Obedience, No Matter the Poverty, Wealth, or Cost
And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”
Luke 2:21–24 ESV Read More
From day one through day eight, you can see that Joseph and Mary are good Jewish people. They are following the law with their newborn son just as they should, whether He is the savior of the world or not. To add to their humility, Luke details what they offered for purification of the child. In Leviticus 12, God gave the Jewish people the system for childbirth. There were steps to follow if you had a baby girl and different steps if you had a baby boy. There were prayers and ceremonies that were different, especially if it was a woman’s first child.
All of the firstborn sons were considered Holy from the time of the Exodus, when God took the firstborn of every Egyptian household that didn’t have the blood of the lamb over their doorway. From then on, a special offering was made for every firstborn son to remember that sacrifice and to sanctify that child to the Lord. That would make the boy special in the household as a leader over all of his siblings. The required sacrifice was a lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon or a dove for a sin offering. A year-old lamb could be expensive, so in some cases, if a family was poor, Moses said they could bring two doves or pigeons instead of a lamb.
Leviticus 12:8 And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.” (ESV)
There weren’t a lot of provisions in the law that would let you do something different if you were poor, but there were a few. Usually, the offerings were the same whether you were rich or poor.
When Joseph and Mary went up to Jerusalem, they weren’t rich. They didn’t have enough to buy a lamb but qualified for the reduced-cost offering. Think that over for a little bit. They have been spoken to by angels. Their child’s conception was a miracle. Shepherds testified that the child’s birth was announced by all of the angels in heaven, and they are too poor to pay for the normal offering for a firstborn son!
Poverty comes in many forms, as does wealth. The wealth that Joseph and Mary had that day wasn’t in anything that the world offers. There is no record of complaint or shame. They don’t shirk and disobey the Law to avoid the embarrassment of the cheap offering.
The Lord was there, helping them along, and He would reassure them that He was still with them and helping them along the Way.
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