The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness. The Azazel goat carrying all of Israel's sins to the remote wilderness is the most dramatic single act in the entire Levitical system. The living animal that bore the sin-laden confession disappears into the wilderness — the sins it carries go with it into a place from which they do not return. Psalm 103:12 says as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us — the Azazel goat's journey into the remote wilderness is the spatial enactment of the theological reality that Psalm 103 celebrates. Isaiah 53:6 says the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all — the scapegoat is the type of the one who bears the community's total sin burden away.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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