Reading
SAA Notes
Feminists have often got very heated over this chapter – the bit where a woman is unclean for twice as long with the birth of a girl. This is because we moderns don’t put two and two together very well. These women, who might have disappointed various powerful figures (mother-in-law, husband, aunts) in their extended family by producing a daughter, were given a protected space of 66 days where they could not be worked, have sex or be harassed. This is a regulation that blessed the women of the day – for a despised daughter they got twice as long off as for the desired son!
SJA Notes
* Dear God. Please show us today a little more of what it means to be Your people.
“And the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.”
If Leviticus is a book that asks what it means for us to be clean, then this passage points us to go deeper in our thinking.
To remember Jesus.
We are not saved or then sanctified on the basis of our physical and mental state. Whether by birth or through experience.
These elements that make up who we are and what we go through – they do not make us clean or unclean before the Lord God.
It is our SIN that is the problem.
And so, just as with Israel here in this passage, when we think about being clean, we must think about the HEART.
Jesus drives this home in Matthew ch 15,
“But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts – murder, adultery, sexual immortality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; …”
We need our hearts rebirthed through the saving grace and work of Jesus the Christ, our God and King.
We need Jesus to be clean.
* Dear God Above,
Thank You that in Christ we wear the robes of His righteousness, without spot or blemish, no stain.
Thank You that because of Him we are considered clean in Your sight.
Thank You for the hope we have in glory, that which comes next!
Amen.