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The scapegoat

A goat symbolic of what God does with our sin.
Contributed by Richard Gunther
Story also available on our translated websites: Spanish, Portuguese, German
1
In the Old Testament Bible law, God commanded that two goats, without any defects, should be chosen. <br/>One of them was to be sacrificed as an offering for sin. The goat would lose its life and shed its blood so the people could be forgiven for the wrong things they had done. The goat took the punishment the people deserved for disobeying God. – Slide 1
2
The other goat was to be kept alive. The priest would lay his hands on it as a picture to show that the sins of the people were put on the goat. It was then led off into the wilderness and released to run off and never be seen again. – Slide 2
3
This goat would be a picture of what God does with our sin when He forgives us. Just as the goat would be taken away, our sins would be taken away and never returned. – Slide 3
4
This second goat was called the ‘scapegoat’ (or ‘escape goat’). It was a symbol of how, once we are forgiven our sins are lost forever and never to be found again. – Slide 4
5
In Hebrew 10:17 God says, once we are forgiven, God will remember our sins no more. They are completely forgotten and never remembered again. – Slide 5
6
In Micah 7:19 God says He can forgive people and throw all their sins into the depth of the sea. In those days no-one could dive anywhere near the depths of the sea. – Slide 6
7
Even today, with special diving machines, very few can go deep down into the sea. How deep is the sea? It is very, very deep and unexplored. It is another picture of how our sins, once forgiven, are lost forever. – Slide 7
8
God also says that He removes our sin as far as the east is from the west. If you had two spacecraft and one were to zoom away west and the other east, they would be flying in opposite directions and get further and further apart. – Slide 8
9
So we must be thankful to Jesus who died to take the punishment for our sin. And just like a ‘scapegoat’ He can remove our sins so they are never seen or remembered again. – Slide 9
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Slide 10