Scapegoat
Leviticus 16: 7 “And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the †scapegoat.” [1]
I. Sin
A. Division
B. Defeat
II. Sacrifice
A. Decision
B. Death
III. Scape
A. Decided
B. Delivered
Introduction: My nephew Brady and I were texting Monday late morning as I was waiting on God to give me the scripture for today. Brady’s profession is computers. He works for Microsoft and lives near Seattle Washington where he is based. We have much in common. I’ll just leave it at that.
Brady is much into this so-called social media mess and he uses Twitter apparently prolifically. We are split on the need for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and the like. I have learned to temper my resistance to this stuff since I learned how many people we have in this church. God uses what He allows us to have.
Recently I upgraded the billing for the intelecs.com website which we use to post our sermons each week. It was a good opportunity to check if anybody is actually reading the sermons. Amazingly twelve hundred people on the average are looking at that website each week. There are even some people in Russia looking at what we hear in this place here at Merry Oaks. There is a page for people to respond on the site but rarely does anyone respond.
Twitter, on the other hand, is designed as a site for people to argue their opinions. Brady posted on Twitter that in his read through the Bible in a year journey he is now reading through Leviticus. He found himself feeling sorry for goats. A lady responded back that Brady was an anti-Semite. Of course this upset Brady so much that he texted Uncle Jimmy. I sent Brady the direct link for last Sunday’s message, “Veiled”, and explained what we discussed in Jude about Moses in comparison to Jesus. Amazing how far The Holy Spirit goes to get God’s word in the right hands. The lady figured Brady was messing with Moses and therefore was making fun of what they as Hebrews are taught. Last week we heard about how we are to respond to people who don’t see from our perspective. We are to pray for and not mock others.
OK. Back to goats. The conversation reminded me that some people take our sins upon themselves and suffer consequences that we escape from though sometimes we benefit. Jesus did that for us. Unlike a goat; Jesus knew He was taking our sins for us.
Sometimes we have people in our lives that are not willing to be the goats to take our sin. They are not willing at all. In fact they would rather be left alone. We give them what we think they need to have from us and we send them on their way. We could care less what trouble they have in their lives because they are at least not bothering us. That is the scapegoat you see.
I had a goat and a scapegoat. Won’t get into all that now. They both suffered. A lot! I expect if you stop long enough to really think about it you have both too. God puts people with us that are afflicted with things that we often count as being their own fault yet all the while we are protected from the things that they go through.
How are we to respond? How do we respond? Like the old thing that was going around several years ago; what would Jesus do? So what should we do?
Scripture: The scripture today is Leviticus 16:7-8. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.
Message: Turn back six chapters with me if you will to Leviticus 10:1-2, “And aNadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, btook either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered cstrange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. 2 And there dwent out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.” [2]
Two of the sons of The Priest of the Israelites performed a ritual to God in the way contrary to the way God ordained it to be done; disobedient to the prescribed way of paying homage. That is the definition of sin. Doing things in a way that is against God is sin. God will not tolerate sin! God will be especially angry when we are acting like we are worshipping God yet we are really doing what we want to do in the way we want to do it. Be careful! To worship God in an improper way is to make a mockery of God. When someone does this they've blasphemed;lied about and to God. We must humble ourselves before God.
Leviticus 16:1-5, “And the Lord spake unto Moses after athe death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the Lord, and died; 2 And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he bcome not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for cI will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. 3 Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: dwith a young bullock for a sin offering, and ea ram for a burnt offering. 4 He shall put on fthe holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore gshall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on. 5 And he shall take of hthe congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement ifor himself, and for his house.” [3]
Much was written between the times Aaron lost his two sons for blasphemy until retribution was made so that Aaron could return to be the priest that he was supposed to be. Rules were described about sin and sacrifice so that there would be no question about what a person must do to make amends for being disobedient. The children of Israel could not use not knowing as an excuse for sin. If they continued in sin then it would be a willful decision to ignore God.
Notice first that God spoke to Moses on Aaron’s behalf because Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, had done a deceitful thing which caused them to die and also brought defeat to Aaron. Sacrifice was required to remove the division from God that his sons had caused Aaron.
Aaron was the priest between God and the Israelites. His sons were to be in that lineage after his passing. Yet they made a decision to side step their responsibility and do things their own way. That decision not only cost their lives but Aaron’s position as well. When we decide for sin it not only causes our death and removal from God it also causes others to be sacrificed.
We see the concept of the scapegoat even here in the death of Nadab and Abihu. Their lives were sacrificed because of their sin. Their sins were also placed on the back of their father Aaron. Though Aaron escaped death he did not escape the need to make restitution. Sin affects us all whether we live with it or we die with it.
Aaron was to take two kid goats before the congregation for a sin offering. This seemed to be his first obligation once he had made sacrifice for his household. He bought the two young goats so that the congregation could see and flipped the dice so to speak over which goat would be decided as the sacrifice and which goat would scape and be delivered away from the camp.
According to the thesaurus scape is an archaic word for escape. It seems to be a good thing until you remember Cain. Genesis 4:9-14, “9 And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, eI know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? 10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s †blood crieth unto me from the ground. 11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; 12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. 13 And Cain said unto the Lord, ||My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and ffrom thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, gthat every one that findeth me shall slay me.” [4]
We know God’s response to Cain. Nobody was to touch him. He would be spared so that he would always carry what he had done to his brother Abel. He would live out his miserable life remembering what he did. So which is better or worse as the case may be? Is it better to be a dead goat or a scapegoat? Either way sin causes suffering and in most cases when we sin somebody else suffers.
Aaron lost his sons to death when they decided to take a shortcut. He lost Nadab and Abihu the moment they decided to blaspheme. They were taken away from Aaron not when they died but when they sinned. Sometimes we are spared from the thing that we caused in our own lives but that pain is carried no matter where we go. We understand that from the pain of Cain and there is no escape from that pain; or is there?
Prayer: Let us pray.
Invitation: When Jesus came and took your sin on the cross He became the only perfect One that could serve as the sacrifice to remove you from your sin. Just as that poor scapegoat was cast out of the camp and removed to never affect you again; that scapegoat, it’s still out there but as far as you are concerned there is no more death. It is over. Jesus said, "It is finished."
Jesus served as both for us; a goat and a scapegoat. Not only did Jesus die for your sin, Jesus also took your sin away so that you might not live with the pain of denial from God anymore. Retribution has been made once and for all. He loves you that much. He is our all in all. How will you respond to that? Consider as we sing…
† Heb. Azazel. So ver. 10, 26.
[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Le 16:7–8). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
a Ex. 6:23. & 28:1. ch. 16:1. Num. 3:4. & 26:61. 1 Chr. 24:2.
b So Num. 16:18.
c Ex. 30:9.
d ch. 9:24. Num. 16:35. Comp. 2 Sam. 6:7.
[2] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Le 10). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
a ch. 10:1, 2.
b Ex. 40:20, 21. Compare Ex. 30:10. Heb. 9:7, 12, 24, 25. & 10:19–22.
c Ex. 25:22. & 40:34, 35. So 1 Kin. 8:10, 11, 12.
d ch. 4:3.
e ch. 1:10. & 8:18.
f Ex. 28:39, 42, 43. ch. 6:10. & 8:7. Ezek. 44:17, 18.
g Ex. 30:20. ch. 8:6.
h So ch. 4:14. Num. 29:11. 2 Chr. 29:21. Ezra 6:17. Ezek. 45:22, 23.
i ch. 9:7. ver. 11, 17. 24. Ezek. 45:22 in the Heb. Comp. Heb. 7:27, 28. & 9:7.
[3] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Le 16:1–6). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
e John 8:44.
† Heb. bloods.
|| Or, Mine iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven. ch. 19:15 marg. 1 Sam. 28:10. Job 21:19 marg.
f 2 Kings 13:23. & 24:20. Ps. 51:11. Jer. 52:3.
g ch. 9:6.
[4] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Ge 4:9–14). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
