The Scapegoat | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 19, 1867

The Scapegoat.

Lev. xvi, 8. “And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat.”

THE remarks which J. H. KURTZ, D. D., makes on this passage, as we find them in his Sacred History, p. 130, are such as to show that, in his view, the scapegoat cannot be a type of Christ. He says:—

“In accordance with the importance of the occasion, the high priest alone officiated on the great day of Atonement. After he had brought a sin-offering for himself and his house, he cast lots upon two goats, one lot for a sin-offering for the Lord, and the other lot ‘for Azazel;’ [Lev. xvi, 8, Eng. vers. marg.] The blood of the first goat was carried by him into the holiest of all, on this day (on which alone he was permitted to enter), and sprinkled on the mercy-seat. The sins for which atonement was thus made, were put upon the head of the second goat, which was sent away alive into the wilderness, to Azazel (the evil demon, represented as dwelling in the wilderness), in order that the latter might ascertain all that had been done, and know that he no longer retained power over Israel. This whole transaction expressed the thought that the atonement made on this day was so complete, and so plain and undeniable, that even Satan the Accuser (Heb. ix, 12; Zech. iii; Rev. xii, 10, 11) was compelled to acknowledge it. In the sacrifice of this day, consequently, the sacrifice of Christ is shadowed and typified more clearly than in any other, even as we read in Heb. ix, 12: ‘By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.’”