The Scapegoat..

Did you realize that the term scapegoat originated in the Bible? It thrills me to be reading along and see something as specific as the term "scapegoat" used in scripture to give me a concise word-picture of what the Lord is talking about. In my daily devotions I am reading through Leviticus..yes, people, there are applicable things in Leviticus although I will admit it isn't the most exciting book to read! I have tried to remember as I read through parts of the Old Testament that all of it, including those chapter-long genealogies, are the inspired word of God and are placed there for a purpose - not sure what purpose but there nonetheless. Obviously, it was important to God for me to have those out of the very limited amount of His mind we are privvy to!

So, this morning I was reading about the Day of Atonement. If you tend to get that confused with all of the other rituals, feasts and ceremonies, like I do, then here is a quick tutorial for you: The Day of Atonement served as the one day of the year when the High Priest offered a sacrifice to the Lord on behalf of all the people to "atone" for all the sin they had committed during that year. They observed it like a Sabbath day where they rested from their work. The process for the High Priest was to enter the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was housed and sprinkle blood from a sin offering on the mercy seat. (Connection here..Jesus is our High Priest who makes atonement for our sins under the new covenant.) The High Priest had a VERY specific list to follow in order to complete the process and if at any point He made a mistake, He would die! Now, don't you think you would be double checking your notes if you were the H.P.? I would be a total nervous wreck and I would definitely make sure that I had my eyes checked before I started reading my notes! If you ever want to get anything right it would be this!! Did you know that they used to tie a long sash onto the waste of the priest so that if he went into the Holy of Holies and died they could drag him out by the sash? Why? Because even going into retrieve the body would place those people in the presence of the Lord since His presence resided in the Holy of Holies hovering over the Ark. Then, those people simply retrieving the body would die as well! Serious business!!

So, you may read that and think what a cruel God that He would kill someone for forgetting the 3rd step! Let me encourage you to look at it in a different light...how serious is God over our sin? Sin separates us from God. God is so Holy that He cannot dwell in the presence of sin. Sin is so detestable to Him that it takes absolute perfection to atone for it, to cover it. There is no room for error when it comes to the forgiveness of sin. There is no room for flippancy and casually entering into His presence. Sin is so serious that it always took life to atone for it and ultimately, it took the absolute perfection of God's own Son to pay for my sin and for yours too...

In the process of sacrificing, the High Priest would select two goats and then cast lots (kind of like a modern day rock, paper, scissors or eenie, meenie, minee-mo but on a divine level??) to see which goat would be sacrificed and which would be the scapegoat. The scapegoat would ultimately represent Jesus Christ. The High Priest would place both of his hands on the head of the goat and confess all of the sins of the sons of Israel and then release the goat into the wilderness outside the camp. In Hebrews 13:10-14 it says that Jesus was crucified outside the camp..outside the walls of Jerusalem. Don't you just love scripture and how it all ties together? Nothing thrills me like finding that God is not random about ANYTHING, even a scapegoat!

So my conclusion? I have asked the Lord to impress upon me the weight of my sin in light of His absolute holiness. We can become flippant and matter-of-fact about our sin and because we live under grace we think that God just turns a blind eye. The reality is that He is still as grieved over sin today as He has always been. Psalm 7:11 says that "God is angry with the wicked EVERY DAY." My prayer is that we will see the weight of sin in light of God's holiness, that we will see His absolute perfection and His COMPLETE worthiness and praise Him for His gift of grace toward us by "demonstrating His love for us in that while we were STILL sinners Christ died for us..the godly for the ungodly (Romans 5:6,8). It only takes one half of one sin for us to need a scapegoat and we all fall down...