Leviticus 12:1 Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said,
Leviticus 12:2 “Speak to the people of Israel, and this is what you should say, if a woman conceives and gives birth to[1] a male child, then she will be contaminated seven days. As at the time of her menstruation, she will be contaminated.
Leviticus 12:3 And on the eighth day the foreskin of his penis will be circumcised.
Leviticus 12:4 Then she will stay for thirty-three days in the blood of her purifying. She will not touch anything sacred, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying are completed.
Leviticus 12:5 But if she gives birth to a female child, then she will be contaminated two weeks, as in her menstruation. And she will stay in the blood of her purifying for sixty-six days.
Leviticus 12:6 “And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she will bring to the priest at the entrance of the conference tent a lamb a year old for an ascending offering and a pigeon or a turtledove for a failure offering,
Leviticus 12:7 and he will offer it to Yahveh’s face and provide reconciliation for her. Then she will be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the instruction for her who gives birth to a child, either male or female.
Leviticus 12:8 And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she will take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for an ascending offering and the other for a failure offering. And the priest will provide reconciliation for her, and she will be clean.”
[1] יָלַד = give birth to. Leviticus 12:2, 5, 7; 22:27; 25:45.
Leviticus 12 quotes:
In giving birth to a baby, the mother experienced bleeding (Lev. 12:4—5, 7), as well as the secretion of other bodily fluids (see chap. 15), and this made her ceremonially unclean. The theme of Leviticus 12 is not personal holiness but ritual purification for the mother, without which she could not return to normal life in her home.”
Wiersbe, Warren W. Leviticus : Becoming “Set Apart” for God. First edition, David C Cook, 2015. p. 52.
“Therefore, nothing in Leviticus 12 should be interpreted to teach that human sexuality is “dirty,” that pregnancy is defiling, or that babies are impure. God created humans “male and female” (Gen. 1:27), and when God declared His creation to be “very good” (v. 31), that declaration included sex. He commanded our first parents to “be fruitful, and multiply” (v. 28); in spite of contemporary negative attitudes toward babies, Scripture presents children as blessings from God (Ps. 113:9; 127:3-5; 128:3; Prov. 17:6; Matt. 19:14). If for some reason a pregnancy was unwanted, the Jews would never consider aborting the baby.”
Wiersbe, p. 53.
“God wished to instruct his people that sin is caused not only by one’s environment but is the result of internal pollution as well. Chapter 11 spoke about uncleanness from external contact with certain creatures. But chapters 12-15 speak about man’s uncleanness resulting from internal sources. Chapter 12 deals with defilement following childbirth, chapters 13 and 14 with uncleanness caused by skin diseases, and chapter 15 with pollution associated with reproduction.”
Lenz, Mark J. Leviticus. Northwestern Pub. House, 1988. p. 102.
Jefferson Vann is a former missionary with the Advent Christian General Conference who now serves as Pastor of Piney Grove Advent Christian Church in Delco, North Carolina. He is the author of 46 books, including the two series mentioned below.
Conditional Immortality is the belief that eternal life is a blessing reserved only for the saved. Conditionalists hold that unbelievers will be raised at the return of Christ, judged and appropriately punished for their sins, and will die the second death in a place called Gehenna. We do not believe that God created all human beings with an immortal part that even he cannot destroy. When people die, they do not continue to live in a disembodied state. They actually die, ceasing to function until raised to life again consciously. This intermediate state is called “sleep” in the Bible. The Resurrection will wake all the dead, but only the saved will experience permanent life. The lost will literally perish.
Does your pastor preach conditionalism? Here are some resources that would help your pastor understand, preach, and teach the doctrines of conditionalism more clearly.
An Advent Christian Systematic Theology is a four-volume work that answers many typical questions about God, human nature, Christ, sin, salvation, and ultimate destiny.
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The Afterlife Archives is a series of five books that focus on conditionalism’s doctrines. These doctrines include God’s exclusive immortality, humanity’s potential for immortality, the unconscious sleep of the dead during the intermediate state, the resurrection to eternal life for the saved, and the resurrection to condemnation and the second death for the lost.
The set of all five paperback books in the Afterlife Archives series is currently available for $17.95. These prices may change on October 31st, 2025, but they will stay in effect for those who wish to bless their pastors with these resources during Pastor Appreciation Month (October).
Click on the pictures above to purchase the books.
1 “Does not humanity have hard service on earth? Are not their days also like the days of a hired man? 2 Like a servant longing for the evening shadow, and like a hired man looking for his wages, 3 thus I have been made to inherit months of futility, and nights of sorrow have been appointed to me. 4 If I lie down, I say, ‘When will I arise?’, and the night stretches on and I toss and turn restlessly until the day dawns. 5 My body is clothed with worms and dirty scabs; my skin is broken and festering. 6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and they come to an end without hope. 7 Remember that my life is but a breath, that my eyes will never again see happiness. 8 The eye of him who sees me now will see me no more; your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone. 9 As a cloud is dispersed and then disappears, so the one who goes down to the grave does not come up again.10 He returns no more to his house, nor does his place of residence know him any more.
We are now well into our reading of Job, and we are discovering that it differs from the other books we’ve read in the Old Testament in many ways. The other books mainly focus on the historical progress of God’s people, from the patriarchs to the establishment and history of Israel. However, Job doesn’t mention Israel at all. Job may have been a patriarch, but there is no effort within the book to establish any historical or ethnic connection with the Hebrew people.
So, why is the book of Job in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible? One reason is that the Old Testament was written to answer questions that God’s people had about life. Some questions didn’t relate to which nation they belonged to. These questions were about the meaning of life, the purpose of living, and how to handle life’s challenges. So, in addition to the Torah and the historical books, a collection of wisdom literature was inspired by the Holy Spirit to address these questions.
Some wisdom literature was created to help people make wise decisions in life. The books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes focus on this topic. The Song of Songs—often called the Song of Solomon—highlights the beauty and joy of human love and courtship. God wanted His people to understand that human love is not evil. It is a gift from God and should be celebrated and enjoyed within proper boundaries. Proper relationships with the opposite sex are part of God’s wisdom.
Many people have written books, poems, and stories that fall into the category of wisdom literature. Most of this literature is now gone, lost over time. However, some books and documents have been preserved. The Holy Spirit guided the writing and preservation of the Old Testament wisdom literature so that we can all benefit from it.
Most of the wisdom literature addresses what is known as conventional wisdom. This can be summarized as the belief that doing what is morally right will lead to God’s blessing of health and prosperity. Psalm 1 illustrates this by describing the wise person as a tree planted by the water, thriving and bearing fruit. In contrast, the wicked are the opposite of the wise; they will not endure because they have chosen to walk the path that leads to destruction.
With all these teachings that express conventional wisdom, the LORD saw it necessary to provide another kind of wisdom literature. We needed to understand that although it is generally true that the righteous will be blessed and successful in life, it is also true that sometimes the righteous will not experience that blessing. God has a message for those who suffer. Conventional wisdom offers only one answer to that question: you suffer because you made a mistake, you did something wrong, you committed a sin.
In the book of Job, his so-called friends were experts on the subject of conventional wisdom. They delivered long, drawn-out arguments trying to convince Job that he needed to repent and regain God’s favor. To them, the calamities Job suffered, the pain he experienced, and the losses he faced all pointed to some hidden sin he must have committed. We need to be careful when we read Job because sometimes we are reading those arguments, and the Holy Spirit wants us to see that their arguments are flawed.
The book of Job offers another view on the problem of suffering. In Job’s case, he was suffering not because God was angry with him, but because God was proud of him. Satan received permission to hurt Job because he believed that if Job endured enough pain, he would curse God.
The LORD eventually intervenes and rescues Job, but the main point of Job is not about the rescue. God is sovereign over our lives and has every right to allow us to suffer certain things, even if we are His obedient children. This serves as a helpful exception to the usual understanding of God’s justice.
There are also examples of this exception in the New Testament. One example is recorded in John chapter 9. The disciples encounter a man who was born blind. They ask Jesus who committed the sin that caused this man to suffer the fate of blindness at birth. Did his parents do something wrong, or would he do something wrong during his life, and would God punish him for it before he does it? Jesus told them that suffering was not caused by sin. It was allowed because God wanted to perform a miracle in his life. All suffering is caused by the existence of evil in this world, but it cannot always be traced to a particular evil.
Before he suffered, Job was a textbook example of conventional wisdom. He was a good man, obedient to God and considerate of others. God blessed him with great wealth, excellent health, and high honor. He considered himself a free man. However, through a series of unfortunate events, Job lost all his wealth, health, and honor. Today’s text describes how Job felt about that major reversal. He now saw himself as a hired hand, with someone else calling the shots, and Job did not like that at all.
In this section, Job lists several complaints. His description of the days of the hired man is important because it highlights what it truly means to face hardship. Let’s examine each of those complaints one by one.
Job complains about the WORK of a hired man (1-3a).
After years of living as a wealthy landowner, Job is now experiencing what it’s like to be part of the other half. He used to have an army of servants doing the hard work for him; now, it’s just him. So, he describes human life as “hard service,” and the Hebrew word he uses is the same one often translated as “army.” I know a little about what it means to be a soldier in the army, and it can sometimes be grueling work. One of the things that makes it tough is that you’re not doing what you want to do. You’re under someone else’s command—sometimes a lot of people. It can also be useless work.
Tennessee Ernie Ford sang a song about the work of a hired man. It was called “Sixteen Tons.”
“Some people say a man is made out of mud A poor man’s made out of muscle and blood Muscle and blood and skin and bones A mind that’s weak and a back that’s strong
You load sixteen tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt Saint Peter, don’t you call me, ’cause I can’t go I owe my soul to the company store.”
All of us want to do what is right and succeed. But we all go through times in life when we ask the same questions Job asks here: Why does it have to be so hard? Why does so much of our effort just lead to more effort tomorrow?
Let’s take a moment to step back and understand what’s happening. This is the Bible—God’s word to us. It tells us that God knows what we are going through and how tough it can get. He understands our nature. He remembers that we are made of dust. He sees our sweat. He hears our moaning. His message to us is not, “Quit your complaining; you deserve what you get.” His message is “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” He told the Israelites, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Job also complains about the REST of a hired man (3b-4).
He talks about his nights, but he does not spend them resting. He spends them sorrowing. He says, “The night stretches on, and I toss and turn restlessly until the day dawns.” The time he is supposed to rest is full of restlessness. He is consumed by sorrow over his past loss and anxiety about his fears of the future.
God wants His people to rest. He commanded the Israelites to take one full day off each week. They had been slaves, and He understood that they might want to keep working. But He told them to stop what they were doing regularly and trust Him. Why do we struggle so much with resting in the Lord’s presence? God wants us to take our burdens off our backs and give them to Him. Yet, we often want to keep carrying those burdens ourselves.
Job complains about the BODY of a hired man (5)
He says his body is covered with worms and dirty scabs; my skin is broken and oozing. He had spent many years being the picture of health, and now he is the picture of death. Satan was not satisfied with stealing all of Job’s possessions and family. He wanted to steal his health too.
Jesus said that false shepherds are thieves and that all they want to do is steal and kill and destroy, but he came that people might have an abundant life.
We don’t have to go through the same health problems Job faced to see that our bodies often push back against us. As we get older, things tend to stop functioning as they should. We need extra devices to help with weak eyesight, hearing, and even heart issues.
The New Testament tells us that we will receive a new body when Jesus returns. That new body will not grow old or wear out; it is designed for eternity. Job didn’t know all the details about this new body, but he did understand the coming resurrection. He said, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that as the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God” (19:25-26). The only way that could happen is if God raises him from the dead. Job knew that his current mortal body would be replaced by Job 2.0.
The message is that although our bodies may someday fail us, our God never will. He has a replacement body for us, one that is indestructible and created to glorify Him forever.
Job complains about the END of a hired man (6-10).
He knows his days are numbered, and it is not a very big number. He is heading for his grave. Someone else will live in his house because he will not be going back there.
Some people teach that death is not real. They believe your body dies, but you keep on living forever somewhere else. That was not what Job believed. His complaint was genuine because death is a fact. The Apostle Paul says that the penalty for sinning is death, and all of us have to pay that bill. The good news is not that death is an illusion. The gospel good news is that a new resurrection life awaits those who put their faith in Christ.
Job experienced a sudden, drastic upheaval in his life. He confronted his mortality, and it didn’t happen gradually. Go outside and look at the clouds, and if you keep watching, they will disperse and disappear. Job’s message is that this is our destiny. Conventional wisdom says that the goal in life is to be wise and successful. Job said that won’t last. We need to understand this. Only by facing our mortality can we learn to look up to God and receive the gift of His grace.
Jesus Christ revealed the promise of resurrection, life, and immortality through the gospel. Job grapples with his mortality, and rightly so—it’s a common struggle for all of us. Yet, we can also cling to his hope of a Redeemer who will come to reclaim us from the grave.
“Many still mourn And many still weep For those that they love Who have fallen asleep But we have this hope Though our hearts may still ache Just one shout from above And they all will awake
And in the reunion of joy We will see Death will be swallowed In sweet victory
Where is the sting Tell me, where is the bite When the grave robber comes Like a thief in the night Where is the victory Where is the prize When the grave robber comes And death finally dies”[1]
Genesis 33:1 And Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and noticed Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So, he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female slaves.
Genesis 33:2 And he put the slaves with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all.
Genesis 33:3 He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he drew near to his brother.
Genesis 33:4 But Esau ran to meet him and hugged him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.
Genesis 33:5 And when Esau lifted his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, “Who are these with you?” Jacob said, “The children whom God has favored[1] your slave.”
Genesis 33:6 Then the slaves drew near, they and their children, and bowed down.
Genesis 33:7 Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down. And last Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down.
Genesis 33:8 Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company that I met?” Jacob answered, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.”
Genesis 33:9 But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.”
Genesis 33:10 Jacob said, “No, please, if I have found favor in your sight, then accept my gift from my hand. Because I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have been pleased with me.
Genesis 33:11 Please accept my blessing that is brought to you, because God has favored me, and because I have enough.” This is how he urged him, and he took it.
Genesis 33:12 Then Esau said, “Let us travel on our way, and I will go ahead of you.”
Genesis 33:13 But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail, and that the nursing flocks and herds are a concern to me. If they are driven hard for one day, all the flocks will die.
Genesis 33:14 Let my lord pass on ahead of his slave, and I will lead on slowly, at the pace of the livestock that are ahead of me and at the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.”
Genesis 33:15 So Esau said, “Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.”
Genesis 33:16 So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.
Genesis 33:17 But Jacob journeyed to Succoth and built himself a house and made shacks for his livestock. That is why the name of the place is called Succoth.
Genesis 33:18 And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-Aram, and he camped before the city.
Genesis 33:19 And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent.
Genesis 33:20 There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.
“Jacob had to do business with God before he was ready to do business with Esau. More particularly, Jacob had to do business with God before he was ready to subject himself to Esau. Jacob had acknowledged to the divine wrestler that his name was Jacob, Supplanter, Cheat, and had been given a new name, Israel, Prince. In the confidence of that new name Jacob can deal with the brother who has suffered most from Jacob’s flaws of character. The limp Jacob had gotten from the previous night’s wrestling makes easier his bowing before Esau.”
Kalas, J. Ellsworth. Grace in a Tree Stump : Old Testament Stories of God’s Love. 1st ed., Westminster John Knox Press, 2005. p. 25.
“It seems God had been working in Esau’s life as well as Jacob’s. We ought never to feel that anyone’s life is beyond the power of God to change it for the better. “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” says the old proverb, but it seems God is doing just that all the time. The Bible is full of instances where God takes a life that is ugly and distorted by sin and greed, and changes it into something that reflects His glory.”
Williams, Peter. From Eden to Egypt : Exploring the Genesis Themes. DayOne, 2001. p. 184.
“Jacob apparently did not journey to Seir, but, as verse 17 states, went to Succoth. We are not told how long he tarried at that location. The fact that he built a house at Succoth indicates that he stayed there some time, possibly even a few years. It is quite likely that there was good pastureland in the vicinity, and doubtless Jacob’s animals needed such after the long trail drive from Haran. Perhaps the availability of good grazing at Succoth explains why Jacob declined Esau’s offer of assistance, mentioned in Genesis 33:14-15. Eventually, however, Jacob and company journeyed on, to the land of Shechem.”
Flint, V. Paul. Strangers & Pilgrims : A Study of Genesis. 1st ed., Loizeaux Bros, 1988. p. 196.
Genesis 7:1 Then Yahveh said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your house, because I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.
Genesis 7:2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean living things , the male and his mate, and a pair of the living things that are not clean, the male and his mate,
Genesis 7:3 and seven pairs of the birds of the sky also, male and female, to keep their seed alive on the face of all the land.
Genesis 7:4 You see, in seven days I will send rain on the land forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”
Genesis 7:5 And Noah did all that Yahveh had commanded him.
Genesis 7:6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of water came upon the land.
Genesis 7:7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the water of the flood.
Genesis 7:8 Among clean living things , and among living things that are not clean, and among birds, and among everything that creeps on the ground,
Genesis 7:9 in pairs, male and female, they went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah.
Genesis 7:10 And after seven days the water of the flood came upon the land.
Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the sky were opened.
Genesis 7:12 And rain fell upon the land forty days and forty nights.
Genesis 7:13 On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark,
Genesis 7:14 they and every living thing, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every moving thing on the land, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged being.
Genesis 7:15 They went into the ark with Noah, in pairs of every flesh in which there was the breath of life.
Genesis 7:16 And those that entered, a male and female of every flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And Yahveh shut the door behind him.
Genesis 7:17 The flood continued forty days on the land. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the land.
Genesis 7:18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the land, and the ark floated on the face of the water.
Genesis 7:19 And the water flooded so high on the land that all the high mountains under the whole sky were covered.
Genesis 7:20 The water flooded above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.
Genesis 7:21 And every flesh died that moved on the land, birds, livestock, living things, all swarming creatures that swarm on the land, and all humanity.
Genesis 7:22 All in whose nostrils was the breathing of life who were on the dry land died.
Genesis 7:23 He wiped out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and living things and moving things and birds of the sky. They were wiped out from the land. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.
Genesis 7:24 And the water remained on the land 150 days.
Genesis 7 quotes:
“Notice in this fourth verse that God said He would destroy “every living substance.” This leads us to believe that the destruction of the flood was more general than anyone today has dreamed. However, we know that all plant life was not included in this sentence of doom, because when the dove went out from the ark after the flood, it returned with an olive branch in its mouth. Therefore, the olive trees must have been alive. Yet, how devastating this sentence of destruction was upon every living substance, no one will ever know, but we may be sure of this, that this old world got a thorough purging by the waters of the flood.”
Hogg, W. B. Talks on the Book of Genesis. Country Church; Pioneer Press, 1936-1937. p. 109.
“God did not say, “Now Noah, shut the door and slide the bar.” No, the Lord does not place the safety of His own in the hands of men. He Himself snaps the lock.”
Greig, Doris W. Discovering God’s Power : Studies in Genesis 1-17 : Life-Related for Personal and Group Study. Regal Books, 1984. p. 115.
“Something else in Genesis that speaks to the extent of the Flood is how high the flood waters rose. Genesis 7:19-20 says, “And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.” In these verses we find that the flood waters rose to a depth of 1 3 cubits (22.5 feet) above the highest mountains. Many devastating local floods probably do not often exceed water levels of 22.5 feet. But the Flood described in Genesis resulted in waters that rose 22.5 feet above the highest mountains, not just above ground level.”
Forlow, Stephen Bradley. Five Evidences for a Global Flood. Institute for Creation Research, 2011. p. 12.
jeffersonvann 