So, today, we're looking this morning at the book of Leviticus, chapter 12. It's really somewhat of a two-part between morning and evening. This evening, we'll be looking from something from the New Testament, which I don't reach very often. But it's to fit this theme of the ceremonial law. So we're looking at the law of the new mother this morning, and then this evening we'll look at Jesus' healing of the leper and how that relates to the ceremonial law. So if you will, open with me to Leviticus chapter 12. Leviticus chapter 12, third book of the Bible, chapter 12. Hear God's word. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days, as at the time of her menstruation she shall be unclean. And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. then she shall continue for thirty-three days in the blood of her purifying. She shall not touch anything holy, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying are completed. But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her menstruation. And she shall continue in the blood of her purifying for sixty-six days. And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb, a year old, for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin offering. and he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her. Then she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, either male or female. And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtle doves or two 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. A couple weeks ago, Pastor Gordon, as he was preaching from one of the plagues, he used a phrase, he gave us stories. It's a very helpful phrase. Why do we have Old Testament narratives? God gave them to us, they're for us. They were for Israel to tell their children so that they would know of these wonderful deeds of their God, know of their God because of what he had done. And they're for us also so that we would know and that we can tell our children. And there's a book even on the Old Testament narratives by that name. He gave us stories. Well, as I thought of that and thought of what to title my sermon, I thought I'd play off of that. Because he also gave us laws. Most people like stories more than laws. Especially a law like Leviticus 12. We can appreciate some laws. We read them almost every Sunday. Laws about right and wrong, what we call the moral law. We read the Ten Commandments. As we read this morning, we read about loving your neighbor as yourself. They still apply to us. But there's also in the Old Testament these ceremonial laws. All of these rituals, these washings, these sacrifices that we as New Testament Christians, we don't need to keep anymore because they ended when Christ came. And so then, what do we do with them? Do we need to know them? This law on the new mother, what are we to do with it? Well, if we think of Israel, the ceremonial laws, here a law on purity, it shaped the lives of an Israelite. They controlled what they ate, who they could marry, where they could go, what they could touch. In one sense, for an Israelite, we could say these laws were more important than the stories, because they were part of their everyday life. But what was their purpose? What we'll look at this morning and say is that they were a teaching tool for Israel. One that they lived out. They were a teaching tool by God for Israel. God gave them these ceremonial laws to keep so that he could teach Israel about himself and about their relationship with him. And now we don't need to keep them anymore. That doesn't mean we should ignore them. Because those lessons are also for us yet. God was teaching Israel through these laws. He's also teaching us through them. And I would argue another thing we could add is that knowing these laws makes us a better reader of the rest of the Bible because they're often assumed. If you were an Israelite, if you were a Jew, what did you know? You had to know these laws and how they affected how you were to live. Now, having said all that, we read Leviticus 12 and we're just struck by its strangeness. Maybe we're even offended by it. A woman gives birth and that makes her unclean. Unclean seems like a bad thing. What about something so joyous as a new birth leads to this state of being unclean? And what does unclean mean anyway? It's really one of those Bible words. Your parents don't come into your room and say, hey, it's unclean in here. You need to pick it up. That's not usually, it's not a word we use. But unclean, it seems to be not clean. Does it just mean dirty? Is that what it's about? We have other translations that say impure. defiled? Well, that's what we'll have to look at also. What does this mean? And so to appreciate this, we're going to look first how this law worked, and then we'll look more so at what it taught. So first how it worked, and then what it taught. And so as we think of how this law worked. It's part of this larger ceremonial law that relates to purity, to clean and unclean. And so not all of the details in it are spelled out, so I'll be mentioning some things that we can pull from other texts. And one of the first things we see is that there are different levels of uncleanness, different levels of impurity. We see that right away, verse 2, if a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days, as at the time of her menstruation, and then jumping to four, so there's this first level of impurity, and then in Verse 4, then she shall continue for 33 days in the blood of her purifying. She shall not touch anything holy nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying are completed. And so we have two distinct levels of impurity here. The first, if it's a boy, for seven days, and then for an additional 33 days, and doubled for a girl, as we'll see later. Well, we could call this first level a major impurity. That would be a good description. And it says that it's the same impurity that she has during menstruation. Well, to read about that, turn over to chapter 15. So, Leviticus chapter 15 is where we read about a woman during menstruation, beginning in verse 19. And what we find is it says, When a woman has a discharge, and the discharge in her body is blood, she shall be in her menstrual impurity for seven days. and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening. And everything on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean. Everything also on which she sits shall be unclean. And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And whoever touches anything on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. Whether it is the bed or anything on which she sits, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until the evening. And if a man lies with her and her menstrual impurity comes upon him, he shall be unclean seven days, and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean. Well, what we see there is this major impurity that's the first seven days of this new mother is an impurity in which she can make other people unclean. If they touch her, if they touch things that she sat on, that in one sense her impurity, her uncleanness is contagious. It can spread. That's this level of impurity that she has at first. And we'll look this evening, we'll see that she doesn't even have the most serious level of impurity. The leper, he was like a dead body. You didn't even have to touch him to become unclean. He just had to be in the same tent, and he would make you unclean. So that's for the first seven days when she has a boy. Well, what about the next period, the next 33 days? Well, we could call that a minor impurity. She no longer made other people impure, if they touched her anyway, but she just herself was impure or unclean. And there were restrictions on that, and we saw that in verse 4. What were the restrictions? She, beginning in the middle there, she shall not touch anything holy nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying are completed. And so with that minor impurity, she doesn't have to worry about making anybody else impure. She only has to worry about not touching something holy. The tabernacle, going there to the tabernacle, or anything associated with it. So, to summarize, we could say the first seven days, she has to be very mindful of other people, aware that her actions, that they could make other people unclean, and other people needed to be aware of her in that. However, for the next 33 days, she needed to make sure that she didn't come in contact with something holy, trying to enter the sanctuary. And a good example of something holy, you were an Israelite, and you wanted lamb chops, you brought your lamb to the tabernacle, or later the temple, and you made it a fellowship offering, and then you enjoyed this gift of God. Well, you had to eat it in a clean state. And so this would be something this new mother, for this extra 33 days, really for the whole time, she couldn't eat of that sacrifice because the sacrifice was holy. She couldn't eat of it. Now, in that first period when she made others unclean, as we read there in Leviticus 15, it was only a minor impurity that those others would have. A minor impurity in that it didn't shed to anyone else, wasn't contagious, and all they needed to do to become clean was to wash their clothes and their body and then wait until evening. So I'm hoping that's all clear by now. I thought about making a chart, but... But we have, right? So we have this major impurity that can shed to others that would make them have a minor impurity. And then her second stage, she has this minor impurity. And it relates to, and we'll emphasize this, to the temple. If the woman had a girl, we read there, the situation was very much the same. The only difference is the times were doubled. So for the first two weeks now, instead of the first one week, she had this major impurity. And then instead of 33 days with the minor impurity, she has it for 66 days. And at the end of that time, either whether it's a boy or a girl, what does she do? She brings a sacrifice. We see that in verse 6. And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb, a year old for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin offering. And he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her, and then she shall be cleaned from the flow of her blood. And then verse 8 says, If she can't afford the lamb, then she shall take two turtle doves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. Well, we get a nice example of this being kept in the New Testament. In Luke chapter 2, verses 21 through 24, we read about when Mary kept this law after the birth of Jesus. So starting with verse 21 in Luke chapter 2, it says, And 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. And when the time came for their purification, according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. And then more pertinent for our text, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. So they're really keeping a couple laws there. They're redeeming the firstborn son, Jesus, and then they're doing the purification of Mary. And Mary and Joseph were poor. And so what did they bring? They brought the two birds, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. And then Mary became clean. All right, what does this law teach? We somewhat understand its outline here. What does it teach? Why did childbirth, something commanded by God, it's one of those commands right at the beginning, right? Be fruitful and multiply. It's right there in Genesis 1. And it's something that's celebrated as a blessing from God elsewhere. why did birth make this new mother unclean so that she even needed to bring a sin offering? Well, the rabbis are always interesting, if not helpful, but one of them suggested an answer, at least for the last part. He said that the new mother needed to bring a sin offering to atone for any rash statements she made during the pains of childbirth. There weren't epidurals back then. Well, as we think about this, we need to emphasize something about impurity, something about uncleanness, as we read about it in Leviticus. And we need to emphasize it so we don't misunderstand God's ceremonial law and what it teaches. And that is that it is not a sin to be unclean. and you don't become unclean because of a sinful act. As we look in the book of Leviticus and other places, we see this clearly. And I would say one way we could emphasize this is, what is the result of her bringing this sacrifice? We see there at the end of verse 7 and then also verse 8, she shall be clean. Now we can contrast that if you turn back to Leviticus 4. There we have this law of the sin offering. And there it's this law given for somebody who has broken God's law, who has transgressed his commandment, needs to bring this sin offering. And we could skip on down. You get various people that it's talking about. But we'll look for a normal Israelite right at the end of the chapter. So verse 35, right at the end of that. What is the end of this process? And the priest shall make atonement for him, same language, for the sin. So now this is dealing with sin, which he has committed, and he shall be forgiven. So see the contrast there. The new mother doesn't need forgiveness. This person who transgressed a commandment of sin needed forgiveness. But the new mother doesn't need forgiveness, at least not forgiving birth. That's not what this is about. And so we need to emphasize that. The woman didn't need to be forgiven for uncleanness. What she needed was to be made clean. This is why some would argue that what is often translated as a sin offering, maybe it would be better to translate it as a purification offering. That it's covered both sin and impurity. Now, that doesn't mean there's not a relationship between sin and impurity or uncleanness. And we'll deal with that more later. But uncleanness did not result from a sinful action. Many of the reasons an average Israelite would become unclean were part of ordinary life. If you were a shepherd, or a farmer, or pretty much anybody in ancient Israel, you had animals. And every once in a while, animals die. And then you have to deal with their dead body. And in order to deal with that dead body, you become unclean. As you drag it, as you carry it, you become unclean. Going to a funeral would make you unclean. Anybody who enters the tent with a dead body and doesn't even have to touch the dead body becomes unclean. And not only that, even the marriage bed makes one unclean. Something very much necessary and commanded by God. And so if we think about it, as we read of it and look at it and think about these laws, every Israelite, probably at least once a week, was unclean or impure. And probably just of a minor impurity. But most, at least a few times a year, would probably have a major impurity. And so when we hear this language of unclean impurity, our natural inclination is to think of it as something you're to avoid, this bad thing that you should keep away from. But when we read the laws, we realize it can't be avoided. It's for normal things. It's for things that Israel was even commanded to do. Just following God's law, in that sense, made you unclean. Thus, being unclean wasn't something to avoid or to be ashamed of. Instead, it's something that you needed to be aware of. You needed to be aware of this, that your status had now become unclean, and you need to deal with it. You need to take the proper steps. And tonight, when we look at the leper, we'll talk a little bit how Pharisees and other groups really distorted these purity laws, trying to make it something to avoid as much as possible. Now, as I say that, as I say it's not something to avoid, not something that is associated, wasn't caused by sin, I need to add a qualification. Because God did give Israel laws on ways that they weren't allowed to become unclean. They weren't allowed to make themselves unclean or defiled in those ways. A normal Israelite was forbidden from making himself unclean by unclean animals, eating the unclean animals. A normal Israelite could go to any funeral, as we said, and that would make him unclean. But there were special laws for priests. A normal priest could only go to the funeral of his immediate family, father, mother, and siblings. The high priest couldn't go to any funeral. He wasn't allowed to make himself unclean by going to a funeral. And so I think it's helpful for us to say that there were these permittable or permitted ways of becoming unclean, ones that you couldn't avoid, ones that were part of the normal activities of life. And even a priest would become unclean in those ways. And then there were the non-permitted, the ones that you weren't allowed to do. And in that, it would be sinful, breaking God's law. So, what is the reason behind this? Now that we've dissociated it, it's not sin that's causing it. What are the reasons behind these laws for clean and unclean? And I would say, in short, it has to do with the tabernacle. God's presence amongst Israel. And later on, that will be the temple. And we can really see that in our text. Verse 4, as it tells us about her unclean state, what is it that she now needs to be aware of? Verse 4 said, and this would really carry over from her first impurity, what can't she do? She cannot touch anything holy nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying are completed. She couldn't enter the sanctuary. She couldn't touch anything associated with it. Now, when she had her major impurity, She had to think, worry about other people, how she would affect them. But the main focus of impurity is on the tabernacle. That she needed to know her status, her state as unclean, as it coordinated with God's presence there in the tabernacle. She had to follow these procedures. She had to do these things that God had commanded. so that she could then touch the things that were holy. She could then enter the sanctuary. And that's why I think we can see these different rules, as we said, for priests and especially the high priests. They had to stay more clean because their job was to go and serve at the tabernacle. Thus, they needed this higher clean state than an average Israelite. And so as we think about this and how this would affect an Israelite, I would argue that one of the functions of these purity laws was to make an Israelite always aware of God's presence amongst them in the tabernacle or later the temple. In all of their daily lives, they had this consciousness that they were in the presence of God, that the tabernacle was there in their camp. The tabernacle was in their midst. And so they had to think of that as they cooked meals in what was clean and unclean, as they worked in the country, as they visited family or friends, as they raised their family. In all of these activities, they were constantly thinking of how what they did affected whether they could go to the tabernacle or not, whether they can be in God's presence. But I would say it not only made Israel aware of God's presence, it helped emphasize the specialness of God's presence, what we call His holiness. There was this distinction between man and God. Israelites, they couldn't just wander in. They had to prepare. They had to be conscious. They had to think about going to the tabernacle to enter God's presence. They had to be very careful to follow all of these laws on purity. Or the consequences of that would be dire. God was holy. He was set apart. And the purity laws emphasize that. You don't just stumble into the tabernacle on a whim. or you could die. And we see that at the end of Leviticus 15, verse 31, as it somewhat summarizes the purpose of these various purity laws in the ceremonial laws. God says you have to do this. Thus you shall keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by defiling my tabernacle that is in their midst. But then to ignore these laws of impurity and then try to enter God's presence would mean death. Now, what's really hard is the specifics. Why did God choose these particular things? To teach this about clean and unclean. to teach us about the presence of the tabernacle, to teach us about God's holiness. Why tie impurity to menstruation, to giving birth? There's been many theories on that. Some tie it with loss of blood, and as a symbol of loss of life maybe, and God is the God of life. But it's very hard, and the text doesn't tell us that. What about a boy versus a girl? A boy, the woman's unclean for seven days and then 33 for a girl, 14 and then 66. Why make that distinction? Well, again, we're not told. Could it have to do with circumcision? The eighth day, the woman's uncleanness, her time of being contagious, giving impurity to others, ends before this time of circumcision. Could it relate to that? Or is there something else? Again, the text doesn't give us clear answers on that. But as we study them and think of them, I think that we could say that as strange as they seem to us, they wouldn't have seemed that strange to Israel. Because as we read of Israel's neighbors, we find that there were actually similar laws round about. That God was using practices that Israel would have been familiar with and using them to instruct them about him. But as we pull this together, one thing that impurity certainly did is it separated someone from God's presence. Separated them from God, but in a limited sense. It didn't separate them, as we said, that God's angry at them. We needed that distinction. It's not sin that caused it. It's not a sinful thing to be unclean. But it did separate them from coming and being in his presence in that tabernacle, that focal point of where he manifested himself to Israel. Because they were unclean, they couldn't approach. They couldn't come into that holy. And so, as we said, it always made them aware of God's presence. As we look at the Bible as a whole, we then see how this clean and unclean system, this impurity system, how it's used to teach about not only the effects of these normal things, making clean and unclean, but the effects of sin. And the separation that comes because of sin, and then also God's provision for that sin. And we see this in the Bible, that this language of cleanliness, clean and unclean, it gets picked up as a metaphor for sinfulness. Ezekiel 36, verse 17 is a good example. It says, Ezekiel, God's speaking, Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. Israel in their sinfulness, their ways in the land, they defiled it, and thus they were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. Now we have to read that rightly. Does that mean God hates this woman in her menstrual impurity? As we said, no, that's not at all what it's about. But as that minstrel impurity kept her away from the sanctuary, separated her, that if she would have approached in that, it would have been death. Because that unclean couldn't come in contact with the holy. That's what he's saying your sins are like. They keep you away. you cannot approach or you will die as you approach a holy God. They're not fit to enter his presence. Their sins have separated them in that same way. Another great example is David. We sang this from Psalm 51. As he expresses his desire for God to forgive him, he uses the language of the impurity system. Psalm 51, verse 2, he says, Wash me. And the term there really would maybe be better, launder me. He's using the term for washing clothes. That's something you always needed to do with that minor impurity. Wash your clothes, wash your body, and then you'll become clean. So he says, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me. There's that language again. Clean. Cleanse me from my sin. And then verse 7, we get even more imagery. He says, purge me or cleanse me with hyssop. As we'll see tonight, hyssop was used for a leper's cleansing. We see it in some other places. But this image that just as you can use this hyssop and cleanse that person who's impure, and then they can come into your presence. Do that for me, but for sin. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. That was the state that that new mother had. But now he's using it metaphorically in a sinful way, that he will be clean from his sin. Wash me, this again, launder me, and I shall be whiter than snow. And so God used this purity system to teach Israel, by analogy, about the effects of their sin and how it separated them from God, but also how he's the one who can provide a way for them to be brought near. Just as that new mother was able to bring her sacrifice to God and thus again enter God's presence at the tabernacle, God provided a sacrifice that allowed the sinner to be reconciled to him. And that's really this good news, the gospel, that we can find in the purity system. And thus, the New Testament picks up on that and uses that language of Christ's death for us. We read of it in 1 John, reading verse 7 again. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And what does the blood of Jesus do? It cleanses us from all our sin. Just as it cleaned those who were unclean, it brings us near, cleanses us. And the book of Hebrews, it gives an analogy. It's talking about the way someone was healed from death impurity. It says in chapter 9, 13 through 14, For if the sprinkling of defiled persons, those who were unclean, with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies for the purification of the flesh. So if God can do that back there, if he can provide a way to make the unclean clean, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit, offered himself without blemish to God, purifying our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Just as he could provide in that purity system, he has provided for what we need as sinners before him. Just as that new mother needed to look to God to provide cleansing, The washings, the sacrifices that would allow her then to join with God's people in his presence. We're called to look to Christ, to his sacrifice. The washing by his blood to reconcile us with God. But we could make a little contrast too. Unlike the new mother, we don't go to a physical temple or tabernacle anymore. And that's another element we could add. As we look in the New Testament, where is the temple? Where is the tabernacle? Well, it's Christ's body and his church. And that means us, ourselves. And so the New Testament uses that. And so as an Israelite, it's always to think of the tabernacle, the presence of God as they kept these purity laws, we need to constantly be reminded that we ourselves are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We have God's presence with us. May that affect all our living. And so, in closing, God gave us laws. Even ceremonial laws about purity. Why did he do it? To teach us about himself, his love for us, seen ultimately in the work of Christ. Israel lived them out, but may we and our children, may we still learn from them. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that you speak to us in so many varied ways so that we may constantly be assured of your love and your mercy to us if we turn in humble repentance towards you. And so we pray that you will encourage us through all parts of your word and give us insight into it. And may we walk in this week in the confidence knowing that we have been cleansed by Christ's blood so that we can enter into your presence. that we are reconciled with you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.