Leviticus 12, 15 "Lessons in Purity: The Holy Seed"

Normally I like to follow the canonical order and deal with each text as it comes.

But the laws in chapters 12 and 15 are so closely related,

that I have chosen to treat them together.

Indeed, the laws of chapter 12 seem to assume knowledge of chapter 15.

So let's look briefly at chapter 15.

There are two basic parts to the chapter:

the first eighteen verses deal with male discharges,

while verses 19-30 deal with female discharges.

The section on males itself has two parts:

verses 2-15 refers to discharges other than sperm.

A foreign substance could render a man unclean.

The idea is that there is a mixture going on in a man's private parts.

There is a substance there that does not belong.

So if a man has a discharge-other than sperm-he is unclean,

and everything he touches, or which touches him, also becomes unclean.

When he is cleansed,

then he must take two doves or two pigeons to the LORD

as a sin offering and as a burnt offering.

And did you notice the time requirement?

He must wait seven days from the end of the discharge,

and then on the eighth day, he must bring his sacrifice.

Do you see the new creation image?

The man's "seed" has been compromised by this foreign substance.

This condition renders him unclean,

for if a man cannot produce, then he cannot partake in the worship of God.

(See Dt 23, which forbade the emasculated to enter the assembly of Yahweh).

The worship of God in the OT is entirely dependent upon the promise of the seed.

For without the seed of the woman-the seed of Abraham-there is no salvation.

Therefore, on the eighth day, the man would bring the sacrifice

to remove the impurity of his seed.

But then notice verses 16-17.

While the discharge requires a sacrifice,

the emission of sperm merely renders him unclean until evening.

No sacrifice is required,

because there is no major problem with the proper function of the male seed,

there is merely a misfire-a temporary malfunction.

But even a temporary malfunction is sufficient to render a man unclean.

A man's sperm has but one proper function.

It is for his wife.

The people of God must be holy.

Therefore even temporary malfunctions were sufficient

to prevent a man from entering the worship of God.

Verse 18 refers to normal function.

Even normal sexual function rendered both man and woman unclean.

It is for this reason that God warned the Israelites in Exodus 19:15

not to have sexual relations before they entered the worship of God.

If you are going to come into the presence of the Most Holy God,

then you should have nothing else on your mind,

or on your body!

Since that which is unclean has the power to contaminate,

the Israelites were commanded not to be contaminated.

Now recall that Israelites were required to come to worship three times a year.

So this requirement would not be too onerous.

Likewise, the woman in verses 19-30 may be rendered unclean through improper function.

The sequence here, however is reversed.

First we deal with the normal, then we move to the abnormal.

Verses 19-24 speak of the normal menstrual cycle.

How can this be said to be "improper function"?

Doesn't a woman have her period every month?

Think about what is happening.

For the man, if the seed falls anywhere but his wife,

it renders him unclean.

What is the purpose of her flow?

It signals the fact that she is not pregnant.

It means that the unfertilized egg is passing from her body.

Therefore she will be unclean for seven days,

and any man who lies with her will also be unclean seven days.

The stain of impurity is contagious.

But then in verses 25-30 we hear of abnormal discharges in women.

Like the man, this is not an ordinary uncleanness.

This one requires an eighth day sacrifice in order to be restored.

There is a closing admonition to the priests in chapter 15,

encouraging them to teach these things

-keeping the Israelites separate from that which would defile them.

But, returning to chapter 12, if the woman is rendered unclean by her menstrual flow,

then why would childbirth render a woman unclean?

And for that matter,

why would a female child double the time of her impurity?

Many ancient peoples would quarantine menstruating, pregnant, or childbearing women.

Some believed that a woman's ability to bring life into the world made her almost supernatural,

or at least more open to the supernatural,

which was both a good thing and a bad thing.

After all, the frequency with which women died in childbirth

seemed to indicate that evil spirits could attack a woman during her pregnancy.

But nowhere in Scripture do we see any indication that God desired his people to think this way.

The uncleanness of childbirth is related directly to the flow of blood.

Israel had been told frequently that they were not to partake of the blood of animals (Lev 3:17),

because the life of an animal was in its blood.

Likewise, the life of a woman is in her blood.

When a woman gives birth, she is stained with her own blood.

But this is not an ordinary bleeding.

An Israelite did not become unclean every time they got a cut.

This bleeding is directly related to life and death.

This bleeding comes along with the birth of a child,

a child who might be the fulfillment of the promise.

We must understand Leviticus 12 in the light of Genesis 3, Genesis 12, and Genesis 17.

Leviticus 11 has just told us about the clean and unclean animals,

concluding with its absolute prohibition of touching any swarming creature,

particularly serpents.

The seed of the serpent is at enmity with the seed of the woman.

Having spoken of the seed of the serpent in chapter 11,

Moses now turns to the seed of the woman,

and does so in the context of Genesis 17-the covenant sign of circumcision.

Likewise, Leviticus 8-10 has just told us about the consecration of the priests,

who entered their holy service on the eighth day.

Observant Israelites would notice the similarity with circumcision here in chapter 12.

Just as the priests entered their holy service on the eighth day,

so also every Israelite male enters the covenant on the eighth day.

Circumcision, then, must be seen as a sign of the new covenant,

the day when the Israelite boy receives the promise of the new creation.

The eighth day is overwhelmingly the day of atonement-

the day when God's people are made clean.

But while the boy is clean,

as the foreskin of his flesh is cut off on the 8^th day

(and the cutting off of the foreskin of his flesh

symbolizes the cutting away of the old nature-see Col. 2:8-12),

his mother cannot be purified for another 33 days.

She is no longer technically unclean, but she is not yet purified,

so she may not go to the sanctuary until the 40 days are over.

Moses was on Mt. Sinai for 40 days.

Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.

Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days.

The common thread that runs between the various "40 day/40 year" passages,

is the separation or isolation of the party from contact with the larger community.

There is no suggestion here that sex or childbirth is bad.

But just as in the case of the red heifer in Numbers 19,

where the priest became unclean in the very process of making Israel clean,

the mother is hereby seen in the same light.

She becomes unclean in order that she might bring a child into the covenant.

This begins to explain why the girl renders her mother unclean for 14 days.

In the case of a boy, the mother's 7 days cover herself,

and her contact with the menstrual blood.

But his circumcision cuts away his old flesh and brings him into the covenant.

For a girl, however, the mother is unclean for 14 days,

7 for herself and 7 for her daughter.

And she must be separated from the community for 80 days,

40 days for herself, and 40 days for her daughter.

And then, at the end of that time of purification,

she must bring a year-old lamb for a burnt offering,

and a young pigeon or dove for a sin offering (or two birds, if she is poor).

And after the priest makes atonement for her, she will be clean.

There is some question as to how faithful Israel was in keeping this law.

It is possible that Elkanah and Hannah kept it (1 Samuel 1:21),

but it appears likely that most women living away from the central sanctuary

usually did not make a special trip just for this.

This makes Joseph and Mary rather unique in scripture.

Indeed, Luke 2 is highlighting the faithfulness of Joseph and Mary,

as they come to the temple to dedicate the baby Jesus.

This is a remarkable event, if you think about it.

Bearing Jesus-the eternal Son of God-rendered Mary unclean!

She had to bring a blood sacrifice to purify herself from that impurity!

This makes it clear that the impurity of childbirth has nothing to do with any supposed sinfulness of sex

(since Mary was a virgin!),

nor does it imply anything sinful about the child (since Jesus was perfect).

Rather, it shows us the true humanity of Jesus.

It shows us that he was indeed, born of a woman, born under the law.

She took the uncleanness of childbirth upon herself,

so that, in the words of the hymn-writer, "to show God's love aright,

she bore the world a Savior."

Leviticus 12, then, is preparing us for understanding

how the eternal Son of God could be born of a woman;

because it is not the child, but the mother, who is rendered unclean by childbirth.

What do we do with this today?

We don't consider mothers to be "unclean"

or unfit to enter the worship of God for 40 or 80 days after childbirth.

We don't consider sexual relations between husband and wife to make us unclean.

Why not?

Because there is both continuity and discontinuity between Moses and Christ.

The promise in Genesis 3, that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head,

has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

This has implications for how women are viewed in the New Testament.

In the OT, only the men received the covenant sign.

They were awaiting the holy seed,

the one who would bring about the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham.

But Jesus is the Seed of Abraham.

He is the Seed of the Woman.

So what is the point for women today?

You are no longer anticipating the fulfillment of the promise to Eve.

There are two NT answers-one of continuity and the other of discontinuity.

The answer of continuity is found in 1 Timothy 2:11-15 (read).

This provides a continuity all the way back to creation and fall.

Woman will be saved through childbearing,

if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

While the specific promise of the seed of the woman has been fulfilled,

there is an analogical continuity:

women still bring forth covenant children,

taking upon themselves the danger and peril of childbirth,

facing death, so that they might bear new life.

As such there is certainly a Christ-likeness to childbirth,

and the pains of childbirth, for the Christian woman,

are truly a sharing in the sufferings of Christ.

But there is also an element of discontinuity with the OT purification laws.

Because 1 Corinthians 7 praises singleness as a Christian calling,

and also calls Christians to regular marital relations without any hint of impurity.

Likewise, Galatians 3:27-29 declares that male and female are now one in Christ,

in a way that they were not before.

As the early fathers put it,

by passing through all stages of life, Christ Jesus sanctified all stages of life.

As he passed through the womb, he rendered it clean.

No longer would a woman's menstrual flow be considered unclean,

because Jesus has cleansed it.

As Jesus has broken down the wall between Jew and Gentile,

symbolized in the food laws,

so also has he broken down the wall between male and female,

symbolized here in chapter 12.

Boys and girls are baptized together.

Men and women partake equally of the Lord's Supper.

Singleness is now a blessing,

and eunuchs are welcomed into the Kingdom of God,

because the Seed has come.