He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat.
Within 3 days of doing this, I’ve gone from a named person to an animal. Sad isn’t it! Can an animal count as a character? I’m sure Balaam’s donkey can so why not a goat? Leviticus is pretty heavy reading. There is the odd incident where people do things wrong but nothing stood out to me like the goat did. The scapegoat is a pretty lucky fellow really – he narrowly avoids sacrifice and instead gets released. Not that I’m sure about how bad it is being released into the desert with all the sins of the Isrealite nation apon you when you are a goat. I’ve never been a goat.
My new testament theology understand of sacrifice largely revolve around the sin offering I guess. Done something unholy which must be punished? Solution: pick a perfect substitute and sacrifice that to God. And Jesus stepped up to be that perfect Lamb for all of us. So I don’t really get where the Day of Atonement fits in with that. Is Jesus taking the place of both goats? Or just the one that gets sacrified? If so, who’s the escape goat?
A quick Google later… (to A Mighty Fortress ) and a bit of Hebrews and I conclude… it doesn’t really matter. What matters is the Jesus’s sacrifice for our sins was necessary and is sufficient. God is gracious.
The photo
I finally found a goat in my village! Two in fact. They were very friendly and were happy to sign a model release.
38mm@ f4.2 1/200s