Leviticus 16:3-10

Like I said, I want to point out a few particular things here. One of the things I especially want to emphasize is that in verse 5, God calls the two goats together a singular sin offering. They both deal with atoning for, in this case, all of Israel's sins, and in the spiritual sense or its spiritual application, all of spiritual Israel's sins.

The blood of the first goat symbolizes the shedding of blood to pay for sins. That is the redemption price that has to be paid. But think about it. Just because there is a payment for sin does not mean that the sins suddenly disappear. The sins are there, they have just been paid for. They have been redeemed, the price for the penalty has been shunted aside because the right price has been paid.

But there is still the sins, they need to be removed. They need to be gotten out of the way. They need to be taken away, and this is where the second goat comes in. The second goat symbolizes those sins being borne away, gotten rid of, removed as far as east is from the west as Psalm 103:12 says.

Both parts, both goats, if you will, are necessary parts of the sacrifice. And because both parts are necessary to the sacrifice, it had to be shown in two goats. One goat could not do it because the one goat is slain. How could that slain goat carry the sins into the wilderness? It is impossible, so it had to be another goat just like it. So like it that lots had to be thrown, if you will, to tell which goat would do which part. It did not matter. That is the reason why they they cast lots. It was just to differentiate which goat would die and which goat would be led away into the wilderness.

So, we have these two goats and they make a complete singular sacrifice for sin. That is what it says in verse 5. "He shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats as a sin offering." It is just a sin offering in two parts.

Leviticus 16:3-10

Like I said without getting into all the nitty gritty details, what happens is that the high priest offers the bull as a sin offering to cover his sins and the sins of his priestly house. That has to be done because he has to go in and do the work in the Tabernacle, and to do this kind of work, he needs to be clear of sin, he needs to be clean, he needs to be pure, so he does that. So he offers the slain bull which represents Christ and it is that blood that cleanses him from sin.

Then the two goats are presented before God, lots are cast to determine which is for the Lord and which is for Azazel, as I mentioned, the goat of departure, a goat of complete removal. Like the bull, the goat for the Lord is slain as a sin offering, its blood is shed. But it says specifically here that its sacrifice pictures the cleansing of the people of Israel. So you had the bull that was for the priest's sins and then you have the first goat that is supposed to represent cleansing of the people of Israel.

This is the bulk of what happened there on the Day of Atonement. So all the children of Israel's sins are confessed and placed on this live goat, this goat of complete removal, and it is led into the wilderness by a suitable man, it says, a person who has been chosen for this task, and released. This goat is also part of the sin offering. If you go back to verse 5, it says very clearly "he shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats as a sin offering." They are two goats, one offering—one offering for sin. Each, though, shows a different aspect of the one offering. It is one offering in two parts, the covering of or atoning for sin by a blood sacrifice is the first goat and the second goat represents the bearing or carrying away, the removal, that is why it is called the goat of complete removal of sin into forgetfulness.