02/20 Reading - Thoughts & Comments DX3

20-Feb Leviticus 15-16 Acts 11-12 Psalms 101-105 Proverbs 20

Two goats, one will die, and the other will live in the desert:

THE DEAD GOAT'S BLOOD: Lev 16:15-16 (NIV) 15 "He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull's blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it. 16 In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been.

THE LIVE GOAT:  Lev 16:20-22 (NIV) 20 "When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. 21 He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites--all their sins--and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. 22 The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert.


The two goats are symbolic for the New Testament believer on how God has dealt with our sin.  The first goat would be slain and his blood would be taken into the holy of Holies as atonement for the sins and mass rebellion of the Israelite people.  God would honor the sacrifice of the goat.  This goat of course, would be a shadow of the true lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who would appear before God, bringing His own blood as a final sacrifice for men's sins.

The living goat came before Aaron the High Priest, after he had been in the presence of God with the dead goat's blood.  Aaron would place his hands on that goat and transfer the sins of the people onto that goat.  That goat would then be led out into the desert and released.  This was symbolic of many things, but I want to focus on just one.   The priesthood was able to transfer sin to a "SCAPE GOAT" who would be driven out of the presence of the nation.  

Have you ever heard of the SCAPE GOAT?  This is where he comes from.  He is the one that sin is transferred to and sent away.  He is the fall guy for someone else's sins.   This SCAPE GOAT is at the heart of the human psyche and our way of dealing with sin.

When I pastored in 2 local churches over a twenty year period, I learned the hard way about the SCAPE GOAT.  While I was having some success in helping people with their spiritual lives and growth, I started having people line up to get counsel from me.  It didn't take long to realize the pattern of counseling.
1. The person backs up their dump truck and spews all of their horrible failures, faults, the bad stuff that has come because of their bad decisions, their fear, pain, suffering because of rebellion and bad decisions.  I literally could hear the dump truck backup horn when a counseling client would come to my office....  Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep... here comes the crap, trash, and junk that this person has been accumulating.
2.  After the trash had been delivered, I would then begin to show them in the Word of God where they were making mistakes, and how they were violating God's patterns, principles, and laws.  I would show them that they could live in freedom and victory. I would pray for them, and they would thank me with a smile on their face and renewed hope.
3.  I would see the person in church for a couple of weeks.  They would look at me strange.  They would stay away from me, and then almost without fail, they would leave the church and I would never see them again.

Why would this cycle happen?  Because of the SCAPE GOAT principle.  The person came to me, laid their hands on me, transferred their sins upon me, and then sent me away to live in the desert as their scape goat.  They could never look at me the same again.  When they came to church, I would represent their failures, faults, and troubles that they had unloaded upon me.  No wonder they needed to leave the church.  They were hanging around the scape goat which they had sent away from them.

I learned a principle that I personally live by.  I will NOT counsel people in any way as a scape goat, if I am leading them into success. They will not be able to properly function around me after they transfer their sins upon me and send me away.  If you EVER find yourself counseling a person and you hear the BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, of their trash truck coming to dump all their sins on you, realize that you are being set up as their scape goat.  Your relationship is about to take a change for the worse.

If you are leading a church or business, I recommend that you be very careful whom you allow to lay their hands upon you and transfer their sins, shortcomings, and failures upon.  If you are a pastor, I recommend that you get a qualified counselor in the church who can fulfill the scape goat principle.  Then when the people come back to church, they still see you as their leader, and the counselor over there can be distanced from their lives while they still receive leadership from you.

Now let's get personal.  Have you ever laid your hands upon a leader, or a family member, and transferred your sins, rebellions, shortcomings, upon them?  And then have you seen the relationship change for the worse as you don't have a desire to be close to them any longer?  This is potentially a "scapegoat" principle, and you need to break it in Jesus' name!  

James 5:16 (NIV) 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

How can you confess your sins to one another and still be friends when it's over with?  Here's the KEY.  GET THIS!!  You must pray for each other so that YOU MAY BE HEALED!  It's one thing to back the dump truck up and get rid of this year's accumulated garbage, sin, and rebellion.  But if that person is not healed, they will continue to fill their dump truck up and will need a new place to dump it next year.  A new scape goat, a new purification feeling for their sins, a new pastor that they've just destroyed the relationship with.  But you cannot live like this!

WE MUST BE HEALED from our sins, rebellions, and failures.  This must be part of the prayer when we are confessing our sins to one another.  DO NOT allow yourself to simply transfer your present day sins upon another person and send them away.  This was the the Old Testament way of dealing with sins for a one year period.  But the person would remain in the cycle of pain and sin their whole life, and would need an annual confessional and transfer process.

We can be healed, and our hearts can be changed.  When we are healed by the power of God, through the blood of JESUS CHRIST (not just an annual goat as in the Old Testament), we will be free, and we will not need to send our sins away.  We will be cleansed from sin, but our nature will be changed so that we don't want to sin any longer, and if we do - we simply ask the Father and He forgives us, and we develop the lifestyle of a Son.

The Old Testament offered a one year forgiveness of sin.  But the New Testament offers a complete life change so that we will not remain in the cycles and circles of repetitive sin. Thank God for Jesus!  

When a person operates in the SCAPE GOAT mentality, they are showing a sign that they have not yet realized the power of God through Jesus Christ, and not only the forgiveness of sins through Christ's blood, but also the NEW LIFE that comes through Christ's resurrection power.  We need to see ourselves delivered from an old world, Old Testamant life, and to be BORN AGAIN into God's everlasting kingdom, created perfect as sons and daughters, and heirs of the kingdom of light!  God please bring this revelation upon us so that we can be delivered from the old world cycles of sin, hell and death.      


Tomorrow's Reading:
21-Feb Leviticus 17-18 Acts 13-14 Psalms 106-110 Proverbs 21