'they made him a scapegoat'

Have you ever been made to take the blame for something you didn't do? It's not fun is it. Perhaps you have been part of a team, the project has gone wrong, and you get blamed. You have been 'made a scapegoat'.

The word 'scapegoat' was actually made up by William Tyndale, one of the English translators of the Bible. He came across the passage in Leviticus 16 that deals with the sacrifices to be made on the Day of Atonement. In addition to various bullocks, two goats were to be selected. One was offered up as a sin offering on behalf of the people. It was slaughtered and its blood was taken into the most holy place, the Holy of Holies, and sprinkled on the mercy seat. The second goat, still alive, was taken by the high priest, who laid his hands on its head and confessed the sins of God's people, symbolically transferring their sin onto the goat. This goat was then taken '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', v 20-22. The goat became an ‘escape goat’, because it escaped death and went into the wilderness.

Notice that the goat had done nothing wrong but was punished for the sins of the people. It was an innocent sin-bearer. The 'scapegoat' was a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord was in many ways pictured by both of these goats. In the first place, He was made a sin offering, being slaughtered on the cross and His blood sprinkled on the mercy seat in heaven itself when He rose again from the dead and ascended back into heaven. But He was also made the scapegoat on the cross, our sins being transferred onto Him. Here are the important verses.

‘Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, (the earthly temple) which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many’ Hebrews 9.24f; ‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all’ Isaiah 53.6; ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world’, John 1.29. Our Lord was, therefore, both the 'sin-offering' and the 'scapegoat'. But what of 'the land not inhabited'? Surely that has to be the three hours of darkness on the cross, when our Lord cried, ‘Why didst thou forsake me’.

There was never a greater scapegoat than Christ Himself. ‘By faith I lay my hand on that dear head of Thine, and like a penitent I stand and there confess my sin’. Sins, by the grace of God, not just forgiven but taken away by a sinless Substitute! Remember that, as you meditate on the Lord Jesus today.