Thursday, October 13, 2011

Don't Know

Leviticus 12

Well, now this is interesting.  Not sure what one can say about it.  Can't quite figure out why the time that a woman is ceremonially unclean and her time of her blood purification is double the time if she bears a female child rather than a male child.  I read a few commentaries on this text and they all seem like they're kind of drawing straws.  Some of them related to the menstrual cycle and said something to the effect that because the mother is birthing a child who would one day enter into this cycle of uncleanness herself, the mother's time was longer.  The fact remains, scripture does not say. We cannot know for sure why God has ordered this.  He just has.

I find it also interesting that God (as at other times) has made provisions for the women who are of poorer means to be able to offer substitute sin offerings after the days of purification.  Those who cannot afford to sacrifice a lamb may bring two turtledoves or pigeons to the priest so that she might be clean.  God recognizes the inequities among his people and does in fact require more of some.  Although, if we consider the story of the widow's mite in Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21:1-4, we realize and understand that offering of the set of two birds may be a larger portion of what they possess, than the one who owns a sheep. Yet, the offering is required.  It is not optional.

There are many things in scripture that we simply do not understand.  That is ok.  No one knows all the answers.  Just because we don't understand everything in scripture does not mean we should give up on reading or hearing it.  Some things may seem confusing.  We may feel like we are totally lost in a forest of words and places and people we just don't quite understand.  But, there will many other things that we will learn by staying the course and keeping ourselves immersed in God's word.

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