3. I would like to tell you that we are studying LEVITICUS in our Sunday school. A question arises with some of the chapters. It seems that women were badly discriminated by God. Could you please give your explanation at your convenience? (Perry)

Answer:

Concerning your question I would like to answer in this way. In the Old Testament time God put the people of the Israel under the law for the purpose of teaching them and also teaching us spiritual truths.

Lev 12:2-5 says: "A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period. On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised. Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over. If she gives birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean, as during her period. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding."

Lev 15:25 says: "'When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period."

When a woman has her period or when she gives birth of a child, she bleeds. Bleeding is unclean in God's sight. Lev 17:11 says: "The life of a creature is in the blood" When a woman is bleeding, she is leaking her very life. Excessive loss of blood can lead to death. Bleeding represents the sin of wasting our life. In the bible, every kind of sickness or infirmity represents some kind of sin. For example being blind represents the spiritual blindness of the human race to spiritual things. Being lame represents our inability to walk in God's righteousness. The people of the world are wasting the precious life given to them by God. They are like the prodigal son wasting the resources given to him by his father.

Also when a woman gives birth to a male child, she give birth to a sinner. Kind David said: "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. (Psa 51:5) For that reason she is unclean for forty days.

When she gives birth to a female child, she is unclean for eighty days. The reason is that God wants the women to remember that the woman is the first one who sinned in the Garden of Eden.

In the New Testament time we are no longer under the law. We are under grace. The Old Testament ceremonial laws no longer apply to Christians in this age. Jesus Christ has accomplished salvation for us. He has removed the curse of the law for us.

In Jesus Christ there is no discrimination against the women. Gal 3:28 says: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.". (G.Lee)