Summary: In the OT the blood of sacrificed animals was shed to take away the sins of the people and this had to be done annually, but when Jesus went to the cross on our behalf in obedience to the Father's will, our sins were taken away once and for all.

Leviticus 16:1-22

Our Scapegoat

Do you remember, when David Cameron, Nick Clegg and the Coalition

took over from Gordon Brown and Ed Balls after the last election,

the new Chancellor of the Exchequer found a note from the outgoing one saying

'There is no money, it has all gone!'

And so for the last 3 years

this government has blamed the last one-time for the Recession

and all the hardships people are going through,

and the Brown Government blamed Blair,

and Blair blamed Margaret Thatcher and John Major before him.

It is not so much politics as human nature,

just as in Genesis we read how Adam blamed Eve and she blamed the Serpent,

and how in court cases murderers and rapists blame their environment or their upbringing.

No one likes to take takes individual responsibility,

as opposed to saying 'I admit it, I am guilty'.

Even the Primary One pupil who gets into trouble over something,

exclaims 'It wis'ne me'.

It is our human nature, our sinful nature, to “Blame someone else.”

or “Blame the circumstances we were brought up in.”

…........................................................................................................................

Someone once said, “He who smiles in a crisis, has found someone else to blame”.

This is always more convenient and comfortable than accepting personal responsibility.

….................................................................................................................................

We all need or look for, a 'scapegoat',

someone we can blame for our misfortune.

The idea of the scapegoat originates in Leviticus 16,

where God explains to Israel the necessity for an annual Day of Atonement.

Known as Yom Kippur, and usually occurring in September,

this was a day of national fasting, repentance and forgiveness.

It is still observed today as a solemn Sabbath,

but without the Temple blood sacrifice for sin.

Yom Kippur has been called “The Good Friday of the Old Testament”.

In Leviticus, the worship focal point of the transitory Jewish nation

was the Tabernacle, a temporary, mobile tent,

eventually replaced in the Promised Land by the Temple.

God directed Aaron the High Priest and brother of Moses to select two goats.

These two animals constituted one sin offering.

The High Priest placed his hands on the head of the one that was slain,

symbolically and ritualistically transferring on to it the sins of the people.

Then the blood was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant

in the Holy of Holies, within the Tabernacle.

The goat that escaped death was chosen by lot

and released into the desert wilderness, never to be seen again.

The Hebrew word for scapegoat is 'azazel',

combining two words, “goat” and “depart”

(some scholars translate azazel as “banish”).

According to Jewish tradition,

the practice was to tie a cloth to the horns of the scapegoat

which contained the sins of the tribes, every Hewbrew.

The scapegoat was led out of the Tabernacle, past the tents of the people,

out of the encampment and released into the wilderness.

The ordinary people could not see the blood sprinkled on the Mercy Seat,

because only priests could get that close,

but this was a ritual that everyone could observe.

The releasing of the scapegoat was symbolic,

and represented the sins of the people being carried away,

never to be held against them again,

just as at Yom Kippur nowadays Jews through stones into rivers or pools

to symbolise getting rid of their sins.

…...................................................................................

The image presented by the scapegoat is vicarious,

(from which we get the word 'Vicar', who is a 'Substitute' for Jesus)

vicarious meaning substitutionary atonement provided by God,

as opposed to us personally suffering for our own sins.

Gospel teaching in basically this:

Either we pay the penalty for our sins,

and that means going to Hell with a one-way ticket,

or we accept a sacrifice made by Jesus on our behalf to cover the debt of our sins.

….......................................................................................................

According to Romans 3:23 we have all sinned and therefore

deserve eternal punishment.

Why?

Because sin alienates; it defiles and separates us from God;

we cannoty be 'at-one' with Him because He is holy and we are sinful.

….................................................................................................

The only way out, atonement, had to be provided by God,

Who provides a way to forgiveness and eternal life,

by the removal of our guilt.

….....................................................................................................................

Before Christ, forgiveness came through animal sacrifice,

and the shedding of the animal's blood,

but these sacrifices found their fulfillment in the death of Christ,

the spotless Lamb of God.

….........................................................................................................

By putting the guilt on the Innocent, as prophesied by Isaiah,

God delivers us from evil, the evil we deserve

if we are honest enough to admit it and sincerely repent.

…..................................................................................................................

Through the grace of God and the shed blood of Jesus Christ

we can be cleansed from all our unrighteousness,

and have our sins taken away as far as the East is from the West,

and be admitted into membership of God’s family

so we can look forward to a place in Heaven.

The scapegoat of Leviticus 16 is a type or picture of Christ.

…....................................................................................................

Our sins are carried away by Jesus,

our Scapegoat and sin Substitute.

He secured a lasting deliverance from sin,

forever satisfying God's holy justice, fully removing our guilt, once-and-for-all.

…..............................................................................................................

Temple and Tabernacle sacrifices needed to be repeated, year after year,

but our Lord’s one-time, sacrifice and death upon the Cross

fully frees us from the penalty of our sins, once-and-for-all.

…............................................................................................................

We can do nothing to earn or merit forgiveness or salvation

but in order to accept pardon, we first have to admit our moral failings;

confess that we sin by the bad we do and the good we fail to do.

…............................................................................................................

We can blame our parents, society, genetics, government,

and we can try to deny there is a problem; but ultimately we’re accountable

for how we choose to live and even our thoughts as well as words and actions.

…...................................................................................................

In Old Testament parlance Jesus is both the High Priest

and the Sacrifice for sin.

He, the pure and innocent was reckoned to be sin

in order to become our sinless substitute.

As the Apostle Paul put it in 2nd Corinthians 5:21,

“God made His Son, who had no sin, to be sin for us,

so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God”.

…........................................................................................................................

Paul also states that, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law

by becoming a curse for us” (Gal 3:13).

…....................................................................................................

The prophet Isaiah tells how Messiah would be

“pierced for our iniquities and wounded for our transgressions;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him

and by His wounds we are healed.

….............................................................................................

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to our own way,

and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6).

…................................................................................................

Jesus bore the penalty of sin so that all who trust in Him

are under “no condemnation” (Rom 8:1).

Since the Fall in Genesis 3, all humankind has revolted against God

and acted in ways only pleasing to Satan.

This is why Lucifer has a legal claim over every human being;

he is the god or prince or ruler of this world and everyone in it,

but Jesus Christ purchased our release

through the payment of a ransom price,

not paid in money, but in His own precious blood.

…...........................................................................................................

The redeemed, the Saved, the Elect, the people of God,

are safe from the power of the devil

and rescued from the fear of Hell.

This is what why we thank God for His grace,

and hopefully not only for an hour or so on a Sunday morning,

and this grace is ours in the instant when we come to faith in Christ.

…..................................................................................................................

Leviticus tells us about two innocent goats, and one sacrifice.

One to receive what we deserve,

the other to carry our sins away.

...........................................................................................................

Christ was our innocent Scapegoat;

not someone that we or anyone else could blame,

the but One Who took our blame, our sin, our punishment,

in obedience to His heavenly Father's will.

….............................................................................................................................

Because we do not have to face the prospect of judgement and eternal condemnation

we should not become blasé about sin.

We can only fully appreciate Jesus' sacrifice

when we recognize the seriousness, the gravity of our sin.

Then and only then can we ask God

for the help and strength of the Holy Spirit,

to repent of our sin,

throw ouraselves on His mercy,

walk and worship in His power

and commit ourselves to His will.

…....................................................................................................................

Self-help books may be alright for learning how to make money

or plan our retirement

or lose weight and live healthily,

but we realise that when it comes to having our sins forgiven

and where we will spend eternity,

self-help is no help at all.

We need the help of the Holy Spirit,

Who convicts us of our sins,

and intercedes before the Father on our behalf.

….....................................................

By God's grace, which is ours by faith

we can have the courage to face our sin honestly

and thank God for sending Jesus on our behalf..

Relieved of the burden of sin,

knowing that Christ our Scapegoat has paid-in-full the debt we owe,

we can face the future

and even death,

with confidence.

I hope everyone here has that confidence.

Amen.