Luke 2:21-24 (NIV) On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.
When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”
As previously noted, Joseph and Mary were both righteous and completely obedient to God’s commandments. Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day after His birth in exact conformity to the law (Genes 17:12, Leviticus 12:3). And at that time He was given the name Jesus in exact obedience to the angel’s command (Matthew 1:21, Luke 1:31).
Forty days after Jesus’ birth, Mary completed the days of her purification (Leviticus 12:2-4), so they went up to the temple in Jerusalem to both make the purification sacrifice for Mary (Leviticus 12:5-8), and to pay the redemption price for Jesus as the firstborn son (Exodus 13:12). The sacrifice they brought, two young pigeons, was reserved for those who couldn’t afford a lamb for the burnt offering, a testimony to their low estate. (It also shows that the wise men had not yet come with their gift of gold!)
Such elaborate and expensive rituals may seem odd to people living today, but all of them spoke to very specific points of history and holiness.
- Circumcision was a sign of the Abrahamic covenant, when God officially inaugurated him as the root of the nation that He would own as His people, and through whom He would bless all of the people of the world. When a Jewish boy was circumcised, it was a sign in his flesh that he was a part of that covenant, and identified him as belonging specifically to God.
- The days of impurity after giving birth had to do with the blood that accompanied the birth process. Blood is a precious substance, the very stuff of life, spilled out in the sacrifices that atoned for sin. For that reason, God taught His people to treat it with awe and respect. It was never to be consumed as the pagans did (Leviticus 7:26-27, 17:13-14), but only offered to God. And the blood of another was never to be contacted. God taught His people that such contact with the blood of someone else would cause them to become unclean in His sight. Even those who were involved in war had to undergo cleansing rituals before they could come back into the camp (Numbers 31:19-20). And menstrual blood was to be avoided for the same reason (Leviticus 15:19-24).
Joseph and Mary never questioned the need for such rituals and sacrifices, or rationalized away the need for compliance with them. They simply obeyed, desiring with all of their hearts to keep themselves, body, mind, soul, and spirit, blameless and holy in God’s sight.
Father, Mary and Joseph were completely obedient to all of Your commands without the slightest aroma of legalism about them. They didn’t obey to get something from You, they had already received so much, but simply out of their wholehearted love and devotion. Help my obedience to be just as complete, just as pure, just as untainted by any false motives as theirs was. Amen.