THE SCAPEGOAT by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Nov 29, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 48.

THE SCAPEGOAT.

By G.

MANY people hold that the "scapegoat," connected with the typical service of the earthly sanctuary, represented Christ. This error is so frequently expressed that a few words on the subject may be profitable.

The matter is connected with the service of the day of atonement, as described in Leviticus 16. After the high priest had made an atonement for himself and his house with the blood of a bullock, he was directed to take two goats and set them before the Lord at the door of the tent of meeting. Upon these he was to cast lots, "one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat." The margin for scapegoat is "Azazel," which both Jewish and Christian authorities define as referring to Satan.

Then the high priest was to "bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer him for a sin-offering." This goat that was offered, the one upon which the Lord's lot fell, represented Christ. It was "the sin-offering for the people." It was killed, and its blood was taken within the vail, and sprinkled before the mercy-seat and upon it, for the uncleanness of the children of Israel. This cleansing of the sanctuary was because of the sins which had been carried in by the high priest during the year and confessed before the Lord. The year's round of service represented the work of our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary, and the day of atonement represented the final judgment.

After the blood of the sin-offering was sprinkled upon and before the mercy-seat, underneath which was the ark containing the violated law, thus in type making an atonement for sin, there was another typical ceremony: "He [the high priest] shall go out unto the altar that is before the Lord, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about. And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel."

We must bear in mind that the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary signified the removal of the sins confessed by the Lord's people and borne in there by the high priest. So it is in the heavenly sanctuary, where Christ receives our confession of sin. The final judgment of the righteous is the antitype of the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary on the day of atonement. So the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary is the removal of the sins that have gone before by confession unto judgment. 1 Tim. 5:24.

After the ceremony of "reconciling," or cleansing, the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, the live goat was brought forward. The command was that the high priest "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, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness; and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited; and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness."

This scapegoat, altho let go alive, was never heard of more. Evidently it perished in the wilderness. So it could not have represented the Lord Jesus Christ, who, altho He was put to death, appeared again on the third day and soon afterward took up His work as High Priest of the heavenly sanctuary. Even the man who led the scapegoat away to final destruction was obliged to cleanse himself and his clothes by thorough washing before he could re-enter the camp of the Lord's people.

In the type the sins that had been confessed before the Lord in the sanctuary were carried away to perish with the bearer; so in the antitype, the final judgment of the righteous, their sins will be put away forever. Ps. 103:12; Jer. 31:34.

Satan not only originated sin, but he is the instigator of all sin; therefore justice demands that he suffer for that which he caused those to do who afterward repented and were forgiven. Their being forgiven does not forgive him. When the heavenly sanctuary shall have been cleansed, by blotting out the sins of the penitent class, and these sins are removed by our great High Priest, He will lay them on the head of Satan, who instigated them. So Satan is the antitypical scapegoat, bearing those sins with him to his own final destruction.