The Scapegoat – Bearing Sins into the Wilderness
Two goats stood before the tabernacle on the Day of Atonement—identical in appearance, yet destined for vastly different fates. One would be sacrificed, its blood carried into the Holy of Holies. The other would receive the confessed sins of all Israel laid upon its head, then be led away into the wilderness, never to return. This “scapegoat” carried the people’s guilt into a land of forgetfulness, removing what the blood sacrifice had covered. Together, these two goats picture complementary aspects of what Christ would accomplish on the cross—atonement through death and removal of sin forever.
The Common Reading
Leviticus 16 prescribes the elaborate ritual for Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement. This most solemn day occurred once yearly, when the high priest entered the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the sins of all Israel. Among the many elements of this day, the ceremony of the two goats stands as particularly vivid and mysterious.
Aaron was to “take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering” (Leviticus 16:5). He then cast lots over them—one lot “for the LORD” and one lot “for the scapegoat” (or in Hebrew, “for Azazel”). The goat chosen for the LORD was slaughtered, its blood sprinkled on and before the mercy seat, making atonement for the sanctuary and the people.
The second goat—the live one—received a different treatment. “And 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” (Leviticus 16:21).
The goat was led far from the camp into uninhabited wasteland, bearing the people’s sins away. “And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness” (Leviticus 16:22). The people watched it disappear, their sins symbolically vanishing with it. Traditional interpretation emphasizes the dual action: blood atonement and sin removal—two aspects of dealing with guilt.
The Limitation of This Reading
Yet questions arise that the ritual alone cannot answer. Why two goats rather than one? Why did atonement require both death and removal? And if sins were genuinely transferred to the scapegoat, what happened when it died naturally in the wilderness? Did the sins somehow return?
The repetition every year testified to the ritual’s incompleteness. “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). Each Day of Atonement reminded Israel that their sins were covered but not finally removed. The scapegoat carried sins away, but only until next year’s Yom Kippur required another scapegoat. Something definitive was needed.
The term “Azazel” has puzzled interpreters for millennia. Some see it as a place name (a rocky cliff), others as a demon’s name representing the realm to which sin belongs. Whatever its precise meaning, the scapegoat was sent toward it—sent away from God’s presence to a place of desolation and separation. This directional movement speaks of alienation, exile, removal from blessing. Something more than animal symbolism seems intended.
Christ-Centered Unveiling
The New Testament presents Christ as fulfilling both goats’ functions in His single sacrifice. As the slain goat, He shed blood for atonement: “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:28). As the scapegoat, He bore sins away permanently: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). One sacrifice accomplishes what two goats could only picture.
Isaiah’s prophecy of the Suffering Servant combines both elements: “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows… the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:4, 6). Sins were placed upon Him as upon the scapegoat; He was “wounded for our transgressions” as was the slain goat. The prophet saw what the ritual portrayed—substitutionary bearing and removal of human guilt.
Peter echoes this when he writes that Christ “his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). The laying of hands on the scapegoat’s head, transferring guilt, finds fulfillment when our sins were laid upon Christ. The scapegoat bore sins symbolically; Christ bore them actually. The wilderness received the goat; the cross received the Son.
The writer of Hebrews makes the connection explicit: “We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate” (Hebrews 13:10-12). Christ was taken outside, like the scapegoat led away from the community.
The Fulfillment in Christ
Christ fulfills the scapegoat pattern with finality that transforms picture into reality. Aaron laid hands on the goat and confessed Israel’s sins; God the Father laid upon Christ the iniquity of us all. The transfer was not symbolic but actual—”He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). What the priest’s hands pictured, divine decree accomplished.
The scapegoat was led into the wilderness—a place of desolation, curse, and separation from community. Christ experienced the ultimate wilderness: separation from the Father. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). He entered the spiritual wasteland of bearing divine wrath, going where sin belongs so that sinners might go where righteousness dwells.
The scapegoat carried sins to “a land not inhabited”—to forgetfulness and removal. Christ carries sins to the same destination: “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). “I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34). What the scapegoat enacted annually, Christ accomplished eternally. The sins are truly gone.
The scapegoat was led by “a fit man” into the wilderness. Christ went willingly—no man led Him against His will. “I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself” (John 10:17-18). The scapegoat was driven; Christ chose. This makes His sin-bearing not mere circumstance but deliberate love.
Unlike the scapegoat that eventually died in the wilderness with no further purpose, Christ rose again. The sins He bore remain dealt with, but He lives to intercede for those He saved. “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). The sin-bearer lives; the sins stay gone.
The Gospel Mystery Revealed
The scapegoat reveals what we desperately need: not merely covering for sin but removal of sin. The blood sacrifice addressed God’s justice; the scapegoat addressed human conscience. Both are necessary. We need to know that God’s wrath is satisfied and that our sins are gone—not lurking to return, not waiting to accuse, but truly, finally, eternally removed.
This is precisely what Christ provides. “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 10:17). The accusing record is erased. The guilt is lifted. The sins that haunted memory and poisoned peace have been carried into a land not inhabited. They cannot return because they no longer exist—not because they were insignificant but because Christ bore them away.
The priest confessed “all the iniquities… and all their transgressions in all their sins”—comprehensive, exhaustive acknowledgment. Nothing was hidden or minimized. So we must confess—not to earn forgiveness but to apply the forgiveness already provided. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Confession applies what Christ accomplished.
Do you live under the weight of past sins? Do accusations echo in your mind—failures, betrayals, shameful moments you cannot forget? The scapegoat speaks to you: Christ has carried those sins away. They are not yours to carry anymore. They have been borne into the wilderness by a Substitute who went willingly. As far as the east is from the west—infinite distance, permanent separation.
The Day of Atonement came once yearly because its provisions were temporary. The day of Christ’s atonement came once for all time because His provision is eternal. The annual scapegoat pointed forward; Christ’s sacrifice points backward from our perspective—accomplished, completed, effective. Trust the Scapegoat who became your sin and bore it away forever.