MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/9/2026
9:50 AM
My
Worship Time Focus: PT-1“The Purification and
Presenting”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Luke
2:22-24
Message of the verses: “And when the days for their purification
according to the Law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem
to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord:
“Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”),
and to offer a sacrifice according to what has been stated in the Law of the
Lord: “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
The first thing that I can say about
this section is that I will not be able to get through it in one SD, but as
always I will take my time going through it, for I don’t want to miss what the
Lord has for me in this important section of Scripture.
I think it best for me to quote
MacArthur’s commentary at the beginning of this SD: “As was the case with Jesus’ circumcision,
Mary’s purification (the word their merely reflects the presence
of Joseph and Jesus) and the presenting of the baby Jesus were done strictly in
keeping with the law of Moses. Like
circumcision, a woman’s purification after childbirth illustrated the need for
cleansing from sin. Leviticus 12:1-5
describes the purification process:
“1 ¶ The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 "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. 3 And on the eighth day the flesh of his
foreskin shall be circumcised. 4 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. 5 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.” (ESV)
“The
uncleanness in view here is ceremonial uncleanness, the first part of which
lasted for seven days, like that of menstruation (Lev. 15:19).” “19 ¶ "When a woman has a discharge, and the
discharge in her body is blood, she shall be in her menstrual impurity for
seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening.” “While she was unclean, a woman could not
touch anything sacred or holy, nor could she go to the temple. Her ceremonial uncleanness tempered the
natural joy of bringing a new life into the world (John 16:21) with sober
reality that the child, like its parents, was a sinner (Ps. 51:5).”
(John 16:21)
“21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow
because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer
remembers the, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.”
(Ps. 51:5)
“5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and
in sin did my mother conceive me.”
More from the Old Testament Law:
After a male child’s circumcision on the eighth day, the mother was
ceremonially unclean for another thirty-three days. Now it is interesting that if the child was a
girl that her time of impurity was doubled to two weeks initially followed by a
subsequent sixty-six days. MacArthur
adds that “The Bible does not explain the reason for tha additional time of
uncleanness, but there are at least two possibilities. First, as noted above, when a male child was
born circumcision served as an illustration of sin and depravity. It may be that God intended the extra period
of uncleanness involved in the birth of a female child to take the place of
circumcision. Second, doubling the
length of purification may reflect the stigma of women stemming from Eve’s
leading the human race into sin (1 Tim. 2:14).”
(1 Tim. 2:14)
“14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was
deceived and became a transgressor.”
“That
stigma is removed in Christ; while a woman led humankind into sin, godly women,
through their influence on their children have the privilege of leading many
out of sin into godliness (v. 15).”
(v. 15).
“15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if
they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.”
“After the days for Mary’s purification…were
completed and she was again permitted to enter the temple, the couple brought
Jesus up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. Though it did not have to be done at Jerusalem
or the temple, the law of the Lord given through Moses declared that
every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord and
set apart to Him. In Exodus 13:1-2, ‘the
Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Sanctify to Me every first born, the first
offspring of every womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and beast; it
belongs to Me.’” Elaborating on that commandment Moses said to Israel,
11 ¶ "When the LORD brings you into the land
of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to
you, 12 you shall set apart to the LORD
all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males
shall be the LORD’s. 13 Every firstborn
of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you
shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. 14
And when in time to come your son asks
you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the LORD
brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 15 For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us
go, the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn
of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all the
males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’
(Ex. 13:11-15 ESV).
“The
setting apart of the first born was not for priestly service, because priests
came only from the tribe of Levi (Jesus was from the tribe of Judah [Heb.
7:14]). Joseph and Mary then, were not presenting Jesus for priestly service,
but rather dedicating His life to God.”
[Heb. 7:14]).
“14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended
from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.”
“The Levites took the place of the
firstborn of the rest of the tribes by being devoted to the service of
God. In Numbers 3:12-13, God said to
Moses,
“Now,
behold, I have taken the Levites from among the sons of Israel instead of every
first born, the first issue of the womb among the sons of Israel. So the Levites shall be Mine. For all the first born are Mine; on the day
that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. I sanctified to Myself all the firstborn in
Israel, from man to beast. They shall be
Mine; I am the Lord. (cf. vv. 41, 44-45).
“But in
return for their being exempted from priestly duty, a redemption price had to
be paid for the firstborn from the other tribes. In Numbers 18:15-16, God said
to Aaron,
‘Every
first issue of the womb of all flesh, whether man or animal, which they offer
to the Lord, shall be yours; nevertheless the firstborn of man you shall surely
redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. As to their redemption price, from a month
old you shall redeem them, by your valuation, five shekels in silver.
Israel was
to a great extent a theocracy, with the priests and Levites doing much of the
word of governing the country. The five
shekels (a significant amount of money) paid by the families of the firstborn
sons of the other tribes helped defray the cost of running the government.”
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life Today: I am thankful for all of the Word of God,
even the things from the Old Testament that I don’t always understand the
meaning of, but know that they are important because they are in the Word of
God.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: Trusting the Lord to work out some issues
that my wife is having at this time, and we don’t know the source of pain she
his having.
4/9/2026
10:58 AM
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