If you’ve ever gone Christmas caroling before, you’ve probably sang a song called “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” It’s a fun song, but it’s also mind-blowingly frustrating, because the entire song rests on a repetition, forcing you to remember (and recite) twelve different items that grow with each passing verse.
The items are bizarre. What kind of person wants three French hens and seven swans a-laying? Wouldn’t a few of each suffice? And why do you want a bunch of lords “a-leaping” around your house? Are you supposed to just sit and watch while random guys dance around your living room?
I’ve never understood it, but apparently, there’s some religious meaning behind the song itself. That gives a little bit of clarity to what’s happening, but personally, I think Carol of the Bells is still a vastly superior holiday song.
Whether it’s ironic or simply happenstance, there is an altogether different connection to one part of the song—the line about “two turtledoves.” Specifically, how that idea correlates with Leviticus 12.
When a woman is done with her purification, according to Leviticus 12:6, she is to take a lamb and a young pigeon or turtledove to the Tabernacle. There, she offers the lamb for a burnt offering, and the bird for a sin offering. Once she does that, she is ritually clean and able to resume all normal activities along with the rest of Israel.
(As a side note, the sin offering is not required because of any sin on the woman’s part, but because of her ritual impurity. The same offering is necessary when a leper is healed (Leviticus 14:19). It has nothing to do with sin on the woman or the leper’s part, but is a ceremonial act designed to restore the person into a covenantal relationship with God.)
If a person is unable to bring a lamb to the door of the Tabernacle for the burnt offering, then God allowed a family to substitute something else instead: a second bird. This would replace the lamb, making the sacrifice for both the burnt offering and the sin offering two pigeons or two turtledoves.
This is exactly the sacrifice that Joseph and Mary offered in the Temple after Jesus was born. Luke 2:22-24 reveals that when they arrived in Jerusalem, they gave the required sacrifice of “two turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
In case we needed any more evidence that Jesus was most likely born below the poverty line, this sacrifice seals it. The offering of two birds as ritual purification shows Joseph and Mary’s true socio-economic status. These two weren’t necessarily destitute, but they were definitely poor even by Jewish standards of the day.
And yet, God noticed them. He chose a working-class, true blue-collar family to be the earthly parents of His Son, when other, more prosperous families were certainly available.
What does that say about the care and concern of our God? That not only did He make allowances for the poor to become ritually clean, but also chose them for Jesus?
At the very least, it reveals that the God we serve is a God who focuses on the heart, not the bank account. He sees your soul, not your occupation. And when the rest of the world is ready to disparage you because of your “limited” contribution to society, God sees the potential of your contribution to the Kingdom.
That’s the God we serve. The God who knew that even those who could only offer two turtledoves could still raise the Messiah.
