31. Purified and Dedicated At Forty Days

Leviticus 12:1-4 & 6-8 and Luke 2:22-24

Key verse: As it is written in the law of the Lord, "every first born male is to be consecrated to the Lord."

Luke 2:23

Jesus is now 40 days old, or almost six weeks.  The span of forty days is significant in scripture.  In Exodus, Moses stayed with God for forty days, twice, on Mount Sinai.  The prophet Elijah went without food for forty days after being fed by the Lord himself.  (1 Kings 19:3-9) In the future, Jesus would fast forty days in the wilderness before beginning his ministry.  Here, at the beginning of His life, His mother Mary is considered unclean, by God's own law, for forty days and must do what is necessary to become clean. 

One might be tempted to think that after having given birth to the Son of God, that there would be some special dispensation given to be allowed to set aside some of the restrictions imposed on man.  After all, Mary was chosen.  Mary was special!  How in the world could she be unclean after having given birth to Jesus?  He was different!  He was without sin. 

True to God's own character, this is not the case.  In fact, as we have been emphasizing, it was more important than ever that the Laws given to Moses be obeyed, so that God could continue to identify with us, living under His Law for the sake of us sinners, even though he is without sin. And to be without sin, he must also keep the Law perfectly.

Mary is still considered unclean after having given birth and Jesus needs to be redeemed as the first born, even though He is sinless.  He needs to be presented at Jerusalem.  There are no special favors here.  Mary and Joseph and Jesus must follow the law more carefully than anyone had either before or after Him, so that no man could accuse them of breaking it. 

God doesn't even provide a special lamb for Jesus' redemption as He had for Isaac on Mount Moriah.  Now, we see through the offering of two turtle doves, just how poor Mary and Joseph truly are.  "If she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering.”  (Lev. 12:8) There are no special favors here. The fact that they were too poor to buy a lamb is also strong evidence that the wise men had not yet visited the holy family. One of the gifts of the magi would be gold, but they hadn't come yet. There was no gold for a lamb. But in God's economy, the doves were enough.

Jesus was among the poorest of men to lift us all through His redemption.  "Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." (Phil.  2:6-7) A sin offering for the Spotless Lamb of God?  Yes, even in this, before the cross, with two turtle doves, because that was all His parents could afford, Jesus identified with us. 

Hymn: "Child in the Manger"