04.03. SHADOW: Scapegoat- Starting Fresh

SHADOW: Scapegoat- Starting Fresh Leviticus 16:1-10 ; Leviticus 16:20-22 AUDIO http://www.exposingtheword.com/SHADOWS/MP3s%20Shadows/3%20Shadow-%20Scapegoat.mp3

On the Near North side of Chicago on Ontario Street is a McDonald’s. It has a 1950s decor, including a classic 1954 white Corvette convertible inside. There are ads, posters, records, and juke boxes from the 1950s. The lines are long as customers come to step back in time. It appeals to the traditional, reflecting a time when life was supposed to be simpler and more stable. And yet, that McDonald’s has some very modern features and services: a drive-through window; home-delivery service (the delivery vehicle is a 1955 Chevy station wagon painted red); you can charge souvenirs on your Visa Card; there is an automatic teller machine for cash withdrawals before you order your food; and there is a larger variety on the menu than other McDonald’s restaurants. -- Leith Anderson, Wooddale Church, Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Leadership, Vol. 14, no. 3. The restaurant wants to give an aroma of the past yet with modern conveniences. Many who reminisce of the good old days paint a picture in their mind of a time that never existed. The fact is we cannot live in any other time other than the present. We can learn from the past and prepare for the future but we cannot live in either. Time will march on. Many times we start over with each New Year celebrations, marriages, new births. In many cultures there are New Years celebrations. Some are very specific things done by a narrow band of people. And who could forget the coming in of the year 2000 a few years ago. The broadcast media were stationed across the world and we saw the arrival of midnight as the earth turned toward its dawn of the New Year. There is a ceremony performed by some Koreans in which they write their transgressions on a kite and fly it high and then cut the string symbolizing that they have began again fresh. There is nothing quite as refreshing and renewing of hope than the birth of a child. At birth all possibilities lie ahead and no failures are yet entered. All is hope and no regrets are had. With each generations birth there is a fresh start for the family. Also yesterday was the start of the new football season. Every team started without a lose. A fresh start to a new season. In the Bible we find a type of Christ that speak of renewal and starting over. One time a year they were to offer offerings in the Holy of Holies. This was the only time they went into this most holy place. We are not going to focus on the blood offerings today that they offered. We are not going to seek to understand the offerings that were killed. Instead we are going to focus one that was left alive. Today we use the word scapegoat to mean someone who was blamed for things they are not guilty of. Many time politicians who are taking heat for certain things will fire the one perceived to be responsible and make them the scapegoat. Many times in crimes men are convicted because they fit the profile and there is always pressure to solve the case.

I- The Instructions:

    Leviticus 16:1-10; Leviticus 16:20-22 "And the LORD spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the LORD, and died; ²And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come 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 I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. ³Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. ⁴He shall put on the 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 shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on. ⁵And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. ⁶And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house. ⁷And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. ⁸And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat. ⁹And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. ¹⁰But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness."

    The instructions included a prohibition for Aaron to enter the holy of holies anytime he wanted to do so. If he did he would be killed by the Lord. Many Jews even today will not go on the temple mount from fear they may step on the spot of the Holy of Holies and be killed.

    He was also instructed to bring offerings for his sin and his families sin. Included in the offering were to be two goats. One was for a sacrifice one for a scapegoat.

    Leviticus 16:20-22 "And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat: ²¹And Aaron 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: ²²And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness."

    The one to be the scapegoat was to be taken and the sins of the people confessed upon his head by Aaron. He was then to be lead into the wilderness and let go to wander until he was killed by another animal or died naturally.

II- The Lessons:

    1- The just for the unjust. The scapegoat had done nothing wrong. This gives us the picture of the just for the unjust being offered. Speaking of Christ Peter said in 1 Peter 3:18 "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit."

    2 Corinthians 5:21 "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

    2- Iniquity was lain upon Him: The scapegoat was symbolically burdened with the sins of the people. The iniquity of Israel was laid upon his head.

    Isaiah 53:6 "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."

    3- He was tempted in the wilderness. The scapegoat was lead totally away from civilization into the remote place and left. This reminds us of Jesus after His baptism. Matthew 4:1-2 says, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. ² And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred."

    It was in the wilderness that Jesus was tempted as a man to sin. The exciting thing about this is found in Hebrews 2:16-18 "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. ¹⁷ Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted."

    4- He was lead away into isolation. The scapegoat was lead away and abandoned in the wilderness.

I remind us all that the loneliness of Jesus can be seen first in the garden. Next on the cross where He it is recorded in Matthew 27:46 "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He was alone and suffering for our sins. Jesus died alone for the sins of the world.

III- Starting Over:

Several years ago, I heard the story of Larry Walters, a 33-year-old man who decided he wanted to see his neighborhood from a new perspective. He went down to the local army surplus store one morning and bought forty-five used weather balloons. That afternoon he strapped himself into a lawn chair, to which several of his friends tied the now helium-filled balloons. He took along a six-pack of beer, a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, and a BB gun, figuring he could shoot the balloons one at a time when he was ready to land.

Walters, who assumed the balloons would lift him about 100 feet in the air, was caught off guard when the chair soared more than 11,000 feet into the sky--smack into the middle of the air traffic pattern at Los Angeles International Airport. Too frightened to shoot any of the balloons, he stayed airborne for more than two hours, forcing the airport to shut down its runways for much of the afternoon, causing long delays in flights from across the country.

Soon after he was safely grounded and cited by the police, reporters asked him three questions:

"Were you scared?"

"Yes."

"Would you do it again?"

"No."

"Why did you do it?"

"Because," he said, "you can’t just sit there."

-- Gary Gonzales, Elim Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Leadership, Vol. 14, no. 3.

    I am reminded by this story that we just can’t sit there we have to do something. Someone so adequately said we can’t get to where we need to be and stay where we are. Christ offers us a fresh start if we will accept it. He is our willing scapegoat. Have you accepted Him as your Savior? Do you need to have a fresh start?