The Two Goats - By Steve Yoder

In Leviticus 16 we read about two goats the Israelites were required to bring to the tabernacle for a sin offering. One goat was offered as a sacrifice: Aaron took the blood and sprinkled it on the mercy seat to make atonement for the children of Israel. The other goat became a scapegoat: Aaron laid his hands upon the goat's head, confessed over him all the sins of the Israelites, and sent him away into the wilderness.

Leviticus 16:21-22: "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: 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." Notice that the goat was let go in a place not inhabited, where no one could live.

When Jesus came and offered himself as a sacrifice, he accomplished for us the work of both goats. We talk a lot about his suffering and shed blood to cleanse us from our sin, the work of the first goat. But after he died he descended into a place not inhabited, doing the work of the second goat, and we hear little about that isolation and confrontation in hell. As the first goat Jesus poured out the offering of his body and blood. As the second goat he poured out the offering of his soul.

Jesus died first for our sins and second for who we are without him. He died not only because we sinned but because we're sinners and judgment is on our souls. The first offering cleanses us from sin, while the second secures for us a victory over death and hell, to enable us to walk in newness of life.

Isaiah 53 talks about this dual purpose of Christ's redemption. Jesus was to be "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."

The prophet continues: "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. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken."

The last phrase sums it up: he was stricken for the transgression of his people, and he was cut off out of the land of the living. Jesus suffered twice, first in the death of his body and second in the isolation of his soul. Isaiah says his soul was poured out unto death, and he went into a place not inhabited.

What sufferings were heaped upon our Savior and Lord! He deserved none of the beatings Isaiah describes, not one. They were our beatings. Down on that back came lashes, tearing the flesh, bringing forth blood. That was our back, because we have turned our backs on God. We have gone our own way and deserve the lashing of God, but instead God unleashed his fury on his own Son.

Then Jesus went up a hill with an old wooden cross on that suffering back, but the cross, too, was ours and not his. He got on it, willingly, while they took up hammers and drove spikes through his feet. Those were our feet being hammered, because we have run to wickedness and been swift to spread gossip. The spikes went through Jesus' feet for us.

A crown was thrust on his head, a crown of thorns that pierced his brow deep into his sinless mind. The holy lamb who knew no sin, whose mind was pure and spotless, was yet pierced for the sins of my mind and yours. Then a stick was brought down on that crown, crushing those thorns deeper still, deep into his skull. Those thorns were not for his head but for ours, because our heads would not bow. That sacred head took the blow meant for us, the blow to bow our heads in submission to God.

Then those hands were laid on the cross, and again those spikes were driven into his flesh. He took the blows meant for my hands and yours, hands that have handled sinful things, that have stolen and hit and pushed to get our own way. His hands were nailed fast to free ours and deliver them from sin.

Think what those sinless ears had to hear! As his cross was jolted into place and his body hung in excruciating pain, Jesus' ears were flooded with cursings and mockings that should have been ours. And his eyes had to look upon the jeering, sinister faces of the crowd. Those eyes should have been ours, because we have used them for sin, coveting things that are not ours and lusting after forbidden pleasures. Christ's eyes knew no sin but looked out with great compassion and love on the very crowd that taunted him, casting things into his face.

The torment enveloped Christ's body entirely. He was utterly exposed, naked, for all the world to see. And again, it was our bodies hanging there, because we have hidden from God, and our hiding forced Jesus into humiliating exposure.

Then they thrust the spear into his side up into his heart, because my heart and your heart have been hard and unyielding before God. His heart was pierced because our hearts are hard and rebellious.

There he hung. There he was, brothers and sisters, broken and beaten and bruised for our iniquity. He had no sin of his own; he suffered for our sin only. He cried out, "I thirst." His dry, parched, suffering mouth was given a sponge of vinegar, of bitterness. That mouth that had never spoken lies or deceit or gossip had to suffer for the sins of our mouths. That bitterness should have been ours.

As he hung, he gave up the ghost and died. No one took his life from him, for he gave it willingly. This was his final surrender. This was the first goat, the sacrifice that takes away our sin. Christ's blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat, bringing forth God's mercy. Now we can be forgiven. Hallelujah!

In that critical moment as Jesus gave up the ghost, Heaven turned its face away. The Spirit left Jesus. The presence of God forsook him. He was alone. The earth shook and trembled, and His soul began its descent to the place that is uninhabited, the place where no one lives. He descended into the place of death--not the death of the body but the death of the soul--into the domain of darkness, of evil, of hell, of damnation. Christ's soul began its downward way.

This was the second goat, the second suffering. Jesus left the presence of God and went to a place where there is no love, no hope, and no light. Only destruction and decay were there, just as the scapegoat was taken into the lifeless wilderness and left to be torn apart and devoured. The little goat was left in a strange and wicked place with no protection just as we would be left had Christ not been willing to go first into that place and defeat its power.

Christ's sense of isolation is portrayed in Psalm 22, a Messianic psalm: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion."

I believe David the Psalmist had a vision and revelation of the sufferings Christ would undergo as he descended into the unknown regions. When Jesus died, the weight of sin pulled him down, and demonic forces and powers began to gape on him and accuse him of the sins he carried. The demons were angels God had thrown from heaven, and as they circled Jesus they anticipated torture and revenge. They gaped on him, amazed, but of course it wasn't Jesus' sins they were seeing but yours and mine. It should have been us down there, just as it should have been the Israelites instead of the scapegoat out in the forsaken wilderness being devoured by wild beasts.

I wonder, in fact, if there is a throne in hell that Satan sits on, and Jesus appeared before it, laden with more sin than even hell itself had ever seen. And Satan began to examine him. "I see the sin of adultery. That damns you to hell." And Jesus said, "That's not my sin. That's the sin of the world." And Satan said, "I see the sin of disobedience." And again Jesus said, "That's not my sin. That's the sin of Steve Yoder." And Satan said, "I see the sins of lust and hatred and jealousy." And again it was not the sin of Jesus but the sin of the world.

So it went on and on. The devil thought, "Surely I have this man. He's got sin on him." But for the first time in the history of hell a soul entered that had never disobeyed God. No examination could turn up the slightest sin. All that Jesus bore belonged to you and me. In 33 years he had never spoken a wrong word or had even a wrong thought. Never did he do a selfish deed. Never was he jealous or revengeful in spite of all the unfair treatment he endured. When all those sins were laid off of him and he was able to say, "I did not do it. That was the sin of someone else," he stood and his soul was pure, completely undefiled, in stark contrast to you and me and everyone else who has ever lived. He stood utterly sinless and fully obedient to God, obedient even to death and to this unimaginable confrontation in hell.

There he stood. In Acts it says that death could not hold him. There was no hold that death could have on him, because there was not a speck of sin in his life. So there he stood in the purity of his soul and the obedience of his will and was a testimony to the holiness of God. In the same way that sin cannot stand in the presence of God, so righteousness cannot stand in the presence of evil. I believe the devil could not stand the sight of Jesus with his pure soul. It reminded the devil of all he had lost when he rebelled against Heaven. He said, "Get out!", for the very sight of the Holy One of God condemned him.

Then Jesus said, "Give me the keys." And Satan had to comply. Jesus began to unlock doors--the doors of David, Moses, Jeremiah, Samuel, and the great men held because the true sacrifice had not yet been made. None of the great men were faultless. All had sinned and come short of God's glory. But now the sacrifice was made, and Christ unlocked those doors, and all the saints who had gone before, looking forward to the Messiah, were set free. There was a triumphal procession out of hell; their souls were delivered out of hell because the Holy One dared to descend into hell and defeat it.

Revelation 1:18 says that Christ still holds the keys to death and hell, and he still unlocks prison doors. He has unlocked mine and he can unlock yours. Death has no more hold. Brothers, sisters, friends, unconverted ones--there is freedom in Jesus Christ! The sacrifice has been made and the scapegoat has gone in your stead down to the regions of hell. Not only did Jesus die for the forgiveness of sins but for your justification. You have the same standing in Jesus Christ that Jesus had there in hell: no sin could be found in him.

As we trust in Jesus and pour out our sins to him, those sins go before us to the judgment and are settled before we ever arrive. They cannot follow us or condemn us. But we must put them on Jesus, for only he can remove them and defeat their power. If we don't put our sins on Jesus, at the judgment they will be put on us.

Brothers and sisters, we have victory because Jesus has victory, because hell could not hold him and he resurrected and ascended into Heaven. Death does not have to be feared any longer, because the sting of death is sin and Jesus can cleanse us from all sin. He can make our hearts as pure as the driven snow. Unlike the Old Testament saints, who had to sacrifice goats as a picture of the Messiah to come, we have the Messiah himself, who has born our sins and shattered the power of hell. We can be free for all eternity. Hallelujah!