Acharei Mot - Yeshua, the Scapegoat
In Acharei Mot, we learn about the scapegoat. The goat that is supposed to carry all our sins, so that we ourselves won’t have to carry them. From the ceremony of choosing the scapegoat to the actual scapegoat wandering around the wilderness, it all points towards the Messiah.
It says in Leviticus 16:10:
“But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat.”
The scapegoat is chosen from two goats. One of them becomes a sin offering, and is marked, “For the LORD,” while the other becomes the scapegoat, and is marked, “For Azazel.” Who or what is “Azazel”? In the Talmud, it says that azazel means "hard and rough," just like the cliff which the goat was supposed to be pushed off of. But in the same place of the Talmud where it says that, there’s another explanation given. The disciples of Rabbi Yishmael state, "It was called azazel because it atones for the affair of Uza and Aza'el."
Tradition states that Uza and Aza'el are the names of fallen angels who brought forth the Nephillim in the days of Noah. The book of Enoch refers to Azazel as one of the angels that descended to consort with the daughters of men in Genesis 6:11-13.
There’s a final interpretation to the name Azazel, and that is that it is another name for Satan. The Zohar uses the name Azazel as a euphemism for Satan, and in other sources, Azazel is the same as Sama'el. Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer relates the goat for azazel to a bribe for the devil. The Bible associates evil spirits with uninhabited wilderness places. Sending the azazel-goat into the wilderness suggests sending it to the devil.
This final interpretation raises some problems. If Azazel is understood as Satan or a fallen angel, then the commandment to send a goat to Azazel could be translated as a sacrifice to a demon. Because of that danger, most of the later commentators rejected the satanic explanation for the name Azazel. The goat sent into the wilderness was not sacrificed at all. He was neither ritually slaughtered, nor was the goat's blood applied or sprinkled on an altar. It was never called a sacrifice or an offering. It was a different kind of ritual altogether, and in fact, its plummet over the side of a cliff seems to be deliberately non-sacrificial.
Those who wrote about the end times understood the azazel-ritual as an allusion to the final defeat of evil. This is alluded to in 1 Enoch 10:6-9:
“Again the LORD said to Raphael, ‘Bind Azazel hand and foot; cast him into darkness; and opening the desert which is in Dudael, cast him in there. Throw upon him hurled and pointed stones, covering him with darkness. There shall he remain for ever; cover his face, that he may not see the light. And in the great day of judgment let him be cast into the fire.’”
Whether or not we assign any significance to this passage, Satan and his fallen angels will receive their punishment in the Day of Judgment. As it says in Revelations 20:10:
“And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
When Messiah atoned all sin, He defeated Satan. According to the book of Hebrews, the rituals of the Day of Atonement symbolize the suffering of the Messiah and His ascension to the heavenly Sanctuary. In this same vein, the goat for Azazel might also symbolize the first role of Messiah, Messiah son of Yosef, while the goat for the LORD might symbolize the second role of Messiah, Messiah son of David.
The Mishnah describes how the two goats were designated. Two lots were inscribed, one said "for the LORD", and the other said "for Azazel". The lots were placed inside a wooden urn, and the high priest, who stood in front of the two goats, would shake the urn before grabbing a lot. If the lot that said "for the LORD" came up in his right hand, the people considered it a blessing. If the lot that said "for Azazel" came up in his right hand, the people took it as a curse. Once the goats had been chosen, the high priest differentiated them by means of woolen scarlet yarn:
“He tied scarlet wool around the head of the goat which was to be sent forth, and turned it around [his back to the sanctuary] to face the way it would be sent out. On the one that was to be slaughtered [for the sin offering] he tied the scarlet wool [around its neck] at the place at which the slaughter was to be made.” (m.Yoma 4:2)
The Mishnah says about the man who took the scapegoat into the wilderness:
“What did he do? He divided the piece of scarlet wool. He tied half of it at the top of the rock, and he tied the second half between his goat's horns. Then he pushed him down backward. The goat went rolling and falling down. It did not reach halfway down the mountain before its body was torn apart, limb from limb.” (m.Yoma 6:3)
The mishnah states that the priests took a piece of the scarlet wool that was to be tied around the ram and hung it up on display in the Temple courts. As the goat plunged to its death, the cloth of scarlet wool on the ram, the scarlet wool on display in the Temple, and the scarlet wool on top of the rock miraculously turned white.
It says in the Mishnah:
“Rabbi Yishmael said, “They tied a thread of scarlet wool over the gate of the Temple, and when the goat reached the wilderness, the thread turned white, as it is written [in Isaiah 1:18], 'Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; [though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool]:’” (m.Yoma 6:8)
In the forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the lot that was drawn in the priests right hand consistently came up as “for Azazel”. The Mishnah describes many other troubling things that happened during these forty years:
“Our Rabbis taught: ‘For the forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot for the LORD on Yom Kippur did not come up in the right hand; the strip of red cloth did not turn white; the western light of the menorah did not stay lit; and the doors of the Temple would not stay closed but opened up by themselves, until Rabbi Yochanon ben Zakkai rebuked them. He said to them, “Temple, Temple for what purpose do you frighten with your counsel. I know about you! Your future ending will be destruction, for Zechariah ben Ido has already prophesied about you [in Zechariah ita], ‘Open your doors, O Lebanon, so that fire may devour your cedars!’”’” (b.Yoma 39b)
Maybe Yochanon ben Zakkai was able to interpret what these troubling things meant because he had heard what Yeshua had said, in Matthew 23:38, "Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!" Zakkai might have been there when Yeshua made His prophecies about Jerusalem.
Josephus confirms the story about the doors of the Temple opening on their own accord:
“Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner temple, which was of brass, and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a base covered with iron and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, which was there made of an entire stone, was seen to be opened of its own accord about the sixth hour of the night. Now those that kept watch in the temple came but running to the captain of the temple, and told him of it; who then came up there, and not without great difficulty was able to shut the gate again. This also appeared to the [uneducated] to be a very happy prodigy, as if God did thereby open them the gate of happiness. But the men of learning understood it, that the security of their holy house was dissolved of its own accord, and that the gate was opened for the advantage of their enemies. So these publicly declared that the signal foreshadowed the desolation that was coming upon them.” (Josephus, Jewish War, 6:293-296/vi.3)
By recording that these signs and omens began to appear forty years before the Temple's destruction, the Talmud unwittingly pointed towards the death of Yeshua the Messiah. Forty years before the Temple was destroyed, Yeshua died, rose, and ascended. On the event of Yeshua’s death, the veil of the Temple tore, and after his death, the scarlet wool no longer miraculously turned white, the lot "for the LORD" no longer came up in the high priest's right hand, the western lamp no longer stayed lit, and the gates of the Temple no longer stayed shut.
This does not mean that God turned His back on His Temple. It does not mean that Yeshua canceled the Day of Atonement. Instead, these omens and portents warned about the coming destruction and exile which Yeshua had predicted. This does not mean that, before the death of Yeshua, the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement atoned for Israel, but after his death they no longer atoned. If this were true, then Yeshua would have changed the unchang-ing Torah of God. The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us, "it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4), but it also tells us that "the blood of goats and bulls ... sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh" (Hebrews 9:13).
In Acharei Mot, we learn about the scapegoat for Azazel. We learn how this scapegoat carries the sins of Israel, just as Yeshua carries our sins.
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