Leviticus 12:8, commentary and pictures

About forty days after birth, the law required a child to be taken to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord and to offer sacrifice, following circumcision as a pledge of obedience to the law. The normal requirement was a first-year lamb for the burnt offering and a young pigeon or turtledove for the sin offering, but if she was not able to bring a lamb she was to bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons, the one for the burnt offering and the other for the sin offering, and the priest would make atonement for her and she would be clean. Even the less costly offering had to be without blemish and prepared with the same care and exactness, because the offerings represented Christ.

As man's substitute Christ had to conform to the law in every particular, so Joseph and Mary took Him to Jerusalem to fulfill this requirement. Joseph and Mary used this provision for the poor of two turtledoves or two young pigeons when they came to the temple to do after the usual custom with the child Jesus, because they were poor and could not bring a great offering, which shows Jesus was born as the son of poor parents. Though the child was the Son of the living God, heaven's most precious gift to the world, a gift above all computation, He could be acknowledged only by the smallest offering.

The blemish-free offering shows Jesus Himself was free from physical deformity, with a strong, healthy, undefective body, and throughout His life He lived in conformity to nature's laws as a physical as well as spiritual example of what obedience makes humanity to be, sharing during all His sojourn on earth the lot of the poor and lowly in a life characterized by self-denial and sacrifice. The verse shows God's provision for the poor, that the poor are precious to God, and that He does not require a great gift but a gift according to what a man has, be it ever so simple, accepting the humble offering when it is all they can bring as precious in His sight in return for His great gift. The smallest talent and humblest service may be offered to Jesus as a consecrated gift, and when the best a person has is presented with a sincere heart in love to God from longing desire to serve Him, with the heart open to Him with Christ first and last and best in everything, He will present it with the fragrance of His own merits to the Father as wholly acceptable, so everyone can lay up treasure in heaven; after giving self, the best offering to God is property.