came into the world. His righteousness takes account of the first temptation to the end. So it is remarkable how the Apostle Paul uses this fact. He even turns it into practical guidance on the question whether a woman ought to teach in the church. The word of God ought to form our thoughts. It is a question of government on earth, not of heaven nor of eternity in all this.
For a daughter the wait ran to eighty days. It kept the mother from the sanctuary until she came with an offering that owned what she was.
To bear children was woman's lot, yet that made her unclean, and she had to feel it and own it. She felt it during those days, when she could not share in the holy things or approach the sanctuary. She owned it when she came with the appointed sacrifices. Those sacrifices declared her need of atonement and of a substitute to die for her. She had brought a living creature into the world, and for that she herself needed the death of the sacrifice.
The two offerings mark the difference between a wrong act and an inherited nature:
Notice here that there was no trespass offering, for it was not a matter of her having done anything wrong. But the sin offering deals with the sinful nature we inherit at birth. So this offering speaks of God condemning sin in the flesh by the cross of Christ (Romans 8:3). The burnt offering tells us that God's glory is the first consideration in this matter. When God is glorified and sin condemned, the unclean one is made clean.
The remedy did not change with the mother's wealth. The provision for the poor appears again at the birth of Christ.
God's care was so tender that He comforted the poor by accepting a pigeon or a turtledove for a burnt offering. Meanwhile the richest could boast of nothing more than a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. What was required for the atoning clearance of the evil was the same. Rich and poor stood on the same level. What grace that the Lord of glory was born of a virgin mother, whose poverty was shown in the offering suited to it!
- Inherited — the uncleanness is not an act but a condition. Sin marks human life from conception, and God taught this to His own people about their own children.
- Doubled — the longer time for a daughter points back to the fall, when the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
- Earthly — this reckoning belongs to God's government on earth, not to heaven or eternity.
- Owned — shut out of the sanctuary, she felt the defilement. Coming with the sacrifice, she owned it and her need of a substitute.
- Levelled — rich and poor brought the same sin offering, and the mother of Christ brought the offering of the poor.
And when the days of her cleansing are fulfilled, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring a yearling lamb for a burnt-offering, and a young pigeon or a turtle-dove for a sin-offering, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, unto the priest.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And he shall present it before Jehovah, and make atonement for her; and she shall be clean from the flux of her blood. This is the law for her that hath borne a male or a female.
A short law closes a short chapter. The mother brings her offerings, the priest presents them before the LORD, and she is clean. So why should the birth of a child need a sin offering at all?
The chapter does not accuse the mother of doing anything wrong. One commentator reads the law as a lesson about human nature, not human behaviour:
In this chapter we are taught that the conception and birth of a male child brought seven days of ceremonial defilement to the mother, along with thirty-three days of separation from the sanctuary. These periods were doubled for a female child. Has this no voice? Can we not read in it a humbling lesson? Does it not declare to us, in language not to be misunderstood, that man is "an unclean thing," and that he needs the blood of atonement to cleanse him?
The waiting days were not empty. They kept her from the holy things and the sanctuary. She came with her offerings as one confessing a need:
To bear children was woman's lot, yet that made her unclean, and she had to feel it and own it. She felt it during those days, when she could not share in the holy things or approach the sanctuary. She owned it, as she drew near with the appointed sacrifices, which declared her need of atonement and of a substitute to die for her.
One offering deals with wrong done. Another deals with what a person is. Only the second is asked here:
Notice here that there was no trespass offering, for it was not a matter of her having done anything wrong. But the sin offering deals with the sinful nature we inherit at birth. This offering speaks of God condemning sin in the flesh by the cross of Christ (Rom. 8:3). The burnt offering tells us that God's glory is the first consideration in this matter. When God is glorified and sin condemned, the unclean one is made clean (v. 7).
The burnt offering and the sin offering are not two remedies. They are two views of one death:
Here the death of Christ is set before our thoughts in its two grand aspects. It is the only thing that could meet, and perfectly remove, the defilement connected with man's natural birth. The burnt offering presents the death of Christ according to God's estimate of it. The sin offering, on the other hand, presents the death of Christ as it meets the sinner's need.
The chapter doubles every period when the child is a girl, and it names the offerings in an unusual order. One writer finds meaning in both:
For the female child all these numbers are doubled — the witness, no doubt, to the entrance of sin by the woman. In either case, purification is completed by a lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. The usual order in which these are mentioned is reversed, and the difference in size between the offerings underlines it. God puts first that perfect obedience of Christ which has glorified Him in view of Adam's disobedience.
Notice what could be scaled down for a poor mother, and what could not:
God's care was so tender that He comforted the poor by accepting a pigeon or a turtledove for the burnt offering. Yet the richest could not boast of more than a pigeon or a turtledove for the sin offering. What was required to clear the evil away by atonement was the same. Rich and poor stood on the same level. For the joy of acceptance the pigeon of the poor was as valid as the rich woman's sheep.
One writer applies this law to the mother of Jesus:
Blessed she is, but the Virgin Mary was never without sin. The rule appointed in this chapter proves it, and Luke tells us she kept it. At the end of the appointed forty days she came with two birds, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering, and the priest offered them to make atonement for her. She confessed her need of atonement by blood as she stood at that altar and watched the birds die. Yet what brought her there was the birth of the very One who would accomplish that atonement, really, fully, and finally. He was perfectly holy, and this law said nothing about the child.
- Ruin. Birth itself carried defilement. The law traces uncleanness to the first moment of a life, not to any act.
- Owned. Being kept from the sanctuary made her feel the need. Bringing the sacrifices made her admit it.
- Remedy. No trespass offering was asked, because she had done nothing wrong. The sin offering meets the inherited nature; the burnt offering meets God's glory.
- Reach. The sin offering stayed a bird for rich and poor alike. Only the burnt offering could shrink, so no one was priced out.
- Result. Atonement made, she is clean — and the mother of Jesus took her place under this law, though the law said nothing about her holy child.
And if her hand cannot find what is sufficient for a sheep, she shall bring two turtle-doves or two young pigeons; 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.
Leviticus 12 has dealt with the uncleanness that comes with birth. Its last verse lets a mother who cannot afford a lamb bring two small birds instead — so does a cheaper sacrifice buy a lesser cleansing?
No one is shut out here by what he lacks. One writer carries that straight into the gospel:
Grace meets the needy one just where he is, and as he is. The atoning blood is brought within the reach of the very lowest, the very poorest, the very feeblest. All who need it can have it. "If he be poor" — what then? Let him be cast aside? No; Israel's God could never deal that way with the poor and needy. Most exquisite grace! "To the poor the Gospel is preached." None can say, "the blood of Jesus was beyond me."
The verse turns on what she cannot afford. Older translations read "not able," and grace builds its provision around that inability.
Divine grace delights in making provision for those who are "not able" to make provision for themselves.
The swap only touches the burnt offering. Every woman, rich or poor, brought a bird for the sin offering.
God's care was so tender that He comforted poverty by accepting a pigeon or a turtledove for a burnt offering. Meanwhile the richest could not boast of more than a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. What atonement required to clear the evil away was the same. Rich and poor stood on the same level. For the joy of acceptance the pigeon of the poor was as valid as the rich woman's sheep. What a rebuke to every form of favouritism!
The worshipper's own strength of faith changes nothing either.
The grasp may be feeble. The faith may be wavering. The experience may be shallow. But let the reader remember, for his soul's joy and comfort, that what counts is not the depth of his experience, the stability of his faith, or the strength of his grasp. It is the divine value, the unchanging power of the blood of Jesus. Our ever gracious God shows His tender care here: the blood of a turtledove was as effective for the poor as the blood of a bull for the rich.
The verse gives the two birds two different jobs.
This chapter brings the death of Christ before our thoughts in its two great aspects. Nothing else could meet the defilement connected with man's natural birth and perfectly remove it. The burnt offering presents the death of Christ according to God's estimate of it. The sin offering presents that death as it bears on the sinner's need.
Notice which offering the verse names first:
These two are named in reverse of the usual order, and the unequal size of the offerings underlines it. God puts first that perfect obedience of Christ which has glorified Him in view of Adam's disobedience.
The two birds were not a fee for a service. They were a confession.
To bear children was woman's lot, yet that made her unclean, and she had to feel it and own it. She felt it during those days, when she could not eat the holy things or come near the sanctuary. She owned it when she came with the appointed sacrifices, which declared her need of atonement and of a substitute to die for her. She had brought a living creature into the world, and for that she herself needed the death of the sacrifice.
This is the offering Mary brought after the birth of Jesus.
Here we read of the grace of God to the poor. Compare this closing verse with Luke 2:24, and we learn the amazing depth to which God stooped to show that grace... So the supposed parents of our blessed Lord Jesus were so poor that they had to use the gracious provision made for those who could not afford "a lamb for a burnt offering." What a thought! The Lord of glory, the Most High God, Possessor of heaven and earth, owned "the cattle upon a thousand hills." He appeared in the world His own hands had made, in the narrow circumstances of humble life.
Her two birds said two things about her — and one thing about her child.
Her offering showed her poverty. The purpose for which she brought them showed her need as a sinful creature... She was sinful. Her child was holy. He would in time give Himself as the ransom for His mother's soul.
- Need — birth itself left the mother unclean; she had to feel it and own it, and come with a substitute that died for her.
- Provision — grace lets two birds replace the lamb: one for the burnt offering, one for the sin offering, the two sides of one death.
- Reach — the atoning blood comes within reach of the very lowest, so no one can say it was beyond them.
- Equality — rich and poor brought the same bird for the sin offering, so the cheaper gift never bought a lesser cleansing.
- Proof — Mary brought these two birds herself, so the Lord of glory entered the world through the provision made for the poor.