The whole “scapegoat” concept is amazing. This unique word is only used 4 times in all the Bible, all being in Leviticus chapter 16. All concerning the Day of Atonement! It is the noun “azazel” in Hebrew, meaning the “goat” (“ez” in Hebrew) that “goes away” (“azal” in Hebrew).

Here’s the Text, God speaking directly to Moses, indirectly to Aaron: “And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 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. (BLOODSHED) 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. (SIN CARRIED FAR, FAR AWAY)” Leviticus 16:7-10

The “scapegoat” became the bearer of Israel’s sins (the whole nation) … in God’s Eyes … “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.” Leviticus 16:21, a symbolic/typical transferring of sins onto an innocent animal! That verb “to lay” means “to lean, press upon” with all one’s might! A heavy load!

Then … Aaron was to “send him (that goat) away by the hand of a FIT MAN into the wilderness.” Leviticus 16:21

I am especially interested this morning in that “fit man!”

I am positive that scapegoat is a picture of Jesus, the Sin-Bearer! Isaiah 53:6 declares … “The LORD hath laid on (caused to fall) him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all.” On the Cross!

Do remember that the scapegoat’s “twin” has been slain already, his blood offered as a “Sin Offering” unto Almighty God!

But there’s more … our sins have not merely been “atoned,” they also have been “banished!” We in our day (with our New Testaments) can say our sins are “washed away!”

And, on that great Day of Atonement, WHO literally led/carried that goat away, those sins away?

The “Fit Man” of whom I just spoke! (The Hebrew is “ittiy iysh.” Meaning the “timely” man! The “ready” man! The “seasonal” man! By implication, the “appointed man!”

I am suggesting too that this “MAN” is also a Type of Jesus our Saviour! Our dear Lord Who not only “shed His Blood” for our sins! Not only who “bore the load” of our sins! But who also “took our sins” out of sight! Into the wilderness! Never to be seen again!

Jesus as the Fit Man!

Hebrews 10:4 says (indirectly) that Jesus “took away” our sins! (“For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” Hebrews 10:4, but Jesus DID take away sins!)

And 1 John 3:5 powerfully and specifically says of Jesus: “And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.”

Wow!

“To take away!”

Yes, to do exactly what that fit man did long ago!

But better … Jesus did not have to repeat the task annually, as did some Jewish fit man!

Jesus “took away” our sins once and for all!

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Yes, Jesus is FIT!

He is PERFECT too!

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I am again amazed as I read Leviticus 16, though it only encompasses 34 verses … this time because of the two “Offerings” given God during the various “Day of Atonement” Acts of Worship. (Our chapter mentions only two of the five offerings we have studied, Leviticus chapters 1-7.)

Verse 3 begins the holy “list” … each offering “heavy” with meaning, with import … “Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a SIN OFFERING, and a ram for a BURNT OFFERING.”

My question is … WHY these two and these two only?

And the answer is … because of the TYPICAL TEACHING of these specific Offerings.

First notice … that the order of the Offerings is reversed on the Day of Atonement.

In their original presentation the BURNT OFFERING was taught first, Leviticus chapter 1. And the SIN OFFERING was taught fourth, next-to-last, Leviticus chapter 4.

But on this High and Holy Day … the SIN OFFERING is clearly to be slain first. And the BURNT OFFERING later!

Paul believes God wants everything done “decently and in order.” According to 1 Corinthians 14:40. But here (with these two Offerings) He has reversed His Order! Not without reason, I suggest.

In the order of the Offerings as presented in Leviticus 1-5 (chapters 6 and 7 merely add additional criteria to the previously studied Offerings) … is viewed from God’s Viewpoint! (As in, sequentially; Burnt, Meat, Peace, Sin and Trespass Offerings)

But man (us sinners or ex-sinners) must apply the Offerings in the opposite direction … from the human viewpoint! (As in; Trespass, Sin, Peace, Meal and Burnt Offerings!)

Wow!

So on the Day of Atonement (for mankind’s sins) the order is (of necessity) … first the Sin Offering then finally, the Burnt Offering.

The Sin Offering speaks of forgiveness. Of God being appeased, satisfied … Blood Atonement!

While the Burn Offering speaks of dedication, sanctification, consecration … one being totally “given” to God in love and adoration and reverence.

Salvation first!

Then consecration!

And that is the order in which our relationship with God must develop!

You cannot present yourself unto Him as a “living sacrifice” … until first your sins are “gone!”

Wow!

How Wise is our great God!

How reasonable, too!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Don’t try to live for God … while you’re still lost. It’s impossible! You can’t live the Christian life … without first being born again!

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To me personally the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus is difficult! Much more involved than I had ever realized. Yet it forms of basis of God’s Dwelling among His people year after year! His “Shekinah Glory” Dwelling!

How can that BLESSING be considered lightly?

Here is what the old Bible Expositor C. H. (Charles Henry) Mackintosh said about our Text: “This chapter unfolds some of the weightiest principles of truth which can possibly engage the renewed mind. It presents the doctrine of atonement with uncommon fullness and power. In short, we must rank the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus amongst the most precious and important sections of Inspiration; if indeed it be allowable to make comparisons where all is divine.”

Wow!

And another old writer, S. H. Kellogg agreed: “This ordinance of the day of atonement was perhaps the most important and characteristic in the whole Mosaic legislation. In the law of the offerings, the most distinctive part was the law of the sin-offering; and it was on the great annual day of atonement that the conceptions embodied in the sin-offering obtained their most complete development.”

And Joseph Seiss wrote further, still having Leviticus 16 in mind: “The chapter before us prescribes the most solemn and interesting round of ceremonies contained in the Hebrew ritual. It presents God’s law for the great Day of Atonement—the most impressive day in the Jewish calendar — a day to which all classes looked with peculiar anxiety—a day when they were to lay aside every secular employment and afflict their souls — the day when the high-priest was to go into the Holy of holies, and to make an atonement for all the sins, irreverences, and pollutions of Israel, from himself down to the lowest of the people, for the entire year—a day of solemnities connecting directly with Calvary and the whole redemption work of Christ Jesus.”

Well, we now have two or three witnesses! (Deuteronomy 19:15 … “At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.”)

So (here on the Website) having only studied the first few verses of this great “Day of Atonement” Chapter … we will continue to attempt to plumb its depths tomorrow morning, the Lord willing.

Meanwhile I sincerely pray: “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law, O Lord.” Psalm 119:18

What typology, what “pointing” to Jesus, Leviticus 16 and that great and holy Festival! Often the old rabbis/teachers called the “Day of Atonement” just “THE DAY!”

I am beginning to understand why!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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I have just read that in no other known world “religion” is such an enactment (symbol, picture) found … not like the “two goats” scenario of Leviticus 16, of the great Day of Atonement in the life of the nation of Israel.

Wow!

After Aaron the high Priest had carefully cleansed himself … he was instructed to: “Take two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” Leviticus 16:7

No doubt these goats (somehow) represent Jesus Christ our Lord, the Supreme Sacrifice of all ages. The True Atonement Provider, not only for Israel’s sins but for the sins of the whole world.

Back in Moses’ day … goats did not have a “taint of disfavor” as they do these days. They were noble animals, clean too (in God’s Eyes), edible for the children of Israel.

Particularly known for their “strength” and “endurance!” Hence (at least to this extent) they typify Jesus as the Man Strong enough to endure the Cross of Calvary! Daniel 11:32 reminds us: “The people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” How much more then, Jesus?

But back to the two goats.

“And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.” Leviticus 16:8

Wow!

Not “lots” in the sense of gambling, mind you! But in a holy, spiritual sense. “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.” Proverbs 16:3, God’s Prerogative being the issue here.

What happens to the Lord’s “goat?”

“And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.” Leviticus 16:9, a graphic Picture of Jesus dying for our sins!

Expiation, propitiation, justification redemption!

Go back and read the earlier Lessons on the “sin offering” (Leviticus 4) and thrill at the Word of God! How Jesus was “made sin for us!” That we might be made “the righteousness of God” in Him, in our Lord! (Read all of 2 Corinthians 5:21, every word.)

But what about the other goat?

“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 16:10

This goat too, still symbolizing Jesus in some way.

It is, I believe, a picture of Jesus “bearing our sins” and “taking them far, far away!”

“Into the wilderness,” never to be seen again!

How far has our sin been removed? “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” So says Psalm 103:12.

And this “deep” as well … “He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” Micah 7:19

(I realize the New Testament gives even a more beautiful picture yet of the effects of Calvary! Where our sins are said to be “washed away” by the Blood of Jesus! Revelation 1:5, for example … “Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” But I still get exited about thinking about the scapegoat … iniquity gone forever!)

The first goat .. the cost of our sins, what Jesus paid for us at Calvary!

The second goat … the effect of that Payment, the result of the Bloodshed Jesus “gave” on the Cross! Our sins are banished!

Now admittedly, there is more (much more) to be discovered in the study of these two goats. But at least today I have shared with you the “heart” of this amazing typology.

(Notice … no one picture can portray what Jesus did on the Cross! It takes multiple actions to come anywhere near giving us an accurate sense of what Calvary accomplished! That’s how GREAT our Saviour really is! In fact, no one Gospel could tell His whole Story! It took four, Matthew and Mark and Luke and John.)

Hallelujah, what a Saviour!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Earlier this morning I was thinking about the duties of the High Priest of Israel … on this great Day of Atonement. Heavy duties, reverent duties! Much was asked of him. And on fear of death as well!

“And the LORD spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the LORD, and died; and the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on.” Leviticus 16:1-4

Warning: Aaron, do not come into the Most Holy Place at will! If you do so, you will die! As did your two sons Nadab and Abihu!

Warning: Aaron, do not come into the Most Holy Place without having sacrificed a sin offering and a burnt offering as well! Wherein work was involved, meticulous work at that! Regulation after regulation! (Think of all that would have been involved in killing and preparing that “bullock” alone, that “ox!” Just that sin offering!)

Warning: Aaron, when you approach God in the Most Holy Place you must dress correctly! Do not wear your garments of glory, your most “fancy” attire! Dress simply, linen only … dress humbly!

Warning: Aaron, do not fail to bathe in water, carefully and fully, before dressing either!

And frankly, in these first four verses of Leviticus 16 we are just beginning with the High Priest’s obligations!

Wow!

All this helped me ponder our (us Christians) great High Priest … Jesus Christ the Righteous! (Hebrews 3:1 … “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.”)

He too, in bringing about our Atonement (via His Death on Calvary) had many, many “duties” to perform!

A heavy weight to bear!

What duties, one might ask?

He that Day long ago fulfilled every aspect of the typology involved in the … Burnt Offering!

In the Meat Offering!

In the Peace Offering!

In the Sin Offering!

And in the Trespass Offering!

Work, Holy Work … but work indeed!

And on our “Day of Atonement,” Jesus did not merely “kill” a bullock … He laid down His Own Life as that bullock, as the lamb, as the little innocent dove!

And that “rule” about dress?

Jesus died naked (or nearly so) … a further attempt of a heathen government to humiliate our dear Lord!

What weight to bear!

Not even considering this load … “And the LORD (God the Father) hath LAID on him (God the Son, Jesus) the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6

Yes, Jesus is a greater High Priest than Aaron (good as he might have been) in a thousand different ways!

Wow!

A whole Lesson on the magnificent superiority of our Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest!

Jesus, according to the Book of Hebrews, “better” than the whole Aaronic Priesthood! God to His Son, way back in Psalm 110:4 …“Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.”

Yes, better!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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