Jul 15 - SCAPEGOAT - Leviticus 16

^{Leviticus 16:2} The Lord said to Moses: … your brother Aaron ⁵ … shall take … two male goats for a sin offering … ¹⁵ He shall slaughter [one] goat [on behalf of] the people and bring its blood inside the curtain [or the tabernacle], … sprinkling … it’s blood … upon the mercy seat … ¹⁶ Thus he shall make atonement for the sanctuary, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel, and because of their transgressions, all their sins …

²¹ [Then] Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sending it away into the wilderness … ²² The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region …

 

Did you ever wonder where the term “scapegoat” came from?

 

Though the Tabernacle was certainly God’s sanctuary, it was in the midst of an unclean people. Therefore, a first goat was sacrificed to make the sanctuary clean. That was the role of the first goat.

 

The second goat was the scapegoat. His role was to make the people clean. Aaron was to place his hands on the head of the goat. He was then to confess all the sins of Israel over the goat, figuratively and even literally, putting them on the head of the goat. Then he was to chase the goat away. And as the goat departed (bearing the people’s sins), Israel’s sin departed.

 

God devised this figurative picture to help Israel understand that sin must depart from us.

 

But it was more than figurative. This – strange as it sounds – was God’s Old Testament method of carrying away our sins. The Lord could surely forgive with just a whisper, but forgiveness needed to cost the people something. Part of the cost was a goat. More so, it was an act of obedience. Strange as it may have sounded, they simply needed to obey.

 

Now, the one day each year in which Aaron would do this would be called “The Day of Atonement.” To “atone” means to “make amends” or “pay reparations.” In the fullness of time, Jesus would “pay” for our sins with his blood. The cross, therefore, was an instrument of atonement.

 

Isaiah 53 describes the sacrifice of the cross like this: “³ He was despised and rejected by others ... ⁴ He has surely borne our infirmities … ⁵ [and] he was wounded for our transgressions … upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.”

 

Doesn’t that also describe the role of that goat? “Upon him was the punishment that made us whole.” Psalm 103:12 says, Our Lord “removes our transgressions from us … as far as the east is from the west.” As far as the east is from the west, that’s how far that goat was figuratively and literally removing the sins of Israel.

 

And Christ removes yours further than any goat ever could! In fact, you don’t need any physical object as a figurative or literal symbol to lift your sin. All you need is “a broken and contrite heart” (Psalm 51:17). 1 John 1:8-9 further describes this “all you need to be forgiven” like this: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just WILL forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (The emphasis is added there, but that’s the freedom that comes from confession.)

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who places his hands on Jesus

and watches his sins flee