Leviticus 16:5 ¶ And he 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. 11 And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make an atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself: 12 And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail: 13 And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not: 14 And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times.
Aaron first makes an atonement for himself to satisfy the enmity
between the priest as a man and God. The Christian’s high priest does not need
to make an atonement for Himself as He is God and without sin.
Hebrews 2:17 Wherefore in
all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make
reconciliation for the sins of the people.
Hebrews 4:15 For we have
not an high priest which cannot
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without
sin.
Notice the two goats here. We have adopted the use of the word scapegoat into our language from
Tyndale’s translation of 1530 but from the early 1800s it was a reference to
someone being blamed for someone else’s sins or errors.
Sceptics make much of Tyndale translating a Hebrew word for the
‘goat sent away’ to scapegoat for a goat that escapes as scape is an archaic
form of escape. This is typical of the absurd wrangling against the KJV. If
they transliterated Azazel for the goat sent away would that make the passage
easier to understand for you or change its meaning? The scapegoat is sent away
and escapes the fate of the LORD’s goat.
Leviticus 16:15 ¶ 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. 17 And there
shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make
an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made an
atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of
Israel. 18 And he shall go out unto the
altar that is before the LORD, and make an atonement for it; and shall
take of the
blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it
upon the horns of the altar round about. 19
And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times,
and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.
Aaron
must make an atonement for the congregation, for himself, and for his family.
Leviticus 16:20 ¶ 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. 23 And Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall put off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there: 24 And he shall wash his flesh with water in the holy place, and put on his garments, and come forth, and offer his burnt offering, and the burnt offering of the people, and make an atonement for himself, and for the people. 25 And the fat of the sin offering shall he burn upon the altar. 26 And he that let go the goat for the scapegoat shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward come into the camp. 27 And the bullock for the sin offering, and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall one carry forth without the camp; and they shall burn in the fire their skins, and their flesh, and their dung. 28 And he that burneth them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp.
In this passage the scapegoat is bearing the iniquity of the
congregation and being sent off into the wilderness. Christ bore our sins and
carried them away.
Hebrews 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look
for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
I am
reminded of the following verses.
Psalm 103:10 He hath not
dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them
that fear him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our
transgressions from us.
One
major difference between this scapegoat and all of the animal sacrifices versus
what Christ did on the Cross was that Christ’s sacrifice was sufficient once
and for all.
Hebrews 7:26 For such an
high priest became us, who is
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the
heavens; 27 Who needeth not daily, as
those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for
the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. 28 For the law maketh men high priests which
have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated
for evermore.
This is one reason, of many, why I believe in eternal security,
that once you are saved you cannot be unsaved. For as it also says in Hebrews
if you could get unsaved you could never get saved again, which goes against
what the Bible said about Peter when he denied Christ and about forgiveness and
redemption in Paul’s letters.
Hebrews 6:1 ¶ Therefore
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection;
not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith
toward God, 2 Of the doctrine of
baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of
eternal judgment. 3 And this will we do,
if God permit. 4 For it is impossible for those who were
once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers
of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the
good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again
unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and
put him to an open shame.
Leviticus 16:29 ¶ And this
shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the
tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at
all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that
sojourneth among you: 30 For on that day
shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that
ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD. 31 It shall be a sabbath of rest unto
you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever. 32 And the priest, whom he shall anoint, and
whom he shall consecrate to minister in the priest’s office in his father’s
stead, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen clothes, even
the holy garments: 33 And he shall make
an atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the
tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar, and he shall make an
atonement for the priests, and for all the people of the congregation. 34 And this shall be an everlasting statute unto
you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a
year. And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.
This atonement was performed yearly. But, as you and I have seen,
Christ’s atonement for us was once and for all.
Paul
goes into some detail about sacrifices and Christ in the book of Hebrews.
Hebrews 10:1 ¶ For the law
having a shadow of good things to come, and
not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they
offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be
offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more
conscience of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance
again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should
take away sins. 5 Wherefore when he
cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but
a body hast thou prepared me: 6 In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for
sin thou hast had no pleasure.
7 ¶ Then said I, Lo, I come
(in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
8 Above when he said,
Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the
law; 9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
10 By the which will we are
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 And every priest standeth daily ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12 But this man, after he had offered one
sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. 14 For by one
offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
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