Part 4: The Scapegoat- A Picture of Scripture

“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:

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:

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.”

Leviticus 16:20-22

In the final installment, we will read the precious few verses we have, and see if the type holds up. I want to briefly outline how the scapegoat is a type of the Scriptures, and why I believe that impacts our American culture’s misuse of the scapegoat.

The First and Last Appearance of the Scapegoat

First, here are features showing how this scapegoat is a type of the Bible from the orders concerning the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16.

1. The scapegoat is a live male

This matches the unique characteristic of both the word of God and the Son of God. The word of God is said to live and abide forever. It is also referred to in the masculine gender.

2. A man lays both his hands upon him.

Rare is the book that you can hold in one hand, modern or ancient. The scrolls were just as unwieldy, and required both hands to use. Secondly, the placing of both hands is extremely rare in Scripture. Other ordinances may require the laying on of hands, but here it requires both.

Paul encourages Timothy, “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.” (2 Timothy 1:6, 13-14) Timothy was charged to hold onto his Scriptures.

3. He has confessed over him the sins of all the people

People are often surprised by the stories in the Bible. God recorded real people making real mistakes. It is for our learning. Every sin is named or illustrated somewhere in the Bible. Yet the Bible never apologizes or accepts those sins, or makes them so to any reader. The Bible presents the ugly reality of sin and the need for its atonement.

In another way, this is true of a person’s Bible who reads it every day. As we lay hold on it, its words move us to pray and confess our sins to the Lord so that he may forgive and cleanse us. Many prayers of repentance are prayed over the Book.

When Daniel “understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet” he immediately went to a season of prayer: “And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession.” (Daniel 9:2b,4a) The book bore witness to committed sins and also to confessed sins.

4. An imprimatur of blood marked the scapegoat.

The high priest would have just exited the Holy of Holies, having sprinkled the blood of the first goat and and a bull around the Mercy Seat. There was no washing of the hands before this confession. While the priest prayed, the blood was soaking into the head and over the horns of the scapegoat. He became marked with blood.

This book is marked with blood. From Genesis 3 to Revelation 19, blood marks the sinner as well as his Saviour. Blood cries from the ground (Genesis 4, 1 John 5:8), and it is sung from Heaven (Revelation 5:9). The Book is a constant reminder of the Blood.

And the handprints belong to the administrator of the sacrifice. The Book is God’s Book. In the witnesses given in 1 John 5:7-8, we are told, “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.” The Three in Heaven bear witness in earth through the blood. Because Jesus’ blood was God’s blood. (“Feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” Acts 20:28) That blood was shed for our atonement and is testified by the record God gave. It bears His fingerprints.

5. The goat is entrusted to a fit man.

One man of the 603,550 enlisted men¹ of Israel was chosen to take this goat. He is not specified as a Levite, only that he is “fit.” Now, how ‘fit’ does one have to be to handle a harmless little goat?

Paul to Timothy again commands: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15) Paul had committed unto Timothy all that God had showed him. Timothy then was encouraged to do the same. “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:1-2) How much of a ‘workman’, how ‘strong’, how ‘faithful’ does one have to be to handle a simple little book?

According to Paul, God does not choose “many.” He may choose one. In calling and choosing men to salvation and service, one truth dominates. “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called;” (1 Corinthians 1:26) I am thankful He did not say, “not any.” Not everyone makes it into God’s service.

But the praise goes to the man who exercises himself unto godliness. The men of Gad were said to be “fit for the battle; that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains;” (2 Chronicles 12:9) They were fit because they could handle what they’d been given. We have been given a Book. It is called “the sword of the Spirit.” (Ephesians 6:17) Can you handle it?

6. The scapegoat is taken to the wilderness; a land before it is inhabited.

Wisdom is personified in Proverbs 8 as being present at the Creation. Listen to what it says:

22 The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. 
23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. 
24 When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. 
25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: 
26 While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. 
27 When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: 
28 When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: 
29 When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: 
30 Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; 
31 Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. (Proverbs 8:22-31)

This wisdom is the word, small ‘w’, plain and simple. The spoken word was a product of the Godhead, while “the Word (Jesus Christ) was God.” (John1:1) The spoken word has a distinct role in Creation: “And God said, Let there be… and there was…” (Genesis 1:3) Notice then, in Proverbs 8:26, wisdom in a land not inhabited, like the scapegoat. But just as the children of Israel would possess all the land of Canaan, so wisdom is there, rejoicing in Proverb 8:31. Because every place that was created was made for people. “For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.” (Isaiah 45:18) Which leads to the next similitude.

7. The fit man let him go.

The word of God was entrusted to the apostles to be sent to the uttermost part of the earth.² The gospel was to be preached to every creature.³ Paul’s last words to Timothy were simply, “Preach the word.” (2 Timothy 4:2)

Dr. Ruckman’s illustration, “The Monarch of the Books” carried this caption: “Turn him loose, he can take care of himself!” Dr. Ruckman drew a lion. We have gone to great lengths to picture the independence of a goat.

Some goats have been observed scaling 90-degree angle dam walls and mountain faces. Other species survive in the wild in the land of lions. Domesticated, they certainly are docile, but they are far from helpless. Where they run wild, they are a majestic spectacle indeed.

“He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.” (Psalm 147:10)

Other Comparisons

Finally, three more notable comparisons you should consider.

• The likeness of a goat to the Bible shows up in milk.

“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” (1 Peter 2:2)

“And thou shalt have goats’ milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens.” (Proverb 27:27)

You cannot give a newborn infant cow’s milk. It is neither good nor safe for them. As a supplement for a mother’s milk, goats’ milk is the next best thing. It beats formula for nutrients, and can restore a sickly baby to health.

Now how often have you thought of that passage and grabbed a gallon jug of cow’s milk from your refrigerator? The Holy Spirit never had a cow in mind! Peter may have been a fisherman, but he was a married man, and God led him to write about milk for babies that was safe for his family.

• The likeness of a goat to the Bible shows up in its relation to a King.

“Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?” (Ecclesiastes 8:4)

“There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going: A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any; A greyhound; an he goat also; and a king, against whom there is no rising up.” Proverbs 30:29-31)

We have the King’s Words. They were authorized by a king on earth (King James) and they were authored by a King in Heaven. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” (2 Timothy 3:16)

• The likeness of a goat to the Bible shows in the receipt of redemption.

“The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field.” (Proverb 27:26)

“The field is the world.” (Matthew 13:38) “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. ” (1 Corinthians 6:20)

The Lord bought and paid for the redemption of the world in Christ. Many will go to hell “denying the Lord that bought them” (2 Peter 2:1) because they will never read or heed the title deed to their life. The Bible is the legal record that the field has been bought.

What’s Got Your Goat?

I started by showing you how the world thinks the scapegoat is the one who is blamed, the one who is at fault. That, we have proved by simply reading the Bible, is untrue. Culture has misappropriated the idea. This Biblical concept is now foreign to modern users of the term because they have abandoned the Bible it came from. One goat slain, the other set free. The Lord bore the blame, the word bears the news.

The Bible itself has become a social scapegoat of the modern definition. Merriam-Webster defines scapegoat as “one that is the object of irrational hostility.”⁴ This defines the attitude of the modern man to the Bible. He hates it, even though it is only trying to save his soul.

Novelist-turned-shepherd Brian Kessler comments on the cycle of raising goats in America. “The goat was never well loved by arable farmers on fertile land,” he quotes. “When agriculture produces crops that man, cow, and sheep can consume with more profit, the goat retreats to the mountain tops and the wilderness, rejected and despised– hated too, as the emblem of anarchy.”⁵

Rejected… despised… hated? These are strong reactions to a simple animal. Amazing that the same dislike comes when people are reminded of the Bible. Our Saviour came 2,000 years ago, and we are still preaching it! The Bible-believing Christian bears a privilege shared by only the scapegoat. We, as he, were chosen to live. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1) If the world continues on its present course, and you live for Jesus Christ and testify of His atonement, you may find yourself in the wilderness “upon the rocks with the wild goats.”⁶

“They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;  (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”

Hebrews 11:37-38

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1. Numbers 1:46 ↩︎
2. Acts 1:8 ↩︎
3. Mark 16:16 ↩︎
4. “Scapegoat.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scapegoat ↩︎
5. Kessler, Brad, Goat Song, Scribner, 2009 ↩︎
6. 1 Samuel 24:2 Saul chased David in En-gedi ↩︎