Leviticus 12: The Season For a Menstruating Woman

The L-RD 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 turtledove for a sin offering, and he shall offer it before the L-RD 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 turtledoves 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.”

Leviticus 12 ESV

I think some people are convinced that the above chapter proves G-d is a masochist. I further think some are convinced the above chapter has zero compassion.

That word “defiled” often gets a weird rap in our modern translations.

So, three things.

1) What is defilement?

2) Why two different time periods?

3) What is redemptive about this passage? Is there any love, tenderness, mercy, kindness that Father presents that we may be missing?

I do not do interpretation without the Holy Spirit. I refuse to bring merely my natural or soulish brain and heart to the text of Scripture and read what is there on the page apart from expecting that Father has a redemptive reason for having had something recorded.

So, here are some thoughts and feelings, as best as I know how to communicate them by the reality of heaven, the benchmark of where is redemption and making all things new.

What Are Defilement and Holiness

Defilement is not just the presence of sin…

Many of us have a really thin idea of what constitutes defilement and holiness. We think of defilment as “marred by sin” and holiness as “absence of sin”.

And we mess it up royally in both cases.

Holiness is not the absence of sin.

Holiness’ inverse is unholiness, which is not the presence of sin, but the violation of reality and the cause-and-effect principles G-d has set into play at work in all that makes up reality.

I would contend that Holiness in the inverse is therefore not abstaining from sin, but building through the weaving together of principles rather than pariticipating or condoning their violation.

Holiness is the gestation process by which a zygote becomes a fetus becomes a baby.

Holiness is spending years working on observing the flight of birds, translating those observations into experiments with kites and gliders, while perfecting the techonology behind the bicycle and taking all of those and more principles and weaving them together into the airplane, while exercising greater concern for your fellow man than your machine, should it get damaged (thank you Wilbur and Orville for setting the tone by showing you cared about those with whom you worked over whether or not you could show how a man could fly and stay aloft). For more details on my parenthetical phrase hat-tipping the Wrights in a post about menstruation, see this post

I wonder if the reality of being unclean or defiled, as we have elsewhere tied it, is larger and has greater consequences than we think.

We look at defiled and we think “dirty”.

That is such shallow thinking.

When you look at holy, you often think “pure”, and not a whole lot else.

Sigh….

More to it than that.

Defilement is carried as a picture through Leviticus 10-20, and there has been an effective picture that Arthur has carried out through his material that I wish to bring out here for the purposes of exploiting this dynamic. To explain better what I mean.

The Alien Human Spirit…

Now, the dynamic here is that we have a single essence, as created by the L-rd, and He is zealous (not passionate) about seeing to it that our essence remains 100% our essence, and that there are no taggers-along or hitchhikers.

Same here.

Defilement is described as dirty, but there is way more to it than that.

It’s a sowing together of two essences that do not mix. Two materials. Two languages. Two crops. Two spirits.

And this picture is spread throughout Leviticus 10-20. With childbirth, crops, textiles, sexual relations, food. Forcing together two or more things that do not belong.

And in Leviticus 12, we are seeing the setting apart of a transition period where two things that left bed in close proximity to one another will become two unique essences.

So holiness is a weaving together of principles.

Unholiness is a violation of principles.

And defilement is more of a joining together of two or more disparate essences. Essences that do not belong together.

And yes, only a baby heard its mother’s heartbeat from inside the mother.

But we get this weird thing where some who do not see their unique essences as legitimate attempt to codependently share an essence and violate boundaries. And as a result, defilement ensues.

This is holy. Everything works, and you took care of your peeps over your project. And you fly into your destiny.

Sure, Daniels’ photograph is good and historic. but it doesn’t show the mosquitoes, nor does it show the heartache of what happened moments later, nor the unpredictable weather patterns present in the Prophet County of Dare, North Carolina.

Indeed, you push through and you give birth.

Why a Longer Time For Baby Girls and What is Redemptive About Leviticus 12? Get Out of the Churchy and Crunchy Interpretations

And when it is a girl, and you wait twice as long as for a girl (14 days past and then another 66 days), there is something the L-rd needs to impart to that little bundle of estrogen that will soon someday house a little child that cannot happen in 33 days.

Have you ever thought the reason for the longer waits for the girls might be because the L-rd knows helping a little girl to the cruel and hard reality of existence requires something that provides a shelter and safety.

Boys are ready to run after a few months and to hell with safety (see the above picture for proof of this). Testosterone says “to hell with your standard.”

Girls, though, might tend to need a larger space for grace and sensitivity as their more-connected corpus callosum needs to connect with those immediately near them.

Maybe the L-rd is giving the girls grace to work through stuff. And an opportunity for some free money.

Maybe He is giving space for the two ladies to learn how to seperate and distill the essence of a mother of the living from another mother of the living.

You are, in fact, creating and weaving together someone who will carry and bear children. It is better to protect a delicate vessel here with a longer period with their mother.

Perhaps the L-rd knew this.

Instead of us looking at it through the lens of “girls are more dirty or evil or wicked” (BARF! with that interpretation), maybe it should be “G-d needs a double portion because there are somethings that cannot be imparted in 33 days time)?

Did you ever think maybe, just maybe, G-d has some things, given He is a crock-pot-G-d, that need that extra time?

Maybe Daddy is taking longer because he is establishing this group of warriors who will be sufficient battle partners for His sons.

Just some thoughts here, gang.