Question:  Dear Greg,

            I am confused about the scapegoat in the sin offering.  The goat that is offered on the altar bore all the sins of the sinner.  It dies in his stead.  The priest also put his hands on the scapegoat and laid upon it all the sins of the sinner or repentant sinner.  And it was left in the forest.  As for me, the goat that is offered in the Tabernacle actually bore all the sins and transgressions and it dies for him.  The scapegoat stands for the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

            That is the reason for asking two goats.  When the scapegoat stands for the resurrection, why did the priest lay all the sins on the scapegoat?  Kindly explain the sin offering the goat offered inside the tabernacle and the scapegoat?  What do they symbolize?

            Selah 

Answer:  Dear Selah,

            You of course are referring to Leviticus 16.  Aaron, as high priest, cast lots to determine which goat should be sacrificed to the Lord and which should be termed “Azazel”.  The word, Azazel is not easily understood.  The best explanation is probably “complete removal.”  That is, complete removal of communal guilt.

            Both goats teach the Old Testament concept of sin being taken away by a substitute or an agent who makes atonement on behalf of the sinner.  Of course, both animals also show that no human being can make atonement for his or her own sins.  Only Jesus Christ can do that.

            Any animal whose sacrifice was said to take away guilt is therefore a type of Christ, for he fulfills all of the old covenant.  The Christian interprets the book of Leviticus in the light of the new covenant; the book of Hebrew is specifically helpful in this regard.  Leviticus 16 is speaking of the Hebrew observance of Atonement—today called Yom Kippur.  Hebrew 9 and 10 speaks of the Christian view of how Christ fulfilled this observance.

            Hebrews 9:24-26 says, “For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence.  Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.  Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world.  But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht