Lev 12:6, 'And when the days of her purification are completed, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the doorway of the tent of meeting, a one year old lamb for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. 
    	Last time, we studied the food restrictions placed on the Children of Israel out of the great love for which the Lord was trying to protect and keep them from the diseases and the plagues of the nations surrounding them. This morning, we want to look at another manner of the Lord caring for and protecting His people from another source of illness and death that was so very common within the communities of that time and era. This morning’s reading has two facets to it with regard to the physical as well as the spiritual well being of His chosen nation. 
	To begin with, we need to understand that bearing children was not a curse upon the woman. When Adam and Eve were first created, they were instructed to have many children in order to fill the earth with their offspring. It was a blessing of God upon them as we read in the very first chapter of Genesis, verses 27 and 28. Gen 1:27+28, And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." 
	However, after the fall, in Gen 3:16, God dealt very forcefully with Eve in the manner of bringing forth children. She was not cursed because of childbirth, but she would know intense pain in the birthing process. Gen 3:16, To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you shall bring forth children; Yet your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you." From the fall onward, giving birth has been an excruciating process, but still with a most blessed result in the birth of a child. Mixed with the pain and anguish, God included still His blessing in that bond between mother and child which makes the pain of the birth less agonizing. 
	This morning’s readings do not detail a curse upon the woman, but rather show the physical care that was necessary in that day. There were so many ways that both the woman and the baby were in danger in the postpartum period, that God made this time of provision for mother and child. Studies indicate that many children of the surrounding nations would die right after birth due to what was called childbed fever. By the stipulation of separation for a week for a boy child and two weeks for the girl child, they were kept at home and away from some of the possible carriers of the germs.
	As well, the mother was isolated from any of the duties of the household nature because of her uncleanness for the week or two. She was left to care for the baby and that was a blessing in itself since the bond was allowed to form as well as the milk feeding process. These were times of recovery that were not prevalent within the nations surrounding Israel, and thus the death rates for the baby and mother were exceedingly elevated in those other communities. As a result of God’s requirements, the Jewish children and mothers were more often kept relatively safer than the norm of that age. This was God’s provision for the new born, the mother, and the nation, as a whole, as its population could grow exponentially quicker than the nations surrounding them.
	As an aside that is something else to consider in the manner of God’s provision, it is generally agreed that the reason for the difference in the week wait for a male child and the two week period for the female was that the male children tended to be heartier in their physical capacity. More female babies were born numerically, but they were often smaller and the mortality rate was such that the general population was increasing on a somewhat even scale of male and female. Because of this disparity in survival rate, the Lord may very well have ordained the two week period to give the girls a better chance at surviving those first weeks of life. 
	The next aspect, dealt with in the manner of the mother’s cleansing process is the reality that we are all born under sin and subject to the curse of sin all the days of our lives. It may have been a ritualistic ordination by God to cause the society to appreciate the fact of what had been done so long ago in the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve. The after-birth sacrifices showed how all were in need of cleansing from that sin. As beautiful as giving life was to the woman, there was still the need to reestablish the necessity to come back to God and to seek the forgiveness and cleansing that He, Alone, could provide. 
	This whole aspect is detailed for us in Job 14, verses 1-5, if you would care to turn to it so we can study it together. Job 14:1-5, "Man, who is born of woman, Is short-lived and full of turmoil. "Like a flower he comes forth and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not remain. "Thou also dost open Thine eyes on him, And bring him into judgment with Thyself. "Who can make the clean out of the unclean? No one! "Since his days are determined, The number of his months is with Thee, And his limits Thou hast set so that he cannot pass. 
	This is the basic core of the situation with regard to our condition as those born under the curse of sin in this world. As the products of humankind, our life …Is short-lived and full of turmoil… As much as we may try to be good of ourselves, as we are told in this passage …"Who can make the clean out of the unclean? No one! We are the product of sin and can not get rid of the effects of that sin, no matter how hard we may try. Only God can deal with it and only He can cleanse us from our iniquity through the saving grace and might of His own Beloved Son. 
	In this passage, we see that man will try to do everything possible to become immortal by his own endeavor. We see this in our current society as science is trying to bring the life span of humanity into an increasingly greater possibility. In another sense, we recently saw a program which declared that man will soon be able to live forever in the digital realm. His thoughts and ideas and memories can be digitally stored forever as if that ensures immortality. As we read here, all of that is futile under the awesome Omnipotence and Omniscience of God. "Since his days are determined, The number of his months is with Thee, And his limits Thou hast set so that he cannot pass.
	No matter what man does, he can not extend his time on this earth beyond the days appointed to Him by God. It will not matter how good a person is or how much money that person has or how much fame that person accumulates, none of it will buy or earn one second more than God has ordained. The issue of sin is prevalent in the fact that man still tries to make himself able to determine his own destiny and lifespan, acting in the role of God for himself. This will never take place within the scope of human knowledge or endeavor or progress. The ways of sinful man will never compare to the ways of the Most Holy and Righteous God.
	The Psalmist understood the whole issue of the birth of man under the curse of sin as described in Ps 51:1-10, if you would please turn to it and follow along. In this passage, the writer calls out to God in full agreement that man can do nothing of himself. Only God can save and only God can purify and Only God can cleanse the heart and being of mankind. 
Ps 51:1-10, Be gracious to me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Thy compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. Against Thee, Thee only, I have sinned, And done what is evil in Thy sight, So that Thou art justified when Thou dost speak, And blameless when Thou dost judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, Thou dost desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part Thou wilt make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which Thou hast broken rejoice. Hide Thy face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 
	The full focus of how man needs to submit to the cleansing grace and work of God is so manifested in this passage. If God does not do the work, there is no hope for anyone to be cleansed and redeemed from the sin and iniquity under which we are born. We are incapable of doing anything other than seeking the direct intervention of God’s purifying grace and mercy and scrubbing work within the depth of our defiled and corrupt beings. Without Him and His salvation, we are doomed, and that is the heart of why we must come to God and beseech Him to cleanse us, as was so signified by the sacrifices that were prescribed for the woman after child birth. It was that agreement and understanding that God, Alone could cleanse all that was in the heart of humanity.
	We see that even Mary, the mother of Jesus, as recorded in Luke 2:21-24, followed this ordinance, even though it is a fact that she gave birth to the only perfect and Begotten of The Father. The conception was without sin, but the woman still needed to honor God in the fact that she was a sinner and in need of His cleansing work in her life. Luke 2:21-24, And when eight days were completed before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. 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 first-born male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord"), and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, "A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons." 
Mary was honoring God in fulfilling all that was necessary to show that she believed that God Only was her Savior and her Redeemer. Nothing that she did, even in the miraculous nature of the conception of her son, could cleanse her. As with all of us, only God could do the work necessary and that is what she signified in following the prescribed manner of purification. 
	The Apostle Paul, in Rom 5:12-19, our last passage of this morning, encourages us in the fact that what man could never do because of his sinful nature, Christ accomplished for all of us forevermore. Please read along with me. 
Rom 5:12-19, Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned — for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. 
    	One of the key truths of this passage is that now, in Jesus Christ, we are cleansed from the sinful nature under which we were born. While we could never do anything of our selves to cleanse us from this sin and transgression, He has done it by His death and resurrection. As we call upon Him and believe in Him as both our Savior and our Lord, we will find that we are no longer slaves to sin as was true from the moment of our conception onward. 
In Jesus, we are given that new heart and nature that the Psalmist so yearned after with all his heart. We are cleansed from all unrighteousness and covered in the purity and the holiness of Our Lord and King, Our Savior and Our Life, Jesus Christ. In Him, and through Him, and by Him, everything has become new and we are brought into a living relationship with God fully bathed in the beauty and the majesty and the glory and the honor of God, Himself. So be it.
	'And when the days of her purification are completed, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the doorway of the tent of meeting, a one year old lamb for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is 2 Sam 22:47-50  "The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock; And exalted be God, the rock of my salvation, The God who executes vengeance for me, And brings down peoples under me, Who also brings me out from my enemies; Thou dost even lift me above those who rise up against me; Thou dost rescue me from the violent man. "Therefore I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord, among the nations, And I will sing praises to Thy name. Amen.