Aaron Laid His Hands on the Scapegoat

Who passed the sins of Israel on to the live goat as their representative?

The High Priest

All the sins of this world were expiated through the faith in the ordination of the Old Testament and the baptism of the New Testament. In the Old Testament, all the yearly sins of Israel were atoned through the High Priest, who laid his hands on the head of a live goat without any blemishes.

"And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man" (Leviticus 16:21).

This is how they were atoned in the days of the Old Testament. To be redeemed from the daily sins, one brought a lamb or a goat without blemishes to the tabernacle and offered it at the altar. He put his hands on the head of the offering, and then his sins were passed on to the sacrifice. Then, the sacrifice was killed and the priest put its blood on the horns of the altar.

There were horns on the four corners of the altar. These horns symbolize the Books of Works written in Revelation 20:12. The sacrifice's remaining blood was sprinkled on the ground too. The ground represented the heart of man because man was created from dust. The people atoned for their daily sins this way.

However, they could not make sin offerings daily, so, God allowed them to be atoned once a year for all their yearly sins. This was performed on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. On that day, the High Priest, the representative of all Israelites, brought two goats and laid his hands on them to pass all the sins of the people on to them and offered them before God to make atonement for the people of Israel.

"Aaron laid both his hands on the head of the live goat, confessed over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat."

God had appointed Aaron, the High Priest of Israel, to be the representative. Instead of everyone having to lay his hands on the offerings individually, the high priest, as the representative of all people, laid his hands on the head of the live goat for the remission of the year's sins.

He would narrate all the sins of Israel before God, "O God, Your children of Israel have sinned. We have worshiped idols, broken all articles of Thy Law, called Thy name in vain, created other idols and loved them more than Thee. We didn't keep the Sabbath holy, didn't respect our parents, killed, committed adultery and thievery.... We indulged in jealousy and quarrels."

He listed all the sins. "God, neither the people of Israel nor I have been able to keep any of Thy Law. To be redeemed of all these sins, I lay my hands on the head of this goat and pass onto it all those sins." The high priest laid his hands on the offering for all the people and passed all the sins onto the head of the offering. Ordination, or the laying on of hands means 'to pass' (Leviticus 1:1-4, 16:20-21).

How was the atonement accomplished in the time of the Old Testament?

Through the laying of hands on the head of the sin offering

God had given the sacrificial system to the people of Israel so that they could pass on all their sins and be redeemed. He specified that one should prepare a sin offering without blemishes and that the sin offering should die instead of the person. The redemption of individual sinners was like that.

However, on the Day of Atonement, the sin offering was killed and its blood was taken inside the Holy Place and sprinkled on the mercy seat seven times. Thus, the people of Israel atoned for a year's sin on the tenth day of the seventh month.

The high priest entered the Holy Place alone to offer the sacrifice, but people gathered outside and listened to the sound of the golden bells on the hem of the robe of the ephod of the High Priest. The golden bells rang seven times as the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat. Then, the people would rejoice that all their sins were atoned. The sound of the golden bells implies the sound of the joyous gospel.

It is not true that Jesus loves some selected people and redeems only them. Jesus took away all the sins of the world all at once with His baptism. He wanted to deliver us once and for all. Our sins could not be redeemed every day, so they were blotted out all at once.

In the Old Testament, atonement was given through ordination and the blood of the sin offering. Aaron laid his hands on the head of a live goat in front of all the people and listed all the sins that people had committed during the year. He passed the sins onto the goat in front of all Israelites. Where did the sins of the people go after the laying hands of the High Priest on the scapegoat? They were all passed onto the goat.

Then, the goat was led away by a 'suitable man.' The goat, with all the sins of Israel upon it, was led to the desert where there was no water and no grass. The goat, then, would wander the desert under the burning sun and finally die. The goat died for the sins of the Israelites.

This is the love of God, the love of redemption. This is how they atoned for a year's worth of sins in those days. But we are living in the time of the New Testament. It has been about 2000 years since Jesus came down to our world. He came and fulfilled the promise that He had made in the Old Testament. He came and redeemed all our sins.

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