Title: Meaning of births/Leviticus 12:1-8
The meaning engraved on childbirth/Leviticus 12:1-8
(Leviticus 12:1-8) And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, When a woman conceives and gives birth to a man, she shall be unclean for seven days, as it is unclean, and on the eighth day the child's sheepskin. And the woman shall pass after thirty-three days, and the woman shall be cleansed of live blood, and she shall not touch the holy things, nor enter the sanctuary, until the time of purification is fulfilled; and if she gives birth to a woman, she shall be unclean for these seven days, as in times of dread. It shall be sixty-six days before the blood is cleansed. When the period of purification between children is fulfilled, the woman shall take a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering, and bring it to the priest at the door of the tent of meeting. You shall present it before the LORD to make atonement for the woman, so that the blood will be clean. This is the law for a woman who has given birth to children. If the woman's strength does not reach that of the lamb, take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering. shall be a sin offering, and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean.
The more I think about how God is teaching His people Israel how to become God's people in an age when there is no Bible, I can't help but be amazed. The more we know God's zeal and the thoroughness of God's ideas, the more we marvel. God has some crazy ideas to teach His people. With these ideas, he teaches his people to his people and uses them as a coherent system (tool) for expressing his will. One of them can be seen in today's text. God is teaching us what it is like to become a people of God through childbirth, that is, through childbearing of Israelite women.
Why is childbirth used as a tool to teach God's will? What was it about giving birth to a child and bleeding in pain, so you wanted to use it as a textbook? This is not intended to be treated as a physiological or mythological issue. As I said last time, we are trying to use this to reveal God's salvation. Therefore, we should read the will of God's salvation from these words.
The verse we read today is that if a woman gives birth to a son, she will be unclean for 7 days, just like when she prays, and it takes 33 days to become consciously clean (40 days). He said that we can go before God and become consciously clean. When you come before God, you are told to offer burnt offerings and sin offerings, so is it a sin for a woman to have children? makes you question. But it makes me think that procreation has appropriate symbols to understand God's salvation. So I think you are using this.
What is surprising, however, is that the New Testament interprets it from this point of view. 1 Timothy 2:11-15 says, "Women should learn quietly with all obedience. We do not allow women to teach or to have dominion over men, but be quiet. For Adam was created first, and Eve after them (the first was created). Be ruled by one (seek love), for Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived, and fell into sin. (She was independent and then sinned.) But if women remain in faith, love and holiness with chastity, If you receive help under the rule of a man, and live a life of faith, love, and holiness), you will be saved through childbirth." (To live a life of faith, love, and holiness with fidelity under the rule of men is to give birth. This is the way to salvation.)
It is very clear that the labor of childbirth mentioned in Genesis does not simply refer to the pain of childbirth, but reveals salvation. It clearly shows the destruction of the enemy through suffering and the protection of the woman. Also in Galatians 4:11, Paul said that his efforts to bring Galatians, who are slaves to the law, back to Christ's freedom, "toil in childbirth." In this way, the pain and suffering of childbirth in Genesis 3 can be said to refer to the labor and pain of becoming a Christian who enjoys freedom. If we look at the work of the Lord from this point of view, we can see that the labor and pains of Jesus' earthly ministry are the pains he suffered for the birth of God's people, that is, the birth of the church. The 40 days of fasting and temptation, opposition from unbelievers, betrayal, and crucifixion all show that these events are the labors of childbirth for the birth of God's people.
If we dare to look for the meaning of 40 days here, it can be said to mean the period of time when we risk our lives for production, that is, the period of passing through death. It means to suffer life-threatening pain while awaiting the Atonement and dedication. In the case of a girl, since the crime started with a woman, the pain is greater. That is why we wait for the Day of Atonement even more. Where sin abounds, grace abounds even more. The gospel is that the greater the effort, the greater the comfort.
In other words, the pain of childbirth experienced by the women of Israel is a participation in the suffering of the sacrifice. That will make it clean. It has the same meaning as participating in the suffering of the cross.
Israel is born in this suffering. The people of Israel are a people who are formed through the labor of childbirth and the suffering of sacrifices. There are no men and women here. There is only one who comes out after going through pain and suffering. This is the church, and here is the breaking of the enemy.
Through this woman's suffering, God enables the women of Israel to participate in redemption. Through the pain of childbirth and the hard work of being a sinner and being put in a prison state, it makes us look at the atonement, and the greater the sin, the greater the grace. So those who cannot produce are unhappy. Because there is no opportunity to know the redemption. In addition, we can see that God is preserving the women of Israel as vessels of revelation. The woman herself not only realizes the truth of redemption through childbirth, but is preserved as a vessel to pass on to her descendants. In this respect, the old Israeli woman is not just a woman, but an instrument of God's revelation.
The people of Israel are people who know God's will of salvation inscribed in childbirth. God intended to teach these things through childbirth. Therefore, we cannot help but marvel once again at God's extraordinary ideas and zeal. God is teaching us today with this zeal. Let us open our eyes to this zeal of God. Don't close your eyes, but open them.
Who are the women of Israel today? It is Jesus Christ who suffered to give birth to the church. Today, let us focus on our salvation, not to be lovers, but to live on the basis of the sufferings of Jesus Christ. We must remember that his sufferings are our mother and source. Because when you do this, the atoning work of Jesus becomes precious. Let's live by relying on Jesus' suffering and atonement work, not our own suffering.