Advent Day 6 :: The Final Scapegoat

“And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering,” (Leviticus 16:9)

We all have probably heard the phrase “passing the buck” or “pass the buck”. It’s a phrase coined to represent someone who has shifted the responsibility to someone else. More often it represents someone who is playing the blame game. Something may have gone wrong and instead of owning up to it they find it best to put the blame and responsibility on someone else. This person frequently is someone who is seen as the weaker party.

Chances are you either have been the person to be blamed or to blame someone else. You have been the scapegoat or you have been scapegoated. That is how Merriem Webster defines a scapegoat - one that bears the blame for others.

The idea of the scapegoat, however, is a biblical one. The term scapegoat is a translation of the Hebrew word Azazel as seen in Leviticus 16:7-10.

It was literally a goat that carried the sins of the nation into the wilderness. Though not technically a sacrifice, the scapegoat would visually and ritually cleanse the nation from the guilt of their sins. The term azazel comes from two Hebrew terms. Az being the literal translation for goat and azel which means to carry or take away. The idea was to place the sin of the nation onto a goat and then someone would then take the goat and release it into the wilderness. This was not a place where there were lush green fields and flowing streams of water. The goat would have been taken to a desolate place to ensure that it would die and not survive or potentially find its way back.

We notice in the Leviticus 16 passage that there were two goats. The first we have describe. The second had a worse fate than the first. It was used to be the actual sacrifice. Its blood was shed and sprinkled onto the altar to make atonement for the sins of the nation. This was important as the blood of the animal was its lifeline and was needed to make the atonement for the sins.

The glory of God was seated above the ark and the ark above the law with the “mercy seat” in between the two. It was a representation that the law was to be kept but we could not. We are lawbreakers. God who required the law to be kept required justice to be met. But, because of the mercy seat lay in between the two it was the place for atonement. A place where the sins of the nation could be paid for. God had provided a way for a sinful nation to be able to approach him once again.

We see the same in the coming of Christ. In John 1:29 we see written: “The next day he [John] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Christ came to become the final scapegoat. He lived a perfect life, without sin. A lamb without blemish. Why? Because we are a sinful people. Since the fall in the garden we have been born into sin, bent on doing things our way. Our hearts desire shifted from that of what God desires to our own desires. But God in love was merciful and made a way. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6) Christ took upon himself the sin of the world so that all who would believe would have a right relationship once again with God and have eternal life in Him.

He has already taken the blame for all of our wrongdoing. But we must acknowledge him as God’s scapegoat, the atonement for our sins.

This Advent season, take some time to think about all that God has saved you from by sending His son Jesus Christ to die for your sins and the sins of the world. He did all this to have a relationship once again with you!

Further Reading: Hebrews 10

Photo by Perry Kibler on Unsplash