#12 Lu.
Introduction:
I think that you are aware that we are not living in Old
Testament times. We are living in New Testament times. I
hope you are also aware that in order for
us to properly
understand many of the things in the New
Testament and how
they apply to our own lives, we must first
look back to the
teachings of the Old Testament. Such is the case this
morning.
We have three simple verses from the New Testament.
Yet in order for us to understand what was
taking place in
this text and how it applies to our lives,
we must have at
least some understanding of some of the
Old Testament
teachings.
When Jesus was eight days old Joseph and Mary
circumcised Him. They did this in obedience to the Old
Testament law which God gave through
Moses. In our text
today, Joseph and Mary are again very
careful to act in
obedience to the law of Moses. There are three separate Old
Testament laws which are carried out in
our text. The first
is the law of purification for the mother
of a newborn child.
The second is the law concerning a
firstborn son. The third
is the law which prescribes certain
sacrifices to be made by
the mother of a newborn child.
I.
The law of purification
V. 22, "And when the days of her purification according
to the law of Moses were
accomplished..." The law of
purification involved the mother of any
new-born child. If
she had given birth to a male child, she
was considered
ceremonially unclean for the first seven
days. She was under
very tight restriction for those first
seven days. She was
to touch no one and no one was to touch
her or the furniture
on which she sat.
After the seventh day these restrictions were partially
removed, but only partially removed. She was not yet allowed
to touch any hallowed thing or sacred
thing. For that reason
she was not allowed to enter into the
sanctuary at the house
of God.
This partial restriction was extended for another
thirty-three days. During the time of the tabernacle, she
was not to enter the tabernacle. After the temple replaced
the tabernacle, she was forbidden to enter
the temple during
this period of time. Add it up.
The first seven days of her
uncleanness plus the next thirty-three
days of separation
from the sanctuary made a total number of
forty days of
separation for her. These forty days were called the days of
her purification.
If the mother gave birth to a daughter instead of a son,
the total number of days of purification
were doubled. They
were increased from forty days to eighty.
There was a spiritual
significance to this time of
purification. They were not meant to signify that there was
any sin involved in the conception and
birth of a child. In
the beginning when God made man and made a
wife for him, God
had commanded them to multiply and to fill
the earth with
their offspring. It was not against God's will for them to
have children. To the contrary. It was God's idea that they
have children. It was not a sin at all for married people to
have children.
Likewise in the New Testament in Heb. 13:4 we are told
that marriage is honorable and that the
marriage bed is
undefiled.
It is not sinful. But that same
New Testament
Scripture goes on to warn that sex outside
of the marriage is
a sin and that God will deal severely with
those who commit
this sin.
The time which the Israelite mother was required to
spend in separation and purification after
the birth of her
child was to serve two purposes. First, it was a reminder
that Adam had sinned and that all children
born to Adam had
the sin nature. Jesus, of course, was not born to Adam. He
was not conceived by an earthly father and
therefor did not
inherit the sin nature of Adam. However, the same law that
governed the birth of all other children
also governed His
birth.
God did not set up a double standard.
The same laws
which governed other humans also applied
to His own Son,
Jesus Christ. Jesus was not exempt from the law just
because
He is the Son of God. Therefore Mary was required to observe
the same days of purification following
the birth of Jesus as
all other mothers even though her son
Jesus had no sin.
The second purpose of the days of purification was in
order that the body secretions of the
mother which would
naturally flow for some time after the
birth of a child would
have time to stop. While there was nothing actually sinful
about these secretions, they,
never-the-less, were unclean
and pictured or represented sin. I repeat.
They were not
sinful in themselves, but because of their
uncleanness, they
pictured or represented sin. Therefore the mother needed
this time for those fluids to stop so that
she could recover
from this uncleanness.
II.
The law of dedication of the firstborn son
It was only after the days of her purification was over
that the mother of a new child was allowed
to enter into the
sanctuary at the house of God. Yet after these forty days
were over, she was not only allowed to go
to the house of
God, but she was required to do so. If the child was a
firstborn male child, it was the
responsibility of both
parents to carry that son to the sanctuary
and the husband
was to present him to the Lord. He was presented to God to
belong to God as the property of God to be
a servant of God.
There was a twofold purpose in this presentation of the
firstborn male child to the Lord. First of all, it was a
memorial to the deliverance of the people
of
bondage in the
them from
death.
The death angel came through the
hour of
every home throughout the land that did
not have the blood of
the passover
lamb sprinkled on the doorposts. Since
God had
instructed the Israelites to kill a lamb
and to sprinkle the
blood on the doorposts the firstborn sons
of the Israelite
people were spared.
So since God had spared the firstborn sons of
God said, "The firstborn sons of
through the years, the firstborn sons are
mine. They will
belong to me and they will serve
me." So God commanded that
down through the years each Israelite
family would present
their firstborn son to Him to be His
possession and His
servant.
After the construction of a house of God, this
presentation of the firstborn son was to
be made at the house
of God.
That presentation of the firstborn son would serve
as a reminder of God's great deliverance
from bondage in
Egypt and specifically it would remind
them of God's mercy to
Israel in sparing their firstborn sons
when the death angel
passed through the land.
There was a second purpose in sanctifying the firstborn
to the Lord. It serve the very practical purpose of
providing priests to lead the family in
worship. Under the
old patriarchal system of worship, the
father in each family
served as a priest for the family. By naming all the first
born sons of Israel to be His special
property, God intended
that each of these firstborn sons would
grow up to become the
priests for the entire family clan. They would be priests
not just for the immediate family, but for
all of his
brothers and their families.
This system of priesthood, however, was only a temporary
measure.
After the tabernacle was built God chose the
Levitical priests to serve Him in the
tabernacle and then
later in the temple. In Numbers 8:16 God specifically said
that the Levites were to take the place of
the firstborn sons
as priests in the land. From that time the firstborn sons
were not to serve as priests, but the
Levitical priests were
their substitutes.
However, even though the firstborn were not to serve as
priests in the time of Joseph and Mary,
the law of Moses
still required that each family to go to
the house of God and
present the firstborn to the Lord. God still counted the
firstborn sons as His possession and they
were to be
presented to Him in the House of God. This presentation no
longer provided the Israelites with
priests, but it still
served as a memorial of their deliverance
from bondage in
Egypt and still marked the firstborn sons
as servants unto
the Lord.
It was in keeping with this law of Moses that after the
days of Mary's purification were over,
Joseph and Mary made a
trip to the city of Jerusalem and to the
temple which was
located there. Fortunately for them Jerusalem was located
only about five or six miles north of
Bethlehem where Jesus
was born.
So it was not as difficult a trip for them as it
would have been if Jesus had been born in
some city a great
distance away from Jerusalem.
Yet this was not a pleasure trip.
This trip was made in
order to carry out the law which God had
given through Moses.
In Exodus 13:2 God had said,
"Sanctify unto me all the
firstborn, whatsoever openeth
the womb among the children of
Israel, both of man and of beast: it is
mine." In verse 12
God clarified that He was talking about
the firstborn males
and not the females.
(V. 22), "...they brought him to Jerusalem, to present
him to the Lord." Both Joseph and Mary made the trip. They
both brought Him. Once they arrived at the temple and both
entered the temple, it was then the task
primarily of the
husband to make the presentation of the
son to God. Even
though Joseph had not physically conceived
this child, yet he
was the head of this home and was required
to make this
presentation. He gave the child, Jesus, to God the Heavenly
Father.
He relinquished his claims to the work and labor of
this child and acknowledged that God is
the One who has full
right to claim His labors and to his
service.
Such acknowledgments had been made concerning many a
child down through the years. Yet never had those
acknowledgments been more true than in the
case of Jesus.
Jesus was indeed, the very Son of God and
had come to the
world to serve God and to do God the
Father's will in all
things.
He was truly "the Servant of God" in a sense that no
other child had ever been the servant of
God. He is the only
one to live in human flesh to do the will
of God in all
things.
In verse 23 Luke makes mention of tha new
mother
In verse 24 Luke makes mention of another law which Mary
was required to obey as a result of the
birth of her son,
Jesus.
V. 24, "And to offer a
sacrifice according to that
which is said in the law of the Lord, A
pair of turtledoves,
or two young pigeons." In addition to coming to the temple
and presenting their newborn son to the
Lord, the law of
Moses required the mother of the newborn
baby to present two
offerings to God. Luke says here in our text that Mary
presented two turtledoves or two
pigeons. He does not tell
us which.
Actually, what Luke here is telling us is that Mary did
not present God's first choice of
animals. God's first
choice of animals was a lamb and a pigeon
or turtledove. In
Leviticus.
12:4-7 the mother was instructed that after the
days of her purification were over, she
was to bring two
sacrifices to God. She was to bring a lamb of the first year
for a burnt offering. She was also to bring a young pigeon
or turtledove for a sin offering.
The sin offering was to acknowledge that she is a sinner
before the Lord and in need of cleansing
from sin. Let me
point out to you that in no way did this
sacrifice indicate
that Jesus is a sinner. Rather, it was to acknowledge to God
that the mother is a sinner and that she
seeks His
forgiveness of her sins. It was to seek pardon of all her
sins.
In this case, it was Mary seeking pardon for her sins.
The shedding of the blood of the pigeon or turtledove
was to signify that in order for her sins
to be forgiven,
there must be a substitute to die in her
stead. If she would
trust in the blood of her substitute, then
all her sins would
be forgiven. The blood of the pigeon or turtledove, like
the
blood of bulls and goats, could not
actually take away sin.
It only pictured the blood of the Christ
which can take away
sin.
In Mary's case, the blood of the animal pictured the
blood of her own Son, Jesus. It was the blood of her own
son, Jesus, which could take away her
sins.
No doubt, she had long ago repented of her
sins and had
trusted in the coming Christ to save
her. No doubt she was
saved before she was ever told that she
would bear the
Christ-child. Thus this sacrifice which she now presented
only pictured her salvation and was not
the time of her
salvation.
It pictured what every sinner must do to be
saved.
A sinner must acknowledge his sins seek forgiveness
of sins through the shed blood of Jesus
Christ.
The second sacrifice which a mother was required to make
was a burnt offering. According to Leviticus. 12:4-7, she
was to present a lamb of the first year to
be a burnt
offering to the Lord. The lamb was first slain and then the
lamb was burned on the altar. All parts of the lamb were
burned.
The burning of all parts of the lamb was to signify
complete submission and complete
dedication to God.
Do you get the picture in these two offerings as Mary
made them?
First, the sin offering pictured an
acknowledgment of her guilt of sin and a
trust in the shed
blood of her substitute to be an atonement
for her sins. In
other words, the sin offering pictured the
salvation of her
soul.
The second offering then pictured her submission to God
and dedication to God after her salvation.
This is just
exactly what is to take place in our own
lives. First we are
to acknowledge our guilt of sin and to
seek to be cleansed
from our sin through the shed blood of
Jesus Christ, our
Savior.
Then after we are saved, we are to submit your lives
to the Lord Jesus Christ who has saved us
and we are to be
dedicated to the will of God for our
lives. All who are
saved by the grace of God are to live
dedicated lives to the
Lord.
But let us look again at what Luke said about Mary.
Mary did not offer a lamb to God as a
burnt offering. She
did offer a pigeon or turtledove as a sin
offering, but she
did not offer a lamb as a burnt
offering. Luke said that
Mary offered two turtledoves or two
pigeons. She offered two
birds.
She did not offer a lamb at all.
Why? Why did Mary not offer a
lamb as she had been
instructed in the law to do? We need to look back to
Leviticus 12:8 for the answer to that
question. In Leviticus
12:8 we are told that in the event that
the mother was poor
and not financially able to bring a lamb
as a burnt offering,
then she would be allowed to bring a
pigeon or turtledove in
its place.
That is what Mary did. Instead of
bringing a
lamb and a bird, she brought two
birds. This was perfectly
allowable under the law. I am sure that Mary wanted to bring
a lamb, but she just did not have a lamb
to bring and she
could not afford to buy one. So she brought a bird instead.
This not only tells us that Joseph and Mary were poor
but it tells us something about Jesus
Himself. It tells us
that Jesus was willing to be born into
this world in a poor
family.
He could just as easily have been born to a rich
family, but He was willing to be born in a
poor family. In
other words, in order for us to be made
rich, Jesus Himself
became poor that we might be made
rich. He lived in a home
where the family was not able to present a
lamb in sacrifice
to God, but had to substitute a pigeon or
turtledove instead.
Furthermore, it tells us something about God the Father,
Himself.
It tells us that God does not require one to be
rich in order to be acceptable in His
sight. It tells us
that God does not require us to make rich
gifts to Him in
order for our gifts to be acceptable to
Him and in order for
us to be acceptable to Him. Perhaps you will remember that
later in the temple Jesus said that as far
as God was
concerned, the poor widow who cast only
two mites into the
treasury, gave more than any of the rich
men who cast in
great sums of money. God looks not so much at the amount you
give to the Lord as to the heart. If the heart is right, you
will want to give much to the Lord as Mary
no doubt wanted to
do and as, no doubt, the widow wanted to
do. But if you don't
have much to give , the Lord will accept
what you do have as
He did with Mary and the widow.
IV.
The will of God for our own lives
What each one of us needs to do is first to acknowledge
to God that we are unworthy sinners in His
sight and to ask
Him to cleanse us from our sins by the
blood of Jesus Christ.
In other words, what one needs to do is to
call on Jesus
Christ and ask Him to save his soul.
We are unworthy sinners whether we acknowledge it or
not.
But one will never be saved until he acknowledges to
God that he is a sinner and unworthy in
God's sight.
If you already know that you are unworthy, then what you
need to do is to call on the Lord and ask
Him to save you.
In Romans 10:13 we are told, "For
whosoever shall call on the
name of the Lord shall be
saved." Even though you know that
you are a guilty sinner, if you never call
on the Lord and
ask Him to save you, you will never be
saved. The Bible
says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be
saved." The word, believe, is used here in the sense
of
trust.
If you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save your
soul He will do so. But if you never call on Him, if you
never trust in Him, you will never be
saved. You will wind
up in the pits of hell where you will
suffer for ever and
ever.
No doubt many of you can truthfully say, "Bro. Davis, I
am saved.
I have acknowledged my sinfulness to God and I
have called on the Lord Jesus Christ as my
Savior. What do I
need to do?" The answer to that question is that you need
to
submit to the Lord and be dedicated to Him
in every way. You
need to follow the Lord in Scriptural
baptism. You need to
be baptized---not in order to be saved---
but because you are
saved.
But a saved person needs to do more than just to follow
Jesus in baptism and to get his name on a
church role. A
saved person should give his life to the
Lord to let the Lord
have His way with in all things. Just as in the burnt
offering the entire animal was burned and
nothing was held
back, even so it is that the saved should
present his entire
life to the Lord and not hold anything
back.
Let me ask you: Are you
saved? Where would you spend
eternity if you were to die as you are
right now? Would you
spend eternity with God in glory or would
you spend eternity
suffering in the fires of hell? If you are not saved, you
need to be saved right now. You can be saved right now. You
ought to be saved right now. Call on Jesus and be saved
right now.
If you are saved and your life is not dedicated to God
then you ought to dedicate your life to
God right now. You
can dedicate your life to God right now.
You ought to do it
right now.
While we bow our heads and pray would you talk to the
Lord about your need. Then when our invitation hymn is sung,
would you step out and get your life
straightened out with
God?