August 25 "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 The sin offering required two goats. One was to be sacrificed because the wages of sin is death. But the other goat was brought before Aaron in order that he might lay his hands on its head and verbally, articulately, and carefully confess the sins of the nation and, in a sense, transfer the sin to the goat. Symbolically bearing the sins of the whole nation, the goat was then led to the wilderness, where it symbolically carried the sins of the congregation out of sight. The scapegoat is an illustration of God’s declaration that He will remember our sins and iniquities no more (Jeremiah 31:34). When this understanding finally drops from one’s head to one’s heart, it is so exhilarating, and so liberating because most of us believe that God, like Santa Claus, is making a list and checking it twice, that God is keeping score. He’s not. We remember each other’s sin. But God has chosen to erase from His memory bank the sins we confess. Most people know this doctrinally, but because they don’t believe it in the deepest part of their soul, they believe God is disappointed with them due to what happened ten years ago or ten weeks ago or ten minutes ago. In Psalm 103, God says, “As far as the east is from the west, so I have put your iniquities from Me” (see verse 12). In Isaiah, He says, “I have cast your sins behind My back” (see 38:17). Isaiah 44:22 tells us He has blotted out our sins like a thick cloud; Job 14:17 says that He puts our sins in a bag and sews it up; Micah 7:19 declares that our sins are cast into the depths of the sea. What the scapegoat pictured symbolically and temporarily, the Lamb of God achieved practically and eternally when He died on the Cross of Calvary for each and every sin of all of humanity.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 09:13:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015