What Women Must do After Giving Child Birth

Leviticus 12:1–8
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Now we come to a passage which deals with afflictions and diseases and, in the spiritual realm, with what these do to us in our relationships with others, and between ourselves and God. Here we will find that many modern sanitary procedures are anticipated by the rules and laws laid down by Moses for the people of God. If these had been followed through the course of the centuries, many outbreaks of plague and epidemic would have been avoided - and still could be.

The Lord told Moses to say to the community of Israel: If a woman gives birth to a son, she is unclean for seven days, just as she is during her monthly period. Her son must be circumcised on the eighth day, but her loss of blood keeps her from being completely clean for another thirty-three days (vv. 1-4). During this time she must not touch anything holy or go to the place of worship. Any woman who gives birth to a daughter is unclean for two weeks, just as she is during her period (v. 5). And she won’t be completely clean for another sixty-six days.

When the mother has completed her time of cleansing, she must come to the front of the sacred tent and bring to the priest a year-old lamb as a sacrifice to please me and a dove or a pigeon as a sacrifice for sin (v. 6). After the priest offers the sacrifices to me, the mother will become completely clean from her loss of blood, whether her child is a boy or a girl (v. 7). If she cannot afford a lamb, she can offer two doves or two pigeons, one as a sacrifice to please me and the other as a sacrifice for sin (v. 8).

Application

When Jesus Christ gave his life on the cross He suffered and died for every sin that I ever committed.