Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / April 29, 2026 - Leviticus 12 & Psalm 91

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April 29, 2026 - Leviticus 12 & Psalm 91 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lamp and Light Vibrating Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Today is Wednesday, April 29th, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Listen intently to God's written word.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Leviticus 12.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days, as at the time of her menstruation she shall be unclean, and on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Then she shall continue for thirty three days in the blood of her purifying.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: She shall not touch anything holy, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying are completed.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: But if she bears a female child, then shall she be unclean two weeks, as in her menstruation, and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying for sixty six days.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin offering, and he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Then she shall be clean from the flow of her blood.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is the law for her who bears a child, either male or female.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtle doves 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.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm ninety one.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: I will say to the Lord, My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust, for he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: His faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High, who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent, for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him, I will protect him, because he knows my name.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: When he calls to me, I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble, I will rescue him and honor him.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we reach an interesting chapter today in Leviticus chapter twelve as we read about laws concerning the purification of women after childbirth.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now perhaps you were struck and maybe confused by the difference in days, uh, specifically that is pertaining to males uh and females.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the text tells us that when a woman births a son, she is considered unclean for seven days, and then she shall continue basically uh in the the reality of her uncleanness, if you will, uh, for 33 days total.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: So one week she's considered unclean.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then it says she shall continue for 33 days in the blood of her purifying.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that's for the male, and if she birthed a female and had a daughter, uh, it was essentially double the amount of time.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: It says in verse 5, but if she bears a female child, then she she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her menstruation, and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying for 66 days.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we have one week for uh a male and 33 days, uh, and then two weeks for a female and sixty-six days.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the question that I'm sure everyone is wondering and asking, why the difference?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh why does there seem to be things that are not the same?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's the question that I had.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Why is there a difference, PJ?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Can you help us understand?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we have to remember that again, these laws were for a specific nation, for a specific time, for a specific purpose.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that doesn't resolve all the tensions, of course, that you might feel connected to these laws, but it's helpful at least to set it in that context.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so full disclosure that there's not really any sort of divine explanation.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: There's no commentary given in the scriptures for why uh the males only get one week in 33 days and the females get two weeks and 66 days.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: We just simply aren't told.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so anything that we sort of try to explain outside of what we are told, of course, we can deduce by good and necessary consequence from the scriptures.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: We can uh do our best, even looking at the scholarship, who perhaps understand with more depth the different customs and expectations surrounding these things during the time.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, we are not given divine commentary on this, so we have to hold all of the different options uh loosely.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: There are a variety of different options, some of them seem preposterous, other of them seem plausible.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, one option is very simply that uh the woman who uh is bearing a female, uh, the reason why it's double the amount of time is because it's connected to Eve being the one that was tempted ultimately in the garden.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, you can see that there is some level of connection between Genesis 1, 2, and 3 and what we're reading here in these purification laws or even the laws that we just read yesterday about the animals being clean and unclean.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a connection, certainly, to creation.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's a connection to the curse that I think to me seems very obvious.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: But what exactly that connection is, we don't know.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: So one, you know, one view would be that it's simply because Eve was the one that was deceived.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, in a sense, it's double the amount of time for purification because of that deception.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, kind of tangentially related to that is the option that it's not really because of her deception, uh, as much as just the reality of the curse that comes from the deception, from sin entering into the world.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And what God tells Adam and Eve, specifically Eve, that's going to be true of women moving forward, that they were going to experience chain uh pain rather in childbirth.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so we can see that uh the pain and just the reality of the curse kind of being reverberated through some of these laws, could lead to some level of explanation for why the females have double the amount of time.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so it's kind of just a reverberation again and just a reminder of the curse.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, one explanation would be that because the male children are circumcised on the eighth day and the female are not, that could be one of the reasons why uh this is cut short.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, another could be very simply is that uh a woman uh who births a female uh because the child is a female, again, and it's connecting back to the curse, it's connecting back to just even the whole idea of childbirth.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's sort of that double time period that gets tacked on.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but regardless of what the view may be, again, all of this is sort of just deductions and at best some level of speculation.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: So at the end of the day, we don't really know.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't tell us explicitly why he does this, uh, but he gives these laws for this nation during this time, again, as a means of being consecrated, set apart as a means to display and pursue holiness before the Lord.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: God says, You are to be holy as I am holy.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: So all the mechanics of it, again, not really sure.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that I know is not necessarily a satisfying answer, uh, but that's just where we're at.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to speak uh in the margins where scripture does not, but there's there's some options there.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: I do think I can say with confidence that you hopefully see the reverberations of Genesis one through three and a lot of these laws.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I think in some form or fashion, Genesis three especially is undergirding what we're seeing here in Leviticus 12.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: How all that shakes out specifically, I don't exactly know, but I think it does kind of help provide some level of context.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, this is what God instructed his people to do.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so they have just the responsibility to do it, to listen, and to obey.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, the whole concept of theirs was not to reason why, theirs was simply to do or die.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that is a very uh true reality for them when it came to the sacrificial system, as we read about, even with Nadab and Abihu, uh, who were offering strange fire, unauthorized uh sacrifice to the Lord.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't know.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh again, that may be frustrating, but uh we can't say with certainty uh something that God doesn't say very uh clearly uh in his word.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Clearly, he doesn't intend for us to know all the specific mechanics of why it's one week versus two weeks, 33 days versus 66 days.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: He just wants us to understand, he wanted his people to understand that that is the reality of it and to act and obey accordingly.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this is how you are living set apart as my people.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is my plan for you.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: Go ahead and do it.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And and speaking of God's God's plan for us, abiding in him, dwelling in in him as far as we live on our life in Christ, our our psalm today looks to the place, the place where you dwell, where where have you lived over the course of your life, PJ?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: How many states have you lived in?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: I have lived in Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, California, and Idaho.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh more permanently.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've I've spent summers in Colorado, North Carolina, other places like that, but had an actual address in Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, California, and Idaho.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: And have you ever left lived in an area that some people might call a rough area?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think the area that I lived in in Ohio was especially to some people here in Idaho, uh, that perhaps are a little bit more used to cleaner streets than others.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, that I just remember there was a neighborhood right behind the house that we lived in in Ohio where it was not infrequent for us to hear gunshots.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I could hear them at night.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, so certainly that was probably a rougher area.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I was told Garden City was the ghetto.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: That was literally the word used when people told you that when I first moved here, Garden City is the ghetto.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Whoa.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: And my wife and I just laughed because you know, I live we I grew up in Atlanta and she grew up near Cleveland.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we've actually seen and been a part of you guys have seen some things some of those things that are actually considered ghettos and not a Garden City, which is actually one of the more up-and-coming cities in this whole valley because of what they're building by the river.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: But I digress.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I ask these things because I think the the most terrifying place to be in this world is outside of the shelter and the provision and the refuge that God provides through salvation in his son.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: The psalm opens up and and tells us he who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: I will say to the Lord, underscored here, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: And we don't we don't trust in the the security that a gated community might provide, or the uh the security that your your tactics and training and and arsenal in your safe might provide.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Ultimately, in our eternal shelter and safety and refuge is found only in the Lord and the salvation that he provides.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: So wherever you might live here in in the valley, in in the Boise area, whether you're living in Garden City or uh out in Melbourne or in Star or Meridian or Guna, wherever it may be, the best place for you to be dwelling is in near the Lord and more specifically in the refuge and the salvation that God provides.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what our psalmist talks about the the dwelling place of the Lord and the refuge that is found in him.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: As we look to verse nine, uh, because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the most high who is my refuge.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: The next verse, we're looking at the evils and the things that could go wrong in this world.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: No evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near you.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now, that doesn't mean we won't get sick, clearly.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: In our if you've been around a church over the past couple months, you've you've uh known someone or you yourself have been sick.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I know that it's touched our family.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when it comes to evil happening to us, well, what's going on?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's evil happening in the valley.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: You might see evil on on the news.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: So evil is in and around families of those who who know and love the Lord, who might take refuge in him.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: There are saints that are that are suffering in some some big way.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, PJ, what what are we taking away here after after we read these verses in Psalm 91?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think even just to to help kind of just let this stick in your brain about how you can remember what Psalm 91 is about.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's very silly, but who do you call when there's an emergency?
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: What number do you dial?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not calling Ghostbusters.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I knew I knew you were gonna say that.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you call 911.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: So as you think about an emergency where you would need the police involved or the fire department involved or an ambulance, you you dial 911.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's maybe just a way for you to remember what Psalm 91 is all about is uh where do you go?
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you turn to?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I love even in verse 11, for it says, for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: So that does remind me of Hebrews, where verse 14 of chapter one says uh the angels are ministering spirits that are sent to serve for the sake of the elect, uh, as they wait to inherit salvation for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: So uh this is just a kind of a reminder of almost the vast amount of ways that God cares for his people.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he uses the body of Christ.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we've all been there to meet needs, to provide protection and safety.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he uses the governmental institutions that he himself has created and ordained.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Think of Romans 13.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, sometimes uh he uses angels, it says here.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all of his ways.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: But God cares for us, he protects us in in a variety of different ways.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, what a great comfort that that is.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I love verse 14 because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him, I will protect him because he knows my name.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: When he calls to me, I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble, I will rescue him and honor him with long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so even that that verse there in verse 14, he will hold me fast.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's the song that we like to sing here at Compass, for my savior loves me so, he will hold me fast.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: So when you think about where do you turn to, where do you, where do you go for help, especially in those times of crisis and emergency, what number do you dial?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: 911, and think of Psalm 91 as the place where you can turn to in the midst of trouble, recognizing it says in verse 9 God is our dwelling place, he is our refuge.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the most high who is my refuge.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: No evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: And what a great comfort that that is for us in a life that is filled with trouble, a life that is filled with circumstances that cause great fear and anxiety.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: We can run to the Lord, we can dial Psalm 91 and trust that the Lord is with us.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible SV.org.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.