The Scapegoat

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The Scapegoat by William Holman Hunt (1827-1910)

You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.
Then he said to them,
You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition!
Mark 7:8-9 NRSV

In setting up the Mosaic Contract the Lord God had to take account of Israel's past failings and their tendency to go off the rails. The Lord God will later refer to them as a treacherous nation which has neither heard nor understood, for their ears have been shut:

1 Listen to this, O House of Jacob,
Who bear the name Israel
And have issued from the waters of Judah,
Who swear by the name of the LORD
And invoke the God of Israel—
Though not in truth and sincerity—
2 For you are called after the Holy City
And you do lean on the God of Israel,
Whose name is LORD of Hosts:
3 Long ago, I foretold things that happened,
From My mouth they issued, and I announced them;
Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
4 Because I know how stubborn you are
(Your neck is like an iron sinew
And your forehead bronze),
5 Therefore I told you long beforehand,
Announced things to you ere they happened—
That you might not say, “My idol caused them,
My carved and molten images ordained them.”
6 You have heard all this; look, must you not acknowledge it?
As of now, I announce to you new things,
Well-guarded secrets you did not know.
7 Only now are they created, and not of old;
Before today you had not heard them;
You cannot say, “I knew them already.”
8 You had never heard, you had never known,
Your ears were not opened of old.
Though I know that you are treacherous,
That you were called a rebel from birth,
9 For the sake of My name I control My wrath;
To My own glory, I am patient with you,
And I will not destroy you. (Isaiah 48:1-9 (Tanakh))

He must therefore incorporate various reminders as to the seriousness of the Rescue Contract, and to the cost which will be borne by His Son. He must explain things at a scholarly level (the narrative), yet also at a simple visual level which even the uneducated can understand.

Repetition will help to ensure that the message sinks in!

And He must take every opportunity to explain in a simple and graphical way what is involved, for even at that time the Lord God knew that a 'video-clip' can say a thousand words. The classic example here is that of the ritual of the Scapegoat. To put the thinking behind the Scapegoat into words, will require a fairly good standard of education from those reading or hearing it. But the ceremony of the Scapegoat is an enactment which will make His intentions clear to all, whatever their standard of education or their station in life:

And from the Israelite community he shall take two he-goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.
Aaron is to offer his own bull of sin offering, to make expiation for himself and for his household. Aaron shall take the two he-goats and let them stand before the LORD at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting; and he shall place lots upon the two goats, one marked for the LORD and the other marked for Azazel. Aaron shall bring forward the goat designated by lot for the LORD, which he is to offer as a sin offering; while the goat designated by lot for Azazel shall be left standing alive before the LORD, to make expiation with it and to send it off to the wilderness for Azazel.
Aaron shall then offer his bull of sin offering, to make expiation for himself and his household. He shall slaughter his bull of sin offering, and he shall take a panful of glowing coals scooped from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of finely ground aromatic incense, and bring this behind the curtain. He shall put the incense on the fire before the LORD, so that the cloud from the incense screens the cover that is over the Ark of the Pact, lest he die. He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger over the cover on the east side; and in front of the cover he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. He shall then slaughter the people’s goat of sin offering, bring its blood behind the curtain, and do with its blood as he has done with the blood of the bull: he shall sprinkle it over the cover and in front of the cover.
Thus he shall purge the Shrine of the uncleanness and transgression of the Israelites, whatever their sins; and he shall do the same for the Tent of Meeting, which abides with them in the midst of their uncleanness. When he goes in to make expiation in the Shrine, nobody else shall be in the Tent of Meeting until he comes out.
When he has made expiation for himself and his household, and for the whole congregation of Israel, he shall go out to the altar that is before the LORD and purge it: he shall take some of the blood of the bull and of the goat and apply it to each of the horns of the altar; and the rest of the blood he shall sprinkle on it with his finger seven times. Thus he shall cleanse it of the uncleanness of the Israelites and consecrate it.
When he has finished purging the Shrine, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, the live goat shall be brought forward. Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and transgressions of the Israelites, whatever their sins, putting them on the head of the goat; and it shall be sent off to the wilderness through a designated man. Thus the goat shall carry on it all their iniquities to an inaccessible region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.
And Aaron shall go into the Tent of Meeting, take off the linen vestments that he put on when he entered the Shrine, and leave them there. (Leviticus 16:5-23 T)

[Dissertation: God's use of 'video-clips' in Scripture.]

[Dissertation: God's use of anecdotes in Scripture.]

There was no cgi in those days, so the scene was acted out and repeated each year. Goats are mortal, so it required two goats to convey the meaning of Jesus' death followed by His resurrection.

Undoubtedly, Israel were haunted by thoughts of the Scapegoat returning to their camp. They therefore took the Scapegoat into the wildnerness, drove it over a cliff, and killed it (see: The Scapegoat). And this became the tradition. End of problem - they thought!

The death of the Scapegoat, bearing all Israel's sins, could not therefore return to the Camp and cause problems for Israel! This, however, was wishful thinking, a defilement of the Covenant. For, if a name or group are deleted from the Book of Life, then they will be subject to Death - in other words, the Scapegoat will return to their camp. Furthermore, at the end of the age the Scapegoat will return, and there will be an accounting on the Day of Judgement.

Jesus was later to comment on the Jewish practise of replacing God's commandments with tradition:

[8] You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition." [9] Then he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! (Mark 7:8-9 NRSV)

The practise of driving the Scapegoat over a cliff suppressed the warning implied by the commandment: Israel were to heed the warning of the Scapegoat's possible return to their camp, and were to live their lives accordingly in obedience to God.

Version: 2024-07-15