A word at passover

For several years, I have attempted to provide in excellent form, bible studies for free, in this particular blog, on The Passover and the Savior.   I am finally at the point of exasperation at the lack of Christian behavior, and civil behavior towards my work and these studies.

I am a former college professor,  who has studied the Word of God for 30 years, daily:  I started theological training after a career in Psychology but did not finish, but spent the next 30 years independently continuing my studies.  However, even if I had a 3rd grade education, I will still by law be accorded the right to write without encumbrance.

For Christians: Jesus nor the Scriptures forbid women or non-pastors from teaching and preaching the Gospel:  far from it, the 'great commission' commands every believer to be an agent of the Gospel: preaching, teaching, speaking, telling, showing:  it is never forbidden for any in Christ: there is no age limit, no racial kind, no male nor female, no 'Jew nor Greek':  it is the calling of every believer, trained or untrained,  new believer or one of many years: we are commanded to take the Gospel forward.

We are also never to build upon another's foundation, i.e.  we are not to interfere with, take over or 'overthrow' the work of another in Christ.   In the Gospel this is sometimes difficult since we teach the same topics which have been taught for 2000 years.   Unfortunately though,  these studies are enough of interest that some 'marketeers' feel that they will sell,  by I have obeyed the biblical command, 'freely given, freely give':  I am astounded at the viscious, non-stop ruin of these
 studies, designed to bring people to a deeper love and understanding of the Lord and his Word.

Blogger offers free blogging:  if you or your organization think you can do better, register a blog and go for it, but on your own material and not mine.  The height of hypocrisy has got to be ruining a blog on Christ and the Passover at Eastertime:  the portrayal of the greatest love on earth.   Teaching the Word is not a competition or a marketplace:  if you do not love the ways of Christ,  leave the church, market 'vegomatics' or some such thing, but leave the things of the Lord alone.  For those of different faiths who encounter this site:  you are free to express other doctrines, which I find false, but the law gives us both the right to express ourselves:   no true religion has to ruin the appearance or writing of a website bible study:  the truth has a life of its own.

I am pleading with people to leave this work alone:  it will live or die on its own:  there is never a reason to ruin, slander, or make someone look bad in order to take over a bible study:  it is the highest point of insanity.   Who is on the Lord's side?

The Altar and the The Cross

Staves, Linen, Horns and Sundry things of an Altar

Arriving in almost any church in the world, we find a very similar structure to the sanctuary: semi-circular or rectangular rows of pews, with an 'altar' up in the front. On the altar is a podium, some banners and chairs, flowers or plants, and perhaps a mural, cross or dove behind. While colors and architectural features may change they vary little. The 'altar' in Christianity, ranging from Catholic to High Protestant to Baptist Churches, even Pentecostal or Charismatic churches is separated from the rest of the congregation, often by stairs and sometimes by a rail, and is the domain of the 'elite' of the church  , apart from the plebian mass of listeners. The choir sings here, and the preachers preach, a few deacons sit nodding and a few lucky congregates read announcements perhaps or sing a solo. An altar call, whatever that is (you will not find it in Scripture) is the culmination of a service in some services, forpeople to come forth and repent and receive Christ, although the early church assumed that church members were already born again (evangelism took place outside). In any event, the prototype of 'stage-altar' and 'audience-congregates' attends most 'Churches' or congregations but our understanding of the altar is very far from Scriptural.

In the past 'Passover Blogs' we have looked at various aspects of Pesach, from both before the crossing  of the Kidron into Gethsemane, to the resurrection, but we will turn for the next few entries to the concept of the altar from Bethel to the Cross, and why we have in modern times completely missed the whole concept. The foreshadowing of the Cross in the early altar, is not to be missed for a true understanding of surrender to Messiah, and the essence of what it means to 'lay down your life', and 'die to self'.

The Altar at Bethel

The earliest mention of an altar is even before Bethel, when Abel and Cain offered a sacrifice to God, Abel (considered in the New Testament a prophet), a righteous sacrifice of the first of the flock, and Cain, an offering according to his own wisdom of the fruit of the field. The altar appears also in the history of Noah, in thanksgiving when Noah and his family are saved alive :
Gen 8:20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and every
clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.


The next verse notes that God accepts the 'sweet savor' of the sacrifice and covenants with Noah not to again curse the ground anymore for man's sake. (Gen 8:21) Even in these early altars, before Abraham establishes the altar at Bethel, we see the rudiments of what an altar is. It involves:

1. An offering of value to God
2. An 'ascending' offering in the smoke of the burnt offering ('olah')
3. An offering acceptable to God, implying that some are not.
4. The offerings are made by men to God, and
5. A covenant of God follows the Noahic sacrifice, while
 the rebuke/wrath of God follows Cain's sacrifice.

Surely these are not the only foundation: implicit are the fire and wood of the offering, on a stone altar. By the time of Bethel, the critical nature of the altar begins to unfold.

The altar at Bethel

At Beth-El, as Abram [Abraham] is called out from Haran and arrives in Canaan, one of his first acts is the construction of an altar and the offering of a sacrifice. The first altar, near Luz (it means 'almond tree'*)

Gen 12:8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, [having] Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD,  and called upon the name of the LORD.

The altar Abram builds is built as we have noted in other studies between Moreh, (the hill of the rabbi or teacher, literally 'vision') and Sichem, or 'Shechem' referring to the shoulder, or place of authority. Both the head and should in ancient thinking referred to leadership and sovereignty. Most of my dear rabbinical type allies in Messianic circles can certainly attest to the allusion of an altar built between the hill of the rabbi, and the place where sovereignty is lain. Bethel , formerly called Luz, for the almond tree which buds first in the spring, and attends the rod of Aaron in new life.
Num 17:8 And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.

Replete with the altars of Moses and Abraham (as well as Jacob and Isaac), are:

1. An unhewn rock platform (made by God-see "An Altar Unhewn"
2. Pillars (12)
3. The wood for an offering
4. Fire /smoke 
5. A knife or sharp instrument for sacrifice (also staves) 
6. A sheep, or other beast for sacrifice
7. The blood of sacrifice 
8. A priest offering the sacrifice 
9. The garment of a priest offering the sacrifice

Now the concept, the biblical concept of an altar is very foreign to the modern mind that thinks it is a stage with steps or a rail. In Exodus Moses is actually commanded by God not to have steps up to an altar: it defies the humble spirit of an offering. Others characterize the idea of a blood sacrifice as archaic, ugly, and violent: a slaughterhouse and deride the Old Testament because of it.

To understand the idea of an altar and sacrifice in the Old Testament, one needs to clarify, that all that God did or commanded in the Old Testament did not make him a different God than in the New (the heresy of Marcionism), but that many of His commandments fit within sinful human practices. For example, God does not condone slavery, even the very nature of God testifies to that, than one creation cannot 'own' another, since they are his: yet many commandments in the Pentateuch attest to the fair treatment of slaves, and the means by which they may gain liberty. I suppose God could just have commanded 'no slaves', but the ancient mind would not have conceived of it. Further, much of the slavery in Israel, except for captives in war, was semi-voluntary: Israelites occasionally put themselves in voluntary servitude to pay off a debt, and the Lord gives commandments to Israel within the society. When we become 'chronocentric' and think that they were archaic back then, we have only to look at modern day slavery which is rampant, or even the wage-labor economic system where we work to pay debts, and which we cannot conceive of dismissing.

How does this apply to the idea of an altar or blood sacrifice? Bloodletting of animals have occurred every year the world has existed as we obtain them for our food: in the wild, animals kill and eat other animals: the violence and ripping of flesh is I believe a part of the curse of the Fall: as long as the world exists, slaughter for food will exist. In the system of sacrifice in the Old Testament, God did not do less than man: he asked for the best of their cattle to be dedicated or offered to God, not for food but for the pointing to a very important sacrifice which he would one day have to make. The animals would have been sacrificed nonetheless for food had they not been offered on an altar. "The life is in the blood" we are taught in Scripture, and God was teaching the brutal and deadly cost of buying back those he loved from a divine battle that was unseen and often forgotten.

The altar therefore, was first and most significantly, a place of 'setting aside' or sanctification particularly of self desire and worship, a place of sacrifice or offering of the best for God, a place of worship and praise and a place of dying to self: the most eminent function of the altar was the atonement, or offering of blood to atone for, to cover, the price of sin, with a precious offering pointing to the forthcoming Golgotha.

The Offerings

The offerings were the burnt offering (olah) which referred to rising smoke but also an 'ascent', the peace offering, the sin offering, the heave offering, the meat offering, and others, each pointing to a different aspect of the coming Messiah and the Kingdom of God. The Olah, or burnt offering shows the rising ascent of a precious sacrifice to God for the covering of sin, as does the sin offering. The 'rising cloud' of smoke is reflected in a major aspect of how God appears to man in the Sinai desert, in Babylonian captivity and later on the mount of Transfiguration. The heave and wave offerings are evidence of praise and giving, there is also an offering for thanksgiving. All are reflected on the Cross where we see the wood for a burnt offering

Gen 22:6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid [it] upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.
Exd 29:18 And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it [is] a burnt offering unto the LORD: it [is] a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

Notice that in the akedah of Isaac, there is the wood of the cross, the knife which on Golgotha becomes a spear, or the nails, and the altar of unhewn rock. The blood of the sacrifice in the Tabernacle, also was applied to the horns of the altar: the horns, or qeren, represented the four corners or completeness of the sacrifice, and power. The blood anointing on the horns of the altar is similar to the blood on the door of the Passover,

Exd 12:22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip [it] in the blood that [is] in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that [is] in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.

and the blood anointing of the High priests entering into the Holy of Holies, anointed with the blood of the sacrifice on the thumb and head:

Exd 29:20 Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put [it] upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.
Lev 8:23 And he slew [it]; and Moses took of the blood of it, and put [it] upon the tip of Aaron's right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot

The anointing of blood on the thumb, and toe and head are seen in the crucifixion or passover sacrifice: the bloody crown of thorns in Matthew 27:29, the nails in his hands, and the blood running down his feet (all crucifixion accounts) point to both the blood on the door (wood) in Exodus and to the High priest's anointing in Leviticus.

More than that though, it is this anointing of blood that Christ carries into heaven, to anoint the tabernacle there. Donald Barnhouse noted that when Christ appears to Mary Magdalen in the Garden outside the tomb, she is cautioned not to touch him because he " has not yet ascended to his Father". A short time later, Jesus commands his disciple Thomas to touch his wounds that he be not unbelieving:

Jhn 20:17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and [to] my God, and your God.
Jhn 20:27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust [it] into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

The apex of faith, and what Barnhouse proposed, and I believe, is that the time between is when Jesus as the High Priest of Heaven ascends to anoint the Tabernacle which is in heaven with the blood of the covenant:

Rev 15:5 And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:

and in Revelation 21:3 when Jesus himself is declared the Tabernacle in heaven.

Jesus, risen from the dead, could not be touched as a high priest entering into the holy of holies for it would make him unclean: more than that, one may at least wonder at the 8 day wait to let Thomas touch the wounds, but he had in essence 'touched death',and while God is never unholy, he perfunctorily fulfilled the duties of a high priest in waiting the seven days to be in the office of cleanness, even though he himself did not need it

He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days Number :19:11

Jesus did this with his baptism also, hardly needing a water baptism performed by a man, even a prophet, but still attending to the perfection of the commands of God.That of course remains speculation for it does not say exactly, but would make alot of sense.

Staves

In the altar in the Tabernacle, were rings for 'staves' which would be inserted into the rings on the side for moving the altar when Israel moved. It is easy to see the the symbolic meaning in the other aspects of the altar, but I wondered somewhat at the staves. The answer is in their composite: they are made of shittim wood, the wood of the tabernacle, even for other brass covered items. "Shittim" wood is from the shittah tree, a tree that grows out in the most arid of deserts: we call it the Acacia tree. The tree one immediately associates with the wood of the cross, but note the staves are just at the level or below of the crown of the altar and of the ark of the covenant: they are shittah wood overlaid with gold:

Exd 25:13 And thou shalt make staves [of] shittim wood, and overlay them with gold

.

The Acacia or shittah tree with age turns dark black, often mistaken for ebony. Further, it is found in the wilderness, and bears long sharp thorns. Surely the gold overlay refers to the precious nature of those sharp thorns which attend the sacrifice of God: they are also found in the Ram in the bushes in the akedah of Isaac:

Gen 22:13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind [him] a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

More could be said about the other altars of the wood, but the gold covered thorn wood surrounding the altar are not an obscure reflection.

The Linen

Jesus wore a seamless linen garment to the cross, though before, they clothed him with a royal robe, and crown of thorns, mocking his Kingship. The linen in the Tabernacle represented the 'fuller's white' shining righteousness of the saints in the curtains surrounding the holy place, indwelt by the presence of God in the shekinah glory. Consider the following:

Exd 26:1 Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle [with] ten curtains [of] fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: [with] cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.
Jhn 19:23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also [his] coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout

A coat like that is an expensive one from the day when Jesus lived: it would no doubt have been made of the finest linen, 'woven from the top'. The seamless righteousness of the Lord and Savior was bartered for by men of no understanding at all.

While it is a mild conjecture, the perfect imputed righteousness of Christ represented by the white linen covering, is probably also indicative of the shining apparel of heaven: it is seen worn by angels and in the descriptions of the Transfiguration and Paul's encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus:

             Mar 9:3 And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.
Luk 11:36 If thy whole body therefore [be] full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.Luk 24:4 And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
Jhn 5:35 He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
 Act 26:13 At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.

The 'brightness of his glory' is such that none can withstand it: even Moses's face 'shone' coming down the Mountain from his encounter with God. Some rabbinical traditions posit that in the Garden of Eden, before the Fall, Adam and even were clothed with that 'shining glory' , the righteousness of God, and that sin, missing the mark, deprived them of heaven's clothing and they found themselves naked. It is in the garden that an animal is sacrificed for the first time by God and given to Adam and Eve to wear, to 'cover' their nakedness in the first blood atonement for sin.

Summary

The beauty of the altar and the severity of God's mercy is seen throughout the Old and New Testament in every altar of God pointing the way to the altar at Golgotha: it is on a tree on unhewn rock, as at Beth El, it has wood that the sacrifice is laid upon, in a burnt offering (literally 'ascent') of a sweet savor rising to God. The thorns of the Crown are their surrounding the sacrifice as the seamless linen robe encircled it, leading to the one perfect sacrifice, a blood covenant for all time to bring back the great garden of communion with God. The Altar of the Cross saw the Lamb of God, the Lamb of centuries, the male lamb caught in the thicket of thorns, shedding his blood for our sins, lifting the curse of the 'first Adam' in whom all died. Thank God for the second Adam, in whom all are made alive.

Till next time, ekbest
_________________________
REFERENCES & NOTES
* Luz:
Num 17:8 And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.
Ecc 12:5 Also [when] they shall be afraid of [that which is] high, and fears [shall be] in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
Jer 1:11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
Posted by Elizabeth Kirkley Best at 1:09 PM 

Jesus is Brought Before Israel: The Azazel and Sin Offering of Centuries

                                                                  The Passover Blogs:

What Really Happened Against That Dark Sky on Golgotha?

(c) 2013 Elizabeth K. Best

Jesus is Brought Before Pilate: The Azazel of Centuries

 Arrested and bound by the temple guard carrying burning torches, the Savior sent by God is brought before the sovereign powers which were in Israel at the time: the Sanhedrin, a council of the leading Jewish authorities, Herod, the licentious but amusingly interested king who lived a lavish lifestyle, and ultimately to Pilate, the Roman Curator and consul to the desert outpost of Jerusalem for judgment . The Pharisees, a regional King and Rome became judge and jury to ‘assess’ the righteousness of the King of all righteousness, exerting the arrogant opinion of the State and Religion over the reality and truth of God.. One has to wonder at the violent arrest and unjust court hearings, dealt with in so many studies over the years, of the ‘Way the Truth and the Life’ held under man’s scrutiny for the great crimes of healing the sick, opening the eyes of the blind, casting out demons and teaching the Kingdom of God as no one ever had: these ‘crimes’--- the healing of Israel and the world, were turned into charges of treason and sedition under the jaundiced eyes of wicked men. Still, standing before Pilate, no doubt weary of the previous three years of intense ministry and the travel and trial the night before, the Holy One of Israel stands accused for trial to appease the High Priest, a religionist who had purchased his role from Rome in defiance of the Levitical priesthood. Having seen the miracles, and even proof of Lazarus raised from the dead, the High Priest of Israel declared in wrath that it was ‘better that one man should die for the nation’ than that all should perish. That statement held in suspension and paradox for centuries, has stood as the pre-eminent example of times when the wrath of man praises God.

For the topic at hand, which is comparing the release of the 'Azazel' or scapegoat bearing the sins of Israel with the trial of Christ and judgment coming not from Pilate but from the people, we will not attend directly to the first two 'trials' or hearings. Both Herod's hearing of seeing the 'phenomenon' of Jesus, and the late night trial of the Messiah run counter to Temple Law conducted by the Sanhedrin, are both important and even critical in the understanding of the injustice of man vs. the justice of God, and the surrender of the Messiah to God's will even when it is unjust. Those two trials, as well as the final one establish Jesus' willful laying down of his life, rather than having it taken from him. These 'hearings' also establish the face of Christian persecution, as in the end, the believer often finds his greatest accusers to be Religionists, powerful men, and Rome: the 'dignities' which too often figure in the death of believers following in the footprints of their Redeemer. Focusing though on the foreshadowing of the choice of Barabbas over the King and true High Priest of Israel, is the question at hand. Did the two goats of Leviticus 16, foreshadow the choice? Was it merely an angry crowd, somewhat frightened of Jesus and willing to let an innocent die, in order to go along with Temple leadership at the time? Or was it possibly the God of Israel working out the prophetic fulfillment of the little understood practice of conferring the sins of Israel onto a sacrificial offering, with one dying for sin, and one bearing the sins of collective Israel out into the wilderness to whatever would become of him? These and more are the questions we confront in this study.

Leviticus 16: Two Goats& the Sins of Israel

In the midst of Leviticus, we find a most unusual chapter about two goats, the sins of Israel, a ceremonial practice and the wilderness. In the Torah, or first five books of the Bible, we read frequently about sacrifices such as the 'olah' or burnt offering, the 'minchah' or meat offering or the other offerings involving the sacrifice of an animal, usually a lamb, goat or bullock, or of prepared offerings of bread or meal: though there are many sacrifices mentioned in the early books, such as sin, peace and trepass offerings beside those above, one may still observe that those offerings were prescribed in very similar ways: the offering was brought to the door of the Tabernacle; if it was an animal, the priests would sacrifice the animal, and whether beast or bread, all but one or two of the offerings were burned on the altar. 
Leviticus 16 though shows God, commanding the more unusual or unique sacrifice of choosing two young goats, conferring the sins of the nation upon them, and then a differential treatment of the two pointing to the significant 'offering' of the scapegoat or better, 'sin-bearer' of Israel still centuries away.

[Lev 16:2, 5, 7-10 KJV] 2 And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy [place] within the vail before the mercy seat, which [is] upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. . . 5 And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. ...

7 And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD [at] the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat. 9 And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD'S lot fell, and offer him [for] a sin offering. 10 But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, [and] to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.

The command for this sin offering comes following the death of two of Aaron's sons who offered strange fire, or committed an idolatrous practice contrary to the will of God, which bore the possibility of the death of many in the wilderness. Sometimes God's judgments in the Old Testament seem very severe to unbelievers and new believers with little experience in the Word. God's main aim for Israel though in the forty years of desert wandering to Canaan, was their survival and safety: turning to other gods and practices would have 'brought Israel's fence down' a divine reality, which could have caused untold harm to the whole congregation.  

The sin offering was to include 2 goats and one ram; for now, our interest is primarily in the two goats: the ram is the more traditional part of the offering. (see Lev 5:15; Exodus 29:18 for sin and trespass offerings) The High Priest, Aaron, is in Leviticus 16:3-4 commanded to prepare himself via his garments and office in the appropriate way for a sacrifice. Then the sacrifice is as follows:

A.      The High Priest presents the 2 goats at the door of the tabernacle

B.      Aaron the high Priest cast lots upon the two goats:

C.       One lot on one goat is for the LORD

D.      One Lot is for the 'Scapegoat' or Azazel

E.       The "Lord's Lot" Goat is offered for a sin offering.

F.       The Azazel or 'Scapegoat' is presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement, and

G.      The Scapegoat, carrying the sins of Israel is then let go outside the city walls. 

 



The presentation of Jesus before Israel,  with the option of either the Messiah of Israel being set free or the criminal Barabbas,  takes place on the Gabbatha,  a platform or more possibly a plaza outside what archaeologists believe was the praetorium.   The ‘praetorium’ was where Pilate lived and worked and conducted the business of the Roman State in Palestine.   ‘Pilate’ was Praetor, or Prefect of Rome.  Josephus, the early Jewish historian notes that  when Roman authorities came to Israel for business or judicial purposes they stayed in Herod’s palace, conducting business outside the palace:  this may not be contradictory,  since it would appear that Herod’s palace,  the Temple, and the Praetorium were within close proximity to one another:  recent archaeological evidence proposes a 600 foot ‘colonnade’ in between the Praetorium and the Temple,  a rather crass statement about the corruption and compromise between the Temple of the time, and Rome.  ^1,2

Within clear view, then of the temple,  and Herod’s Palace,  on the Gabbatha of Pilate’s Praetorium, whatever the exact location,  Jesus was presented to Israel, by Pilate, following his declaration of himself as King, Lord, and Savior,  with the words, “Behold the Man”. John 19:5.  ‘Behold the Man’ also follows the Pilate’s decree that he finds ‘no fault in him’:  Jesus is the perfect lamb, the Passover lamb without a flaw,  there is no ‘fault’ in him, as he is about to be dedicated to those crying for a lamb for sacrifice.   Consider, though the parallels of the events, some perfectly matched and some not, of the choice of Messiah vs. the criminal:

Old Testament: Lord’s Lot vs. Azazel                 New Testament: Jesus & Barabbas

The High Priest presents the two goats at the door of the Tabernacle	The Prefect of Rome, In sight of the High Priest Caiaphas, presents Jesus and Barabbas near the door of the Temple, on the ‘pavement’
Aaron the High Priest, Casts lots on the two goats	Caiaphas the High Priest, calls for the crucifixion
One lot is for the goat of the Lord	The ‘Sin Offering’ for sacrifice
One lot is for the Scapegoat	Barabbas is chosen for release, in metaphor the sins of Israel are forgiven and released :note, though, that Messiah, doubly is also the scapegoat and sin-bearer of Israel
The ‘Lord’s Lot ‘ goat is chosen for sacrifice	Messiah is chosen for crucifixion
The Azazel or 'Scapegoat' is presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement, and	Barabbas, a murderer and insurrectionist, is pardoned,  released,  though there is no atonement, which can only be made by Messiah.
The Scapegoat, carrying the sins of Israel is then let go outside the city walls.	Barabbas is released* presumably according to custom outside the city, and Jesus is led to crucifixion outside the city walls.

As in the Temple the High Priest presents the two goats at the door of the Tabernacle, the prefect of Rome, in sight of the High Priest Caiaphas presents Jesus and Barabbas near the door of the Temple on the pavement:

^{[John 19:13 KJV]} 13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. ^{[Jhn 19:14 KJV]} 14  And it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!

 Pilate no doubt, meant a partial mocking of the Jews, as he presents Jesus,  bound as the sacrificial lamb, degraded, and rejected, when he says, ‘Behold your King!”.   Yet at the same time, what Rome declared, stood and one must wonder if Pilate, after the trying confrontation with Jesus in the discussion of whether or not Jesus was a King,  must have said it only partially mocking,  with the sense that he was indeed standing in the presence of a heavenly king.  The presentation of a King and Lamb at Passover was a most remarkable event.  One recalls the passage in exodus regarding the taking of the unleavened bread and the lamb on the night when the angel of death ‘passed over’

[Exo 12:21 KJV] 21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover.

But the presentation of a king of Israel,  at Passover was a first:  while Josiah in his reign restored the practice of Passover to Israel,  the coronation of a king occurred at other times: on the other hand, the release of a prisoner according to custom,  was respected:

[Jhn 18:39 KJV] 39 But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews?

Israel , a nation of priests, is given a choice between the one who whether reverently or irreverently is called, “King of the Jews”,  or Barabbas:

^{[Mat 27:16-23 KJV]} 16 And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. 17 Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? 18 For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.   

19 When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. 20

But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.   21 The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. 22 Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? [They] all say unto him, Let him be crucified. 23 And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.

In the Old Testament, when the goats were set before the congregation and the high Priest at the door of the Tabernacle,  the high priest cast lots on which goat was to be which:

 ^{[Lev 16:7-9 KJV] 7} And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD [at] the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat. 9 And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD'S lot fell, and offer him [for] a sin offering.                                             

                                                                                                                                        

The Sin Offering goat is the goat which is chosen by lot to be sacrificed for the sins of Israel.  At the same time,  Aaron cast lots for the scapegoat,  which in Hebrew is ‘Azazel’:

עֲזָאזֵל

The word for ‘Azazel’, pronounced atz-ah-tzel,  is translated ‘scapegoat’  in which we still find the modern meaning of ‘one who takes or has conferred upon them all the blame’,  for example, a family ‘scapegoat’  takes on the sins of a family,  or an ‘office scapegoat’ becomes responsible for everything that fails in an office:   this useage is entirely similar to the ancient concept.    Gesenius’ Lexicon includes the meaning ‘dubious’ or ‘complete removal’, e.g. of sin,   and notes that the scapegoat and the Lord’s lot goat pertain only in Leviticus to the day of atonement.   An atonement,  is sometimes cleverly referred to as an ‘at-one-ment’,  meaning that two are made one,  and the clear understanding in Old and New Testament is that via a removal of sin,  God and man are united,  or at least man becomes ‘at one’ with God by the removal of sin:  in the Old Testament this was on a per sin basis, or on a yearly basis as with the day of atonement,  when the sin offering would expiate the sins of Israel, of the congregation of Israel for a year:

[Exo 30:10 KJV] 10 And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it [is] most holy unto the LORD.

                                                               

The altar was about to be set, for the blood of atonement to be applied,  but for the moment, the decision reverts to the casting of lots between two ‘goats’ and that day on the Gabbatha, should things have been different,  one would have assumed that the innocent lamb, Messiah, would have been set free, since Pilate, ‘found no fault’ in him.   Yet that day, the High Priest, even after Rome declared Jesus innocent,  calls ‘for the lamb’ (in the OT, a lamb could also be a young goat).    

The choice between Barabbas and Jesus is both perfectly a fulfillment of the offering of the goats, and somewhat seemingly confusing because Jesus is both the goat sent out into the wilderness, as well as the goat offered for the sin offering: he is the Azazel and the Lord’s lot goat,  the sin-bearer and the sin-offering.   The fact that there is overlap in no way negates the fulfillment though,  but is rather like a picture that fades in and out:  one sees the offering both in Jesus vs. Barabbas, and at the same time as synthesized in the offering of Jesus.

A modern concept based upon some ancient pagan ideas was that the Azazel was a ‘demon’: this idea was portrayed in the movie Fallen (1998) with Denzel Washington in which a demon spirit named Azazel moved person to person:  this is of course not a biblical or correct view of the Azazel,  but it does bear a similarity to the idea that ‘sin’ and its consequences are borne on the ‘scapegoat’ and sent out into the wilderness removing the culpability and results from the congregation of Israel and the City of God.   Presumably the goat also would eventually die,  but in no case was it to wander back into the city.  

[Lev 16:21-22 KJV] 21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send [him] away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: 22 And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

The laying on of hands by the high priest does not find a parallel on the Gabbatha that day, but there is an interesting possible parallel in the release of Barabbas:  when criminals were released via a pardon,  they were not warmly received into the populace, but were essentially banished beyond the city walls:   the thinking was not much different that with the Azazel:  they could leave the city walls, free,   but they could still not remain with the unexipiated sin or crime to their account.   Cast beyond the city walls,  they were at least free to try to go elsewhere and start over, though the fate of many was death in the wilderness.

The wilderness bears a point of mention as well:  the words for wilderness in both Old and New Testaments indicate ‘desolate places’ not only describing the terrain.  The wilderness is a place of no water,  and a place of demonic dwellings.   Cast outside the walls, it is where sin belongs.    The wilderness was where Jesus spent his youth,  though in the sense of being kept apart and sanctified ‘until the day of his shewing to Israel’.   Later, the wilderness was the place where he would be tested,  meeting with the various temptations of worldly power, riches and reign vs. the choice of the ways of the Lord and his Word.  Ultimately,  it is a sort of battlefield of both the unholiest and holiest of God’s people:  Jesus battles Satan in the wilderness;  Moses is cast to the wilderness by Pharaoh and later leads the congregation of God through it:  David is chased across the wilderness by the madness of Saul, before becoming King.    The wilderness, desolate and the end-reach of sin and devils, is also the place of the trials of God.

Jesus is crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem,  in a place near a garden called Golgotha,  but it is the ‘outside’ of the city walls that is critical:   both the sin offering goat, the Lord’s lot goat, and the azazel goat end up eventually ‘outside the gate’, as we are admonished to meet Jesus there, bearing his reproach:

^{[Heb 13:13 KJV] 13} Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

The Azazel is released into the wilderness as mentioned in Leviticus 16:22.  But the sin offering goat,  is taken into the Temple for sacrifice,  but the blood of the sacrifice, applied to the altar,  and the sacrificed sin offering is taken outside the city:

[Lev 16:27 KJV] 27 And the bullock [for] the sin offering, and the goat [for] the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy [place], shall [one] carry forth without the camp; and they shall burn in the fire their skins, and their flesh, and their dung.

                     

The bullock that is mentioned above is the sacrifice made for the High Priest’s offering for himself:  the sin offering goat, the Lord’s Lot is sacrificed for the people and the Tabernacle, and after being ‘brought in to make atonement in the holy place’  is carried ‘without the camp’.

The burnt offering carried without the camp would seem to lack one parallel to the offering of Jesus on the wooden altar on Golgotha:  a fire born offering.   When I was younger in the Lord this was a little difficult to reconcile,  since the sin offering was a burnt offering.  The answer quite simply lies in the purpose of and ‘kind’ of offering that is meant by a burnt offering:   the word is ‘olah’ and refers to the rising smoke of an offering by fire.  The ‘olah’ offering though clearly refers to the ‘ascent’ of the offering to God,  the ascent in this case is the offering of Jesus’ spirit on the cross, a point we will attend to in a later study.    We see though again the issue of the wavering focus of the foreshadowing of the offering of Christ as the atonement for Israel in the atonement of the two goats in Leviticus:  the goats are simply both pointing to Jesus vs. Barabbas, and Jesus as the sin offering and sin-bearer of Israel.

The complexity of God’s way and plan portrayed in the offering of Messiah on the pavement of the Praetorium is a beautiful one, carried forward fifteen hundred years from the time of the congregation of God wandering in the wilderness of Zin,  to the designation and fulfillment of the foreshadow as braced and bound,  with Pilate crying ‘Behold the man’ :  the first time in the Scriptures that the words “Behold the man” are spoken are by God in Genesis, when he is saying literally ‘Behold Adam’:  here on the pavement, we see the second Adam presented to Israel.

More next time.

ekbest