"They were just looking for a scapegoat to take the blame for
everything that’s gone wrong around here!" Have you ever heard someone say
something like that? Aside from occasionally referring to another person as an
"old goat", scapegoat is about the only terminology that the general
population uses with reference to our beloved animals. It seems fitting in this
Easter month that we revisit the role of the noble goat and the origin of the
scapegoat in God’s plan.
In the Old Testament many ritual sacrifices were made by the people; some
for sin and guilt and some for dedications, celebration, or fellowship. But
once a year, on the Day of Atonement1, the high priest would select
two young goats and cast lots to see which of the goats was to be offered2
as a sin offering to the Lord to atone (make peace with God) for all the sins
of all the people. The other goat would become the scapegoat.
The sacrifice of the first goat was offered privately in the holiest place
in the tabernacle3, but the other goat was brought out in public
where the high priest would place his hands on the head of the goat and
publicly "confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel,
and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the
head of the goat"4. After this symbolic transfer of sin the
goat was led outside the camp to be released in the wilderness, presumably to
wander and probably to die by the paw of some beast.
The next time somebody hints that chevon or cabrito is inferior to beef, you might mention that the
high priest would begin by offering a young bull to atone for his own sins and
those of his family. The little goat would atone for all the rest of the sins
of people of Israel
combined, for the whole year. In this simple fact is the reason for my
reference to the goat as "noble". These goats were symbols or
"types" of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. One, sacrificed as a
sin offering for all of God’s people, represented the coming sacrifice of the
Christ, who would once and for all, by His own blood, atone for all of the sins
of all of God’s people for all time.5 The other, the scapegoat,
represented the innocent Jesus, actually accepting blame for all the sins6
confessed over him and being cast outside the camp7.
The book of Hebrews, in the New Testament, follows the picture of Jesus as
both the high priest and the sacrifice, making the point that His sacrificial, substitutionary death on the cross, outside the city, has
done for us what the blood of bulls and goats could never do; He has finished
the whole business of sin offerings once and for all.8 Our place now
is simply to accept what Jesus has already done for us, to publicly confess our
sins as transferred to him, and to rest in the completeness of His sacrifice.
If you’ve never done anything like that, all you have to do is to believe that
Jesus really is the Lord, believe that He did die to make you right with the
Father God, and confess to God that you have sinned and that you want Him to
permanently erase your sin and guilt. He gives us the promise that "Whoever
calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved".9
Now that we don’t have to be concerned about our sin and guilt anymore, we can
get to some of those other sacrifices of dedication to, celebration of, and
fellowship with our God. But that’s another story for another time.
- Cf. Leviticus 16.
- Killed as a sacrifice to God.
Hebrews 9:22 reminds us that sin is expensive, it
takes blood to pay for it.
- The tabernacle, by the way,
was constructed of curtains of woven goat’s hair (Exodus 26:7, 35:23-26).
- Cf. Leviticus 16:21, NKJV.
- Cf. Hebrews 9:11-15.
- Cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21; which
says that Jesus was made to be sin for us.
- Cf. Hebrews 13:12
- Ibid.,
all ref. to Hebrews.
- Cf. Romans 10:9-13.
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