The Lord is providing Moses with the regulations for the Day of Atonement that must be followed by Aaron, the first high priest of Israel, and by all the high priests who will come after him. Yesterday we learned that the high priest must make a sacrifice for himself and for his household before he could make a sacrifice for the sins of the whole nation. After he offers the bull to the Lord for his and his household's sins, he must bring forth two goats. In our study today we look at these two goats and study the origin of the word "scapegoat".
"Aaron shall bring the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household, and he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering." (Leviticus 16:11) Yesterday we discussed why and how this was done so we won't go over that same material again today.
In Thursday's study Aaron was told that to make the offering for the people he was to take from the Israelite community two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. The ram will be offered to the Lord and one of the goats will be offered to the Lord. But something interesting happens with the other goat. "Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats---one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat." (Leviticus 16:7-8) Aaron likely casts lots by using the mysterious objects stored inside the breastplate of his tunic---the two objects known as the Urim and Thummim that we studied in Exodus 28. The use of the Urim and Thummim was done prayerfully by the priest to ascertain the will of God. Many scholars believe these objects were two smooth stones, one black and one white, to signify a "yes" or "no" answer.
The Urim and Thummim are never really described in the Bible and their method of use is never described, but however the casting of lots was done, one was "for the Lord" which means this goat would be offered to Him. This goat will lose his life. The other lot fell "for the scapegoat" which means this goat would keep his life. The term "scapegoat" was originally "escape goat" but its origin is from the very ancient and difficult-to-translate Hebrew word "azazel" which appears to mean something like "dismissal" or "removal".
"Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat." (Leviticus 16:9-10) The blood of one goat is shed on behalf of the people for their sins and their guilt. The other goat symbolically carries their sins away. When the goat is sent out into the wilderness, this represents the removal of sin from the camp. It represents the list of the people's trespasses being done away with. They will not be charged with these sins against the Lord. This process would be done year after year after year, during the centuries when the tabernacle was being used and during the centuries when the temple was being used. Until Christ came, no sacrifice was great enough to pay for man's sins forever. Until Christ came, no offering was holy enough to remove our sins from us permanently. But when Christ gave His life for us, His sacrifice "canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross". (Colossians 2:14)
There are two main theories about what our passage today represents. The first is that one goat symbolizes Christ and the other goat symbolizes everyone who will believe on Him for salvation. If this is the case, then Christ is the one upon whom the lot fell for the Lord since He is the one who was offered to the Lord on man's behalf because of our sins. That would mean the scapegoat symbolizes us and the fact that we are allowed to go free, bearing no penalty for our sins, because Christ bore the penalty for us.
The second theory, which I favor the most, is that both these goats represent Christ. The goat offered to the Lord symbolizes Christ in His humanity. In His humanity---in the human body He inhabited---He suffered and died on our behalf. This means the scapegoat symbolizes the deity of Christ. It symbolizes the victory of Christ over sin and over the grave, for no one but the Son of God had the power to attain such a victory. When He died He carried our sins far from us just as the scapegoat symbolically carried the sins of the Israelites far from them into the wilderness. The scapegoat was allowed to keep his life and this depicts the resurrection of Christ from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is the proof that God accepted His sacrifice on our behalf and that, just as Christ was set free from death and the grave, through Him we are set free from bondage to sin and set free from an eternity separated from the presence of a holy God.
I am reminded of a song called "Glorious Day" by one of my favorite contemporary Christian music groups, Casting Crowns. The lyrics of the chorus go, "Living He loved me, dying He saved me, buried He carried my sins far away. Rising He justified freely forever. One day He's coming, oh glorious day, oh glorious day." We see in our passage today the work Christ did for us. He loved us. He died for us because He loved us. When He died He carried our sins away from us forever. When He rose from the dead we received the proof that our faith in Him is justified and that our faith with justify us in the sight of a holy God when we someday stand before Him. Because of our faith in Christ and the salvation we've obtained through Him, God will say when we appear in His courtroom, "Charges dismissed!" And lastly, since Christ rose from the dead just as He said He would, we can believe He's coming again just as He said He would. What a glorious day that will be!
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