Leviticus 16-17

The Day of Atonement. The holiest day of the Jewish year. The priest on this one day of the year, after extensive purification, enters into the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle. That place where no one can enter at any other time or they will drop dead from the sheer manifest presence of I AM.

I must admit, this is one of those passages that makes me stop and ponder the Fear of God. We just read about Aaron's sons sudden and unexpected demise because of their inappropriate actions, and now we are told the deadliest place in all of Israel is in the deepest recesses of the Tabernacle, where God himself dwells. It's commonly held that the tradition was to tie a rope to the high priest before he entered this area so they could pull out his dead body if something went wrong.  You see, the author of Proverbs is making a very basic point when He says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10) The first smart thing you can do is to be scared! Jesus himself seems to have a parallel perspective in Matthew 10:28 when he says “Don't be scared of people. They can only kill your body but cannot touch your soul. I tell you what, be scared instead of The Almighty who can destroy your body and your soul in hell!” With that perspective I'm definitely wondering whether I'm appropriately terrified before the purity, and power, and burning wrath against sin of a Holy God.

But leaving that for a moment, the part of this passage that really piques my imagination has to do with the scapegoat. Two goats were brought before the priest, a coin was flipped, one goes to be slaughtered as a sacrifice, the remaining one becomes the scapegoat. The priest lays his hands on it's head and confesses the sins of Israel onto the goat, which is subsequently lead out of camp and released into the wilderness to bear away the sins of Israel. What boarded my train of thought was the idea of the man leading away this goat into the wilderness to release it, and what his experience might have been.

First thing that came to mind was that with all the detail given regarding this whole ritual it's surprising that there is no minimum distance this scapegoat must be removed from the camp before it was released. It seems left to the discretion of the man tasked with scapegoat detail. What must have been running through his mind as he takes this goat on a lengthy walk through camp and out into the wild? What was his feeling towards this goat? Pity towards an innocent victim who bore, without complaint the sins of an entire nation? Revulsion at the evils with which it was now infected? Did he dare let the goat touch him lest some of the sin rub off onto him? And really, just how far into the wilderness does this creature need to go?

We're talking a domesticated goat here. Since the purpose of the scapegoat is to bear the sin away, it needs to be far enough that the goat can't make it back to camp. That would be disastrous! I imagine this man: he gets out far piece from camp, maybe sits down for a rest, trying to figure out how far away he needs to take this sin-goat.

This is probably far enough right? The goat's surely can't make it back to camp from here. Right? Probably far enough... But what if it's not?

And as he reviews the sins of Israel, borne now by the goat, he remembers the price paid by those who didn't take care in their interactions with this God. The Fear of the Lord surges up in him as he surges upward to his feet.

Further is better. It is best if its farther out than anyone will go. Best if it's so far out no one has a chance of ever stumbling across this goat or it's carcass ever again. Let these sins of ours be borne away forever, never to be found again or remembered. Let them be lost without a trace.

But no matter how far he took that goat, it can't ever truly compare to the distance that our sins have been removed from us. Jesus (our scapegoat,“You see, God takes all our crimes—our seemingly inexhaustible sins—and removes them. As far as east is from the west, He removes them from us.” (Psalm 103:12 The Voice)

bearing our sins away) has so far removed them that the distance is infinite. They can never be brought up on our ledgers or held against us in the courtroom of Heaven.