The God of Two Doves

[rj_anderson]

Today I was reading this passage in Leviticus 5, in which the Lord is instructing Moses on the various offerings and sacrifices to be made in the Tabernacle:

"When anyone is guilty... he must confess in what way he has sinned and, as a penalty for the sin he has committed, he must bring to the LORD a female lamb or goat from the flock as a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin. If he cannot afford a lamb, he is to bring two doves or two young pigeons... and he will be forgiven. ...If, however, he cannot afford two doves or two young pigeons, he is to bring as an offering for his sin a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering. ...He is to bring it to the priest, who shall take a handful of it as a memorial portion and burn it on the altar on top of the offerings made to the LORD by fire. ...In this way the priest will make atonement for him for any of these sins he has committed, and he will be forgiven."

You can't read the Law of Moses without realizing that the Lord God of Israel takes sin very seriously, and that He does not overlook it or allow it to go unjudged. Sin has to be atoned for, and under the Law, atonement could only be made by sacrifice -- not by prayer, not by good intentions, but by offering up an animal or other ritually acceptable object to be consumed upon the altar of the Lord. Furthermore, that sacrifice had to be the best animal or object of its kind you had to offer -- nothing lame, or old, or worthless -- it had to cost you something.

What really struck me here, however, was the incredible grace of God. There was no getting around the fact that a sacrifice must be offered. And there could be no disputing that the God of Heaven deserved the very best. But He did not play favorites with the wealthy, or make it so that only those privileged enough to own livestock could offer an acceptable sacrifice. He promised forgiveness of sins not only to the man who could offer a healthy young lamb or goat, but even to the man so poor that he could only afford two quarts of flour. He did not say, "If you want to be completely forgiven, you have to bring a lamb; if you can't afford that, then you'll have to make do with a partial, incomplete forgiveness instead." The same atonement, the same restoration of fellowship with God, was available to everyone, whether rich or poor -- so long as they were willing to come to God on His terms.

And that reminded me of this passage in Luke 2:

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."

Ideally speaking, the sacrifice for ritual purification after childbirth was to be a year-old lamb and a young pigeon or dove (Leviticus 12:6). But Mary and Joseph could not afford the lamb, so they had to go with the alternate offering -- two doves (Lev. 12:8). Again we see the grace of God in action, extended to the poorest of the poor.

But in this case the poor people making the offering were the very ones God had entrusted with the care of His only begotten Son.

And the child being consecrated that day would Himself, some thirty-three years later, become the perfect and final Sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:1-18).

Excuse me, I just got a shiver down my spine.

Comments

[harriet-wimsey.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. Yeah, sometimes it's hard for me to fully realize just how necessary sacrifice is, and therefore what incredible grace we've been given. I'm rereading Sayers' The Man Born to be King right now, and I'm noticing more of that.

[olmue.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing--this was very cool, something I'd never put together before.

[thegameiam.livejournal.com]

The Hebrew word translated there as "offering" is korban which is from the root qoph-resh-vet. All of the words from that root have a sense of distance relationships. And korban itself could more accurately be translated as "mechanism of bringing together" or "distance shortener."

You might also find it interesting that sin-offerings (korban hattat) are only offered for certain types of sins: they're not offered for murder, for instance, nor are they offered for sins which are completely intentional: there has to be a level of unawareness that something is a sin for it to be liable for bringing a sin-offering (as opposed to getting a more severe punishment).

Of course, Hosea 14:2 (Offer our lips as sacrifices of bulls) governs the modern Jewish approach to the korbanot - instead of offering the daily sacrifices, one reads about them every morning...

[tree_and_leaf]

Yes - that's a very good point. It all ties up very neatly...

[pammalamma.livejournal.com]

I got a chill, too. This was nice, thanks.

I had noticed before that Mary and Joseph were too poor for the usual sacrifice, but never realized that the one being sacrificed for was the sacrifice.

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

That's a very powerful thought. Thank you for sharing it.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Could I possibly reprint this in my community fpb_de_fide?

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

If you like, sure!

[skywardprodigal.livejournal.com]

This is amazing. Thank you for pointing out the poverty of Joseph and Mary and the provision(s) of the Most High.