The Model Of The Yom Kippur Goats

Q

Would you please expand on the last sentence from “The Fall Feasts of Israel”?

“Before the cross the goat that was to be presented to the Lord as a sin offering was always on the right hand of the High Priest. After the cross it never was.”

A

Two goats were presented to the High Priest on Yom Kippur. One was to be the sin offering and the other the scapegoat. The High Priest would then select which was which by lot. According to tradition, before the cross the sin offering always turned up on the right hand of the High Priest, even though there was an equal chance of it being on the left. After the cross it never was. This showed the move of God behind the priest’s “random” selection.

To believers it demonstrated that the true sin offering, Jesus, was already at the right hand of God, having gone there after fulfilling the Yom Kippur models represented by the two goats. He was the sin offering who also brought us peace with God.