Part 2: The Scapegoat

“And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’s lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.

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.”

Leviticus 16:8-10

When you study history in the Bible, you are getting yourself ready for the future. A great likeness exists in the scapegoat that will energize every believer to bolder faith in the Word of God.

This second part will appear disjointed at times to a skilled writer. I feel this is unavoidable due to the numerous disagreements I will have with nearly every commenter on this idea, and secondly due to the new material I will present for your consideration. With all apologies given and accepted, let us begin.

Goats in the Atonement

To put our study in context with typical Bible study, I consulted a typical set of commentaries which had been donated to my library, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, by Dr. Alexander MacLaren. MacLaren does offer comment on Leviticus 16, but begins with an unfortunate criticism of the word ‘scapegoat’. He waves around Catholic terminology and shows off his ability to use a Strong’s Concordance for Hebrew before finally settling into the text in English. By then, he has shot holes into the text so much that he almost apologetically moves off without much to say. Sadly, this is the standard mindset for dealing with the Bible- redefine what you don’t understand. Change the word to match your dumbness. I know dumbness very well, but the Lord instructs often on how to comprehend what is not apparent.

“The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.” (Prov. 17:3)

“The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” (Psalm 12:6)

Eliphaz spoke great spiritual truth when he said to Job, “Receive, I pray thee, the law from his[the Lord’s] mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart. If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles. Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks. Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver.” (Job 22:22-25)

Refining is the key- trying the Word again and again. That’s what brings up the gold dust and the silver specks. Refine, NOT redefine.

Back to MacLaren. He, like so many others, stumbles upon this obvious similitude, though he stops short of understanding it. “An ideal unity was established between the two [goats to be offered]: the one sacrificed represented the fact of expiation, the one driven away represented the consequences of expiation in the complete removal of sin.”¹ It is the foremost obvious fact that these goats were somewhat equal, hence the choosing by lot. Therefore, the accomplishments of one will attribute to the other. MacLaren cites this truth, but sadly it is the only truth he is able to verbalize. He looks to the Hebrew “Azazel” and then to tradition, two dead-ends in any Bible study. His conclusion? Any scholarship trumps taking the Scripture at face value. He does what we will not do here, and that is, “The import of the remarkable treatment of this goat does not depend on the interpretation of the obscure phrase rendered in the Authorised Version.”² In other words, his thoughts about the Bible do not depend on what the Bible says. How unfortunate for him!

As mentioned above, his choice of words betrays his education. The word “expiation” is not a Bible word, but an academic one, meaning, “the act, process, or means of making atonement.” We will refrain from using this word, as it is often used to mask the heresies of the Roman Catholic church’s blasphemous mass. The Bible wording is clear enough, and does not offer a “cloak of covetousness.”³

According to the Bible, then, the atonement was made by the Lord Jesus Christ himself in the heavenly tabernacle. Eighty times the Bible uses the word “atonement” in the Old Testament. We have one use of the word in the New Testament linking Leviticus 16 with the Gospel:

“And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”

Romans 5:11

This Day of Atonement in the Old Testament was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. As the sacrifice for sin, He was presented as “The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) Just as the offering was made just once in the year, so Christ was offered once for all time. But now comes the first twist which will turn the key of understanding: no lamb was ever brought into the Holy of Holies. Not one in 1,400 years of the Mosaic Covenant, or in 2,025 years since Calvary. Only a bull and a goat.

No Lambs Allowed?

Common knowledge of the Old Testament attests that there were many more sheep than goats offered at the Tabernacle. There was a sacrifice every morning and evening of a lamb, two every day, no matter what day it was. There were dozens of lambs required for Sabbaths, feasts, new moons, and special holy days throughout the year. Lambs and sheep, however, were for burnt offerings, and their blood consecrated the priests and the instruments for service. The burnt offerings were done on the brazen altar which was in the entry of the Tabernacle courtyard. The blood did not go into the first area, the Holy Place, (where the golden lamps, table of shewbread, and incense altar were) nor did it enter into the veiled Holiest of All where the Ark rested with the Mercy Seat.

The only time of the year that an offering was made on the Mercy Seat inside the veil in the Holy of Holies was the Day of Atonement. Leviticus 16 describes the whole day in detail, and one thing is abundantly clear: no lamb’s blood ever entered. That is why Paul makes the pungent case to his nation:

“Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. 
But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, [on the Day of Atonement] not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: 
The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:”

Hebrews 9:6-8 [brackets added]

Paul reviews the procedure for that one special day to enter the most holy place.

“But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”

Hebrews 9:11-12

Goats and calves, just as we see in Leviticus 16, were the only blood sacrifices allowed into the Holy of Holies. The lambs and rams were all burnt on the brazen altar outside. We know that Christ was offered for our sins as the Lamb of God. But as to our once and for all atonement before the throne of God we have another likeness to consider: the noble (or ignoble) goat as a representative of Jesus Christ.

Transition to a New Type Study

The actual use of the lamb (at Passover, as a daily sacrifice) has its proper place in our understanding of Christ’s redemptive sacrifice on the cross. But it should be properly applied. For example, in the book of Hebrews, not once does the word “lamb” appear as an means to the New Testament which is so elaborately laid out in Hebrews 4-10. The significance of the goat in Scripture then, should not be underestimated.

We will pause here before the examination of the likenesses of the goat and the scapegoat to the Lord. I leave you with one verse to stir up your minds about the humble goat in Scripture.

“The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field.”

Proverb 27:26

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1. MacLaren, A. Expositions of Holy Scripture, Vol. 1, George H. Doran Co. p.255 ↩︎
2. Ibid. p. 254 ↩︎
3. 1 Thess. 2:5 ↩︎