Male Goat

Leviticus 4:2-3,11-12,21-24 – “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If anyone sins unintentionally in any of the Lord's commandments about things not to be done, and does any one of them, if it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then he shall offer for the sin that he has committed a bull from the herd without blemish to the Lord for a sin offering…But the skin of the bull and all its flesh, with its head, its legs, its entrails, and its dung—all the rest of the bull—he shall carry outside the camp to a clean place, to the ash heap, and shall burn it up on a fire of wood. On the ash heap it shall be burned up…And he shall carry the bull outside the camp and burn it up as he burned the first bull; it is the sin offering for the assembly. “When a leader sins, doing unintentionally any one of all the things that by the commandments of the Lord his God ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt, or the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring as his offering a goat, a male without blemish, and shall lay his hand on the head of the goat and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the Lord; it is a sin offering.

Leviticus 16:5 – And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.

Application:

• ·         As the bull was taken outside the camp, so also Jesus was crucified outside Jerusalem.
• ·         The one goat was killed, its blood sprinkled in the Most Holy Place and its body burned outside the camp, symbolizing the payment of the price of Christ’s atonement. The other goat, sent away alive and bearing the sins of the nation, symbolized the removal of sin and its guilt.
• ·         The final perfect sacrifice for the sins of God’s people was the crucified Christ, who was without any moral defect.

All Scripture verses taken from ESV