But there is another invaluable lesson furnished by this twelfth chapter of Leviticus. We not only read herein the grace of God to the poor, but, by comparing its closing verse with Luke ii. 24, we learn the amazing depth to which God stooped in order to manifest that grace. The Lord Jesus Christ--God manifest in the flesh--the pure and spotless Lamb--the Holy One, who knew no sin, was "made of a woman," and that woman (wondrous mystery!), having borne in her womb, and brought forth, that pure and perfect, that holy and spotless, human body, had to undergo the usual ceremonial, and accomplish the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses. And not only do we read divine grace in the fact of her having thus to purify herself, but also the mode in which this was accomplished.--"And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, _a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons_." From this simple circumstance we learn that the reputed parents of our blessed Lord Jesus were so poor as to be obliged to take advantage of the gracious provision made for those whose means did not afford "a lamb for a burnt-offering." What a thought! The Lord of glory, the most high God, Possessor of heaven and earth, the One to whom pertained "the cattle upon a thousand hills"--yea, the wealth of the universe, appeared in the world which His hands had made, in the narrow circumstances of humble life. The Levitical economy had made provision for the poor, and the mother of Jesus availed herself thereof. Truly there is a profound lesson in this for the human heart. The Lord Jesus did not make His appearance in this world in connection with the great or the noble. He was pre-eminently a poor man. He took His place with the poor.--"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich." (2 Cor. viii. 9.)
May it ever be our joy to feed upon this precious grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which we have been made rich for time and for eternity. He emptied Himself of all that love could give, that we might be filled; He stripped Himself that we might be clothed; He died that we might live. He, in the greatness of His grace, traveled down from the height of divine wealth into the depth of human poverty, in order that we might be raised from the dunghill of nature's ruin, to take our place amid the princes of His people forever. Oh that the sense of this grace, wrought in our hearts by the power of the Holy Ghost, may constrain us to a more unreserved surrender of ourselves to Him, to whom we owe our present and everlasting felicity, our riches, our life, our all!