5/15/13 5/15/13

Where Does the Idea of a Scapegoat Come From?

Remember yesterday we looked at the Passover lamb and its representation of Christ? Well, I don’t know about you, but something in the story has always puzzled me. Read this: Ex. 12:5-7 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: (6) And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. (7) And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it….

If Jesus was the Passover lamb, why was a goat perfectly acceptable for the occasion? Now I think I have the answer.

Jesus was not only the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, he was the goat and scapegoat described in Lev. 16, which we will look at below. One goat died to make atonement, as did Christ, while the other was released and was used for intercession. Very interesting.

In earthly confines, one goat could not be killed and later made alive. So two goats were used. One died, the other was free from death—just as Christ died, but was later freed from death, the firstborn from among the dead. (And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. Colossians 1:18) Look at the story below in the left column very carefully. You may never have looked at the way we are going to look at it.

Old Testament

Notes

Lev 16:5-10 And he [ Aaron ] shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. (6) And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house. (7) And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. (8) And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat. (9) And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD'S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. (10) But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.

Lev 16:15-16 Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat: (16) And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness.

Lev 16:20-22 And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat: (21) And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: (22) And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

The two goats in this offering by Aaron represent Christ, one sacrificed in death as a sin offering, the other presented alive as the interceding risen Christ. The learning is that our atonement was not perfected only by the death of Christ, but also by his resurrection.

The resurrection is a key part of the gospel

1Co 15:3-4 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; (4) And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

The blood of the goat that was killed as a sin offering was brought within the vail, that is, into the Holy of Holies, which represents heaven.

Heb 10:19-20 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, (20) By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

It was the blood that reconciled:

Col 1:20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

The goat that lived, the scapegoat, was used by Aaron, the priest, to make intercession for the people.

Heb 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Heb 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

Rom 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.