Introduction
The theme of this blog concerns God’s mercy as provided through the work of the scapegoat. Throughout the Old Testament—including in this particular quote from one of King David’s psalms, God’s mercy is defined as the removal of our transgressions (our sin) “as far as the east is from the west”:
The LORD works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust (Ps. 103:6-14).
Isaiah as well teaches that when our transgressions have been blotted out, God will never again remember them. Moreover, He blots out and forgets our sins for his own sake:
“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins….” (Isa. 43:25).
Keep in mind that King David and the Prophet Isaiah were both speaking in the present tense as they wrote those words, and they were writing of what God was doing in their own time. In other words, Scripture consistently teaches that when God blots out a sinner’s transgressions, those sins will never be remembered again (present tense) from the moment they are forgiven.
We know that we can trust these words of David and Isaiah because they are part of God’s eternal word. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:14-17 that all Scripture “is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness”. Because everything the Bible says is for our instruction, I propose that even though it may seem obscure, understanding what Leviticus chapter sixteen teaches us about God’s mercy is important for us. In fact, the extent of God’s mercy portrayed in Leviticus 16 is what helped David and Isaiah understand that God is faithful to forgive and forget sins.
As we begin to look at the teaching about the scapegoat in the law, we have some points to remember.
Points to keep in mind
- According to Scripture God’s mercy extends “as far as the east is from the west”. God’s mercy means that a repentant sinner’s sin has been removed so far from the sinner that God will never remember it again. This fact of God’s mercy was demonstrated every year on the Day of Atonement when the scapegoat was sent into the wilderness after the blood of the sacrificial lamb was taken into the Holy of Holies.
- The atoning sacrifices were always offered at the tabernacle or the temple. Significantly, all the plans for building the old covenant tabernacle/temple and their furnishings were provided by God (see 1 Chr. 28:9-19 and Heb. 8:5). These plans included the minutest details including the orientation and placement of the temple. For example, the temple in Jerusalem faced towards the east and the Mount of Olives.
- The ark of the covenant was placed within the Holy of Holies inside the temple. The tables of the covenant were placed inside the ark, and the pure gold mercy seat covered the top.
- All sacrifices brought to the temple for the atonement of sin were required to be “without defect”. In other words, they had to be ritually pure and free from any abnormality or defilement. In fact, this requirement for perfection was so important it is repeated over and over in Scripture:
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats… (Ex. 12:5).
You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you (Lev. 22:20).
And you shall offer a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD, thirteen bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old; they shall be without blemish (Num. 29:13).
The two male goats on the Day of Atonement
We will be looking closely at the offerings of atonement described in Leviticus 16 in order to get a picture of what it means for the mercy of God to extend “as far as the east is from the west”.
The Day of Atonement was the one day of the year when the high priest entered the presence of God in the Holy of Holies. Before Aaron the high priest could enter behind the veil that separated the Most Holy from the rest of the tabernacle, he had to make certain preparations. First, he had to bring sin and burnt offerings for “himself and his house”. Then he was to bathe and put on holy garments before he could proceed; if he failed to prepare as God prescribed he should, he could not pass beyond the veil and survive (Lev. 16:1-4).
And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. (Lev. 16:5)
In verse five we see that Aaron was to receive from the congregation two goats that were to be a sin offering plus a ram for a burnt offering. The two goats comprised a single sin offering, and since they were for the atonement of sin, they had to be without blemish. They both represented sinless purity. Together they represented the Messiah whom we know was Jesus who died for the sins of the world at Calvary. Only Jesus the Son of God qualifies as eternally righteous and sinless—and only pure and perfect sacrificial animals could represent Him.
Aaron then cast lots over the two goats. One goat was presented before the Lord as determined by lot, and the other was for Azazel, also known as the “scapegoat”. Azazel is an obscure word that could possibly refer to a person but more likely is a reference to an unknown place.
Importantly, Ellen White established the Adventist doctrine that “Azazel” means “Satan”. Without question, however, this goat that was without blemish could not possibly represent Satan. Furthermore, the goats’ functions were decided by lot. Prior to the casting of the lots, both gates were qualified for this offering by being equally spotless. To say that the scapegoat represents Satan would suggest that Satan and Jesus were equally qualified to be the sacrifice for sin, but we know that this conclusion is unbiblical.
The Adventist belief that Satan is the scapegoat is heresy; both goats portray the work of redemption by Jesus Christ at Calvary. Because Jesus’ work was multi-faced and infinite, it required more than one goat to represent His work of atonement.
Another important fact about Jesus’ atonement for sin is represented in verse fifteen. Aaron the high priest was to kill the goat chosen by lot for the blood atonement, the goat “for the Lord”. This goat was offered as a sin offering for the people, and Aaron had to take its blood inside the veil into the Most Holy Place and sprinkle it over the mercy seat.
Notice that it is sinless blood that atones for the sins of the people by being sprinkled over the mercy seat covering the ark of the covenant. Never in the tabernacle or temple services did the blood of atonement defile the sanctuary by carrying the sins of the people into the presence of God. No! Blood always cleansed; it never carried defilement from the people to the presence of God. That blood always cleansed the people, and it could not defile the sanctuary because it cleansed sin; and it did not carry sin.
The mercy seat, moreover, represents God’s mercy that “extends as far as the east is from the west” when the sinless blood of the goat is sprinkled over it.
In verses 20 through 22 is the account of Aaron’s final ritual of atonement on the Day of Atonement. He would then take live goat, the one for Azazel—the one not killed for its blood—and confess and place the sins of the people on that goat’s head and hand it over to a man who would send it into the wilderness. Notice that in this passage it does not give this goat a name. Instead, it is just called the “live goat”.
As far as the east is from the west
In the providence of God, the tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple in Jerusalem were built so that the gate of the courtyard, the door, and the veil between the compartments faced towards the east. Thus the live goat was released out the door in an easterly direction to an unknown place called Azazel. The live goat symbolically carried Israel’s sins “as far as the east is from the west”. From knowing and perhaps even watching the atonement ceremony as the high priest released the live goat carrying Israel’s sins on the Day of Atonement to wander far away from the people of Israel, King David understood that God removed the sins of those who feared Him. This ceremony which foreshadowed the work of the Lord Jesus provided the figure of speech King David used in Psalm 103:12, “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
Summary
- The two goats that were brought to the courtyard of the temple for the atonement of the sins of the people were to be without blemish. In other words, they both represented sinless purity. They are two parts of a single sacrifice. At the time lots were cast by the high priest, the goats were separated into their respective roles to perform the two functions of the one and only sacrifice that atones for the sins of the people.
- The high priest sacrificed and took the blood of “the goat for the Lord” beyond the veil and sprinkled it over the mercy seat. This represented the Messiah’s shed blood that was “without blemish” and would atone for the sins of the world.
- The high priest then confessed Israel’s sins over the living goat—also without blemish—and placed the sins of the people upon it.
- The high priest then transferred the living goat over to another person who took it out of the courtyard’s east gate and released it into the wilderness to the east, never to be seen again. This ceremony is a picture of God’s mercy which He gives us: our sins that have been covered by the shed blood of our Savior/Messiah Jesus Christ, God will never remember again.
- As testified in Ps. 103:6-14, our atoned sins are sent “as far as the east is from the west”, never to be remembered again by God. The picture is of our atoned sins being sent to the east while the sun and our lives move toward the west, away from the sin God never remembers again.
- The greatest of Ellen G. White’s heresies was to adopt the false, non-biblical doctrine of Investigative Judgment in which she attributes Satan with the role of Scapegoat in the old covenant Day of Atonement. Instead, that role belongs to our Savior Jesus Christ. He died at Calvary for the sins of the world, and as our Scapegoat He carried those sins into the grave, a place unknown by sinners still living “under the sun”.
- The blasphemous Investigative Judgment doctrine also teaches that the blood of “the goat for the Lord” polluted the sanctuary when the blood was sprinkled over mercy seat. According to EGW, that sprinkled blood carried Israel’s sins into the presence of God. This teaching led to the idea that the heavenly sanctuary needed to be cleansed because Jesus’ blood carried our sins into heaven. That “cleansing”, according to EGW, began on Oct. 22, 1844. This doctrine also is heresy, because according the Day of Atonement ceremony, the blood of “the goat for the Lord” was without blemish and represented the blood of Jesus Christ who was without sin.
- This New Testament passage uses the past tense phrase “redeemed us” (fully completed, already accomplished) when it speaks of Jesus’ atonement for sin. In other words, our atonement was completed at Calvary when Jesus died, and it was followed by Jesus Christ’s victorious resurrection from the grave three days later. This atoning death and life-giving resurrection is totally and only a work of Jesus Christ:
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (Gal. 3:10-14)
Jesus, not Satan, is our Scapegoat. He has carried our sins away from those of us who have trusted Him, and God will never remember them again!
(All biblical quotes taken from the ESV)
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