Topical Studies
What the Bible says about
Bearing Iniquity
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Leviticus 16:5
The sequence of the common sin offering (Leviticus 4) is noteworthy: The guilty party first laid his hands on the sacrifice's head to symbolize one life being exchanged or substituted for the other. The slain animal's blood was then sprinkled before the veil of the Tabernacle, put on the horns of either the incense altar or the brazen altar (depending on who sinned), and the rest poured at the base of the brazen altar. According to Hebrews 9:13, 22, blood provides symbolic cleansing and purification. However, Hebrews 10:4 states this practical fact: "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins," which applies on a couple of levels. In the wider context of Hebrews, it testifies to the transcendent efficacy of Christ's sacrifice—it was so pure and powerful that no animal sacrifice could ever begin to compare. In the immediate context, the author is pointing out that within the sacrificial law, blood could not take away sin—it could only cleanse, purify, or cover. Something else was required to show the sins of the Israelites being symbolically taken away. This removal of sins took place on the Day of Atonement, to which Hebrews 9-10 refers. In type, the blood of the sin offering was a record—a witness—of the sin it covered. Thus, all the blood of sin offerings put on the incense altar (also called the golden altar) throughout the year symbolized all the iniquity committed by the priests and the congregation. As Hebrews 10:3 observes, "In those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year." The Atonement ceremony brought to the Israelites' minds all the sins for which they had to bring their sin offerings. Because of the accumulated sins, God commanded the high priest to cleanse the incense altar with blood each year (Exodus 30:10). The unique sin offering for the congregation on Atonement consisted of two goats (Leviticus 16:5). Through the casting of lots, one goat was designated as "for the LORD," meaning that it was to satisfy or appease the Lord. At this point, God's instructions intentionally leave out a highly significant step: No hands were laid on the first goat! It was simply killed. Its blood did not testify of sin. Rather than contributing more iniquity to the record, its blood cleansed the objects nearest to the Lord (Leviticus 16:15-19). With the blood of the first goat—free of confessed sin—the incense altar and holy objects were atoned for or cleansed. Many translations call the second goat the "scapegoat." The Hebrew word is azazel, which means "goat of departure" or "complete removal." The azazel was the means for all the cleansed sins to be completely or entirely removed from the congregation. In the standard sin offering, hands were laid on the substitutionary sacrifice to symbolize a transference, and then its blood was shed. Notice, though, that on the Day of Atonement, the order is reversed! This explains why the offering required two animals: One animal had its blood shed, while a second animal had all the sins confessed over it so they could be taken away. Because the ceremony began with one animal being sacrificed, a second, living animal was necessary to have hands laid on it. The live goat received, as it were, all the iniquities, transgressions, and sins of Israel. None of that defilement was ever placed on the first goat, whose purpose was simply to provide cleansing. As Romans 10:4 teaches, "Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes" (New International Version). Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled both aspects of this unique Day of Atonement offering. Hebrews 9:12-14 not only shows His fulfillment of the first goat with His own blood, but also how superior His shed blood was, even to the point of cleansing consciences. Likewise, the Scriptures record Christ's fulfillment of the azazel through bearing and taking away sins. Isaiah 53:6 declares, "And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (emphasis ours throughout), just as the high priest laid Israel's sins on the azazel each year. Christ likewise bore our sins, another function of the azazel: -
He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:11-12) -
. . . who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree. . . . (I Peter 2:24) -
. . . so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. (Hebrews 9:28) The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin. The azazel did this in type, but it merely pointed to Jesus Christ, the only One who could perform this—and did (Colossians 2:14; Romans 11:27; I John 3:5).
David C. Grabbe
Why Two Goats on Atonement? (Part Two)
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Ezekiel 44:6-8
Ezekiel 44 takes place either during the Millennium or the Great White Throne Judgment. However, from certain details, it seems that God is referring to the actual ancient Israelites who failed Him under the Old Covenant. It appears that, when the Israelites rise in the second resurrection, God will make them perform what they failed to do originally! He will give them a chance to repent of their unfaithfulness, to make up, as it were, for the sins of the past. They will know every time they lift a bullock onto the altar, every time they keep the gate, every time they make the showbread, every time they fulfill any of their responsibilities to God, that they failed in their first attempt to keep the terms of their covenant with God. That is bearing iniquity! They will be reminded in every action that they have sinned and are a sinful people. It will be a hard lesson for Israel, but they will learn it well. God says in Isaiah 43:21, "This people I have formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise." Finally! In the end, when God gives them the complete package of spiritual blessings, the Israelites will glorify God as He intended from the beginning, fulfilling their ultimate purpose.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Why Israel? (Part Two)
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Hebrews 13:11-12
Where did Jesus Christ's suffering take place? Not at the Praetorium, for they led him from there (Matthew 27:31). Nor did it occur at the Temple. While scholars debate over the location and even the translation of "Golgotha" (Matthew 27:33; Mark 15:22; John 19:17), the writer of Hebrews provides a solid clue as to where Jesus died: For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. (Hebrews 13:11-12; emphasis ours.) God instructed the priests to kill the sin offerings at the Tabernacle, but He required them to burn the remains at a place "outside the camp" (Leviticus 4:12, 21), away from God's presence. This distant altar became known as the miphkad ("the appointed place") altar. At the time of the crucifixion, this altar stood on a slope of the Mount of Olives, east of the Temple Mount, separated from the Temple by the Brook Kidron. The name of the Temple's eastern gate was, appropriately, the miphkad gate. When the priest performed a sin offering, he took the body of the sacrificed animal through the miphkad gate, over the bridge that spanned the Kidron Valley, and to the appointed place for burning and disposal. Hebrews 13:11-12 ties this "outside the camp" location with Christ's crucifixion, being "outside the gate." Additionally, Jesus was crucified where the centurion with Him could see the veil of the Temple torn in two (Luke 23:45-47), which, because of the Temple walls, was possible from only a few angles and elevations—such as the area near the miphkad altar on the Mount of Olives, outside the "camp" of Jerusalem. The miphkad gate and Kidron bridge had another significant purpose. History records that the gate and bridge were also used on the Day of Atonement (see Alfred Edersheim's The Temple: Its Ministry and Service). By this eastern route, the "suitable man" led the azazel goat out of the Temple and into the wilderness after the priest had laid on its head all the iniquities, transgressions, and sins of the nation (see Leviticus 16:20-22). The centerpiece of the Day of Atonement ritual involved two goats as a sin offering (Leviticus 16:5). Consider how perfectly Jesus fulfilled the roles of both goats in this ceremony, as only He could. The Levitical high priest used the blood of the first goat to cleanse the sanctuary. The priest laid no sins on this goat; instead, he used its undefiled blood to cleanse and cover the incense altar and the Mercy Seat, which allowed rare access into the Holy of Holies (Leviticus 16:15-16, 18-19). As the fulfillment, Jesus courageously and single-mindedly gave His sinless blood as a cleansing and a covering, providing us access into the heavenly Holy of Holies (Hebrews 9:7, 12-14, 23-25). The azazel goat, the one used for "complete removal," received the iniquities, transgressions, and sins of the nation on its head, and it bore them, being sent by the high priest and led outside the camp, out of God's presence, as a representative of all the sins. In awe-inspiring fulfillment, the Father laid the iniquities of us all on Christ's dignified and undeserving head (Isaiah 53:6). Jesus permitted Himself to be sent by the leaders and led by their agents in true meekness, subsuming His well-being to what the Father desired for all mankind, even cleansing with His words those who led Him, just as the "ready man" was cleansed (Leviticus 16:21, ESV). Jesus became a substitutionary sacrifice, for God "made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us" (II Corinthians 5:21). He became a curse on our behalf (Galatians 3:13) when they nailed Him to the tree. He, and He alone, bore our sins, iniquities, and transgressions (Isaiah 53:11-12; Hebrews 9:28; I Peter 2:24). He remained alive for torturous hours, bearing what belonged to us but permitted to be put on Himself, having been led outside the gate in perfect, divine meekness.
David C. Grabbe
Led Outside the Gate
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