In the New Testament, the Greek word týpos (too'-pos), meaning “example,” describes a model or pattern in the Old Testament that is fulfilled in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

A shadow has no substance; it is cast by something substantial. It is the physical form of a heavenly reality.

Last week we saw a slide of the seven main feasts of the Lord

a.Passover
b.The Feast of Unleavened Bread
c.Feast of Firstfruits
d.Pentecost/Feast of Weeks
e.Feast of Trumpets
f.Day of Atonement
g.The Feast of Tabernacles

Some of these have been fulfilled, others are yet to be fulfilled.

Over the next couple of weeks we are going to take a look at the Day of Atonement. There are 3 main components to the day of atonement: A male goat for a sin offering, a male goat to be the scapegoat, and the ram for a burnt offering. We are going to focus on the two male goats, and how beautiful of a picture this is.

We see that the scapegoat comes into play after Aaron has made a purification sacrifice for himself and his family and then sacrificed one of the male goats to make a purification sacrifice for the people. After these two sacrifices, they would take the scapegoat and Aaron would lay his hands on the head of the goat and confess over it all the iniquities.

That word iniquities is the Hebrew word Avon, which is related to the Hebrew word Avah which means to be bent or crooked, the New Living Translation takes out the word iniquity and says that the high priest will confess over it all the wickedness, rebellion, and sins of the people of Israel.

Our iniquities actually can keep us out of the presence of God.

This is a poem about a coming savior. God said that he was despised and rejected, he he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains. We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

Leviticus 16 showed us that the high priest was to lay both hands on the head of the goat and confess the iniquity of us all. Isaiah takes this a step further and shows us that a person was going to step on the scene, and be the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, and to be the ultimate scapegoat for our sins.

If you think about it, I mean really think about it, what did the scapegoat do to deserve the job of carrying the iniquity of a few million people? We aren’t designed to carry our own burdens, I mean think about the weight of our mistakes and how it can destroy us physically, mentally, and lead to a spiritual death.

This was placed on a goat to be taken out to the wilderness, not take that image and turn it to Jesus. This was a man who knew no sin, and by the grace and mercy of God, carried it for us and from us.

Here is what it means that Jesus is the scapegoat that was represented in the Old Testament. The goat in the old testament was taken to the wilderness, to carry away the sins of Israel. The bible says this in

I want us to focus on Verse 12: as far as the east is from the west so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Some of us are living in this north to south cycle. Where we are good for maybe a couple of days, maybe for a couple of weeks. We come to the altar over and over again, only to find ourselves still dealing with the same sin and the same wrongs over and over again. Then in a couple weeks we come to the altar and we are on a good walk with Christ only to find ourselves in the same pattern again. Some of us live with the Old Testament mentality.

Is it bad to come to the altar? Absolutely not, but some of us use the altar as a band aid for our sin. We misuse the grace of God, thinking if I fall into that same sin again, it is okay, God will pick me up again. 1 John 1:5-6 “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him. If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.” Some of us are still living with an Old Testament mentality where we have to offer the same sacrifices over and over again.

But Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice who took the place of the scapegoat and bore our sins once and for all.

Let me show you something powerful about going from east to west. Going east and west is not the same as going north and south. When you go south you eventually end up going back north at some point. However, when you go east, you are always going east. When you go west you are always going west. God said that he would take your sins as far as the east is from the west, meaning when you confess your sins to God. Because you do have to acknowledge your sins to God Psalm 32:5 says

You have to acknowledge your sins to God and not conceal them, and the bible says that the guilt of my sin is forgiven. When you acknowledge your sins he takes them as far as the east is from the west. Then we receive the Holy Spirit who is our strength to turn from sin, to flee the devil, and draw near to God. So instead of finding ourselves in a sin cycle, we can trust that once-and-for-all our sins have been carried away, meaning we have the ability to repent, meaning to physically turn from sin and run to God.