Faithful Steward Ministries and FSM Women's Outreach

Leviticus 16:22

The goat ^[a]shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an ^[b]uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness. (NJKV)

Y aquel macho cabrío llevará sobre sí todas las iniquidades de ellos a tierra inhabitada; y dejará ir el macho cabrío por el desierto. (RVR1960)

If you are over the age of 12 (I am guessing anyone reading this is) I will assume you have already figured out that the vast majority of folks in the world today hate to own up to their mistakes, hate to be wrong about anything and never ever admit to either. Instead they are always looking for that scapegoat someone to blame for their mistakes or errors. 

Some think it would be nice if there was one person that was the official scapegoat;  for a day on a rotating basis maybe 🙂 that way we could just pass the buck and never have to own up to anything. Yet life and morality does not work that way (although congress seems to think so).  

In reality there was only one such Ultimate Scapegoat and His name was Christ Jesus.

The practice of a scapegoat in the Old Testament Leviticus 16 is all part of the Levitical ceremony God gave to Israel regarding the Day of Atonement. Also known as Yom Kippur, it is the most solemn and holy day in the Jewish year. It is the day the priests (Levites) would preform ritual sacrifices for the atonement of sins of the people and nation.

One of the ceremonies involved the choosing between two goats, one to be sacrificed on the alter, the other to be set free (sort of¹) with the sins burdens of the people tied to its head. 

I hope you can see the parallels to Jesus. The Jews were offered a choice between He and Barnabas to set free, the crowd yelled crucify Him.  In that moment Jesus became the Ultimate Scapegoat and Sacrifice in one. He who knew no sin 2 Corinthians 5:21 had the sin of man laid upon Him Isaiah 53:4 because animal sacrifices alone Hebrews 10:4 would never be good enough Hebrews 9:11-14:

But Christ came as High Priest of the good things ^[a]to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. ¹² Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. ¹³ For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, ^[b]sanctifies for the ^[c]purifying of the flesh, ¹⁴ how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without ^[d]spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

One last thing that must be point out, scapegoats are always chosen by others, Christ Jesus willingly stepped forward and offered Himself.

¹ = The Jewish practice eventually evolved into taking the lamb to a rocking hillside and pushing it over so that it broke its legs so it would not be able to wander back to Jerusalem. 

Recommended reading:

MacLaren Expositions Of Holy Scripture

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