Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Birthing rooms and men - old traditions vs. new

Pray.

Before we dive into how this text applies to you and me today, I want to first take a minute and explain what is going on here and also highlight a few things you may not have put together when you first heard the Scriptures read tonight.

To begin with, I want to say that God loves babies.

God loves children and Jesus said to His disciples,

Matthew 19:14 (ESV)

14 ...“Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

In fact, in the Old Testament, God gave the specific command to Noah after he came out of the ark,

And again in verse 7,

The Psalmist under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit said in Psalm 127, Psalm 127:3

I give you all of these Scriptures to remind you, because I believe you already know this, that having children is a blessing and a good thing.

It is not a sinful act, when it is within the confines of a marriage relationship; and even outside of marriage, while God does not sanction the conception as a holy act, he does not shun the child as those in our culture might, by treating it as an outcast.

We have a word that we use today as a curse word for that child that I do not care to use tonight, but God never thinks on any child like that.

In the Old Testament, childlessness was even considered to be a curse, whereas fruitfulness was considered a blessing from the Lord.

So all of this leads us to a question that we have to ask.

If God views children as a blessing and the normal thing that is expected of a married couple is to have children, why then do we have this passage about the uncleanness of childbirth, particularly with regards to the mother?

What did she do wrong that put her in a state of uncleanness that would need a sacrifice to restore her?

Well, we are going to look at that in a moment, but first I want to share with you some of the practical reasons for this law.

In these practical reasons, you will see that God loves mom’s and kids.

There are three phases of cleanliness presented in this chapter for a mother who gives birth.

Phases of Cleanliness After Childbirth

Phase 1: The Birth Phase

In this phase we see that immediately after giving birth, a mother is deemed unclean.

She remains unclean for 7 days if the child was a boy and for fourteen days if the child was a girl.

Now, before you start thinking that boys are cleaner than girls, just do a little reflecting.

We all know this is not usually the case, at least from a hygiene point of view.

But, these laws are not about hygiene.

From a spiritual perspective, God does not value men over women or treat them as more holy or worthy than women.

Some people believe this to be what complementarians believe to be true, because we believe that the Bible teaches that God has reserved certain roles for men and restricted women from serving in those roles.

This is not at all a question of value or worth, nor of ability, but rather function.

Now, to prove that God doesn’t value men more than women, we can look at verse 6 and see that the sacrifice for a boy or girl was exactly the same.

So why the different treatment?

In fact, why would God even say that “sin” or uncleanness had happened.

Well, first of all, no sin had been committed.

Remember that when we began this study through Leviticus, we made sure to point out that when the Bible speaks of uncleanness, this is not necessarily a state where sin has been committed, but rather a condition of ritual purity before God.

So, just like with the animals that were touched by someone and they caused the person to be made unclean did not mean that the person was guilty of sin, this act does not result in some sin having taken place by the parents to conceive and bear a child.

The status of the mother is changed to a status of ritual uncleanness, primarily due to the loss of bodily fluids and blood during the child-birthing process.

The mother is considered less than whole.

Now, if you have had children before as a mom, you probably felt a little less than whole.

You didn’t feel yourself and it took some time for you to recover.

You also had to heal.

Today, we often bring meals over to people who have just given birth, because even the act of standing at a stove can be a difficult task.

Moms are tired and worn out after giving birth.

So here we see that God cares for moms, because moms would not be allowed to continue to do the daily chores of the home like cooking and cleaning and preparing things while they were in a state of uncleanness without contaminating the home and making everyone else unclean.

This restriction would have protected moms, particularly if they had a husband who was harsh or inconsiderate.

Also, it would give the mom time to heal and become healthy.

There were a lot of women who died giving birth all the way up until recent years.

In fact, in the State of Georgia, even today, this is an ongoing problem, as we have some of the highest infant mortality rates in the nations.

A lot of this has to do with prenatal and postnatal care.

In the ancient world, diseases could easily be contracted and spread and this period of uncleanness allowed the mom to rest and get well.

But we also see in this phase that God cares for children as well.

You see babies were as vulnerable as moms.

Now, those of you who have had babies or have recently had grandchildren and have had the opportunity to go into the birthing room know that the nurses try their best to get the baby and mom to have skin-to-skin contact as soon as possible after the baby is born.

This is regardless of the mother’s plan to nurse the baby or use formula, because what it is doing is creating a bond between moms and their babies.

It’s kind of like the old cartoon where the egg hatches and the bird sees the first thing he lays eyes on and asks, “Are you my mother?”

In this act of mom’s being restricted from home labor after childbirth, God gives moms and babies an opportunity to bond and it shows that God cares for children.

Now in this first phase, I do want to point out that something special happens with boy babies on the 8th day.

On this day, boy babies are circumcised.

This was an act that demonstrated the parents faith in the covenants of God.

It is a promise by the parents to raise the child to realize that he is called a part and is to live a holy life unto the Lord.

This is much like baby dedication for us today, only it just involved the males.

Now, I for one am thankful that we no longer have the pastor, or priest, perform this act of circumcision, but the principle of dedicating our children to God still stands.

However, this is not an act that is replaced by baptism, as some denominations teach.

With baptism, the act is greater than circumcision, even though it symbolizes a circumcision of the heart, because with baptism, the person must be able to voluntarily make a confession of faith in Christ for themselves.

Their parents cannot do it for them.

That’s why we don’t baptize babies.

But this act further shows God’s care for babies, because it was done on the 8th day.

This is a day when pain and bleeding would be at its lowest.

It was merciful to do it on the 8th day.

Now, the surrounding cultures practiced circumcision, but it was usually an older person entering into manhood.

The act would also show care for the person’s future wife and their own health by God requiring it, because disease was not as likely to get caught in the folds of the skin and be transmitted to the person’s future wife.

This act was a reminder of the covenant that was cut between the person and the Lord and that this covenant was for them and their children.

The sexual organ used in procreation made it a reminder of this command to teach your children all that I have commanded you.

Phase 2: 33 or 66 Days of No Traveling

Now the second phase of purification allows for moms to get back to household duties without defiling the house, but they are still not allowed to travel to the Temple, or later the tabernacles, for a period of time.

In both the 7 or 14 days, or the 33 or 66 days of isolation we see a doubling for women.

You might wonder why.

The reason is unclear, but it doesn’t have anything to do with worth or value, as we have already seen, but probably had to do with two things.

1) The future potential for the loss of blood by the woman, and 2) The fact that often girls are smaller at birth than boys and the mortality rate is usually higher in girl babies than it is in boys.

This is still true today.

It is also true that in some cultures boys are more valued than girls.

Think of Henry the VIII and all that happened with his wives in an attempt for him to get a male heir in England.

Some fathers might have been inclined to take better care of boys than girls.

These rules that God put in place were good because they helped moms and children, because God loves mom’s and kids.

Phase 3: The Ritual Cleansing

In the final phase, the mother would be required to go to the temple and offer two different sacrifices.

One sacrifice is the burnt offering and the second is the sin offering.

Now, we’ve talked about both of these sacrifices before.

Remember that the burnt offering symbolized dedication to the Lord.

Here this sacrifice symbolizes dedicated the child and his upbringing to the Lord.

The mother was symbolizing giving the child to the Lord through this sacrifice.

Unlike the pagan nations around them, the Israelites were forbidden from offering their children in the fire.

They were instead to have a substitute stand in their place.

The substitute really pointed to Jesus, who would ultimately come and stand in our place so that we did not have to die for our sins.

That brings us to the second sacrifice.

The sin offering.

But, you may argue, I though you said that giving birth was not a sin.

Well, you remember correctly, but we must remember the words of David in Psalm 51:5

He is not saying that his mother committed sin when she gave birth to him, but that he was born with a sin nature.