Christ in the Old Testament

Genesis 37:31

Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. (NIV)

Today’s Reading: Genesis 37:12-36, Leviticus 16:6-10, 20-22 and Hebrews 13:12

Continuing with Joseph’s story, Jacob sends Joseph to check on his brothers and their flocks. Joseph’s brothers decide to kill him but Reuben convinces them to spare him and Judah persuaded them to sell him into slavery instead. So by the end of our reading today, Joseph is a slave in Egypt to one of Pharaoh’s officials and Jacob thinks Joseph is dead.

Here are some parallels to Jesus that we see in these events of Joseph’s life:

• Joseph went from an exalted status to a slave (Phil 2:7)
• Joseph was sold for silver (Matt 26:15)
• Joseph was stripped of his clothing (Matt 27:28)
• Joseph’s coat was covered in goat’s blood just as Jesus is our scapegoat (Heb 13:12)

There are several other parallels that aren’t quite as good of a connection to me such as Joseph’s brothers were eating while planning Joseph’s demise similar to the Pharisee’s planning Jesus’s death over Passover. And also Joseph was rescued from the pit similar to Jesus resurrection. But we can see Joseph’s story has a lot of symbology to Jesus.

I would like to study the scapegoat concept today because we are certainly going to return to it quite a bit this year. I absolutely love the visual of the scapegoat because it gives us a picture of what God has done with our sin in Christ. I don’t see Joseph being a scapegoat for his brothers’ sins. But I do find the symbology hard to miss that his brothers dipped his coat in goat’s blood.

Most everyone knows what it is to be a scapegoat and nobody wants to be a scapegoat. The Oxford dictionary defines a scapegoat as “a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency.” A scapegoat takes the fall for everyone else. I wonder where that concept came from? Oh yeah the Bible!

When I think of scapegoats, the first name that comes to my mind is Steve Bartman. As a die-hard baseball fan, I watch all playoff games regardless if my team is in it or not. October 14, 2003 was Game 6 of the NLCS. If the Cubs win they go to the World Series for the first time since 1945 and possibly get their first World Series title since 1908. Ironically enough, Cubs fans blamed the “Curse of the Billy Goat” for their lack of World Series appearances since 1945.

Anyway, the Cubs were up 3-0 in the eighth inning with five outs left to win the pennant. A bunch of Cubs fans interfered with a foul ball that was just over the railing that could’ve been caught by the fielder. That set off a series of unfortunate events that led to the Cubs losing that game and eventually losing the series. The camera zoomed in on Steve Bartman, a Cubs fan in the mix for the foul ball and he immediately shouldered the blame for the loss of that game. He had to be escorted out of the ballpark that night and to this day is undoubtedly the biggest scapegoat in sports’ history.

But back to our story. Leviticus 16 explains the priest’s duties that were to be performed once every year for cleansing the Israelites of their sins. Hebrews 9:22 tells us that “the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” The penalty that must be paid for any sin is blood. And God made a way.

Before Jesus, the way of forgiveness was complicated and also temporary. The priest would select two goats and present them to the Lord.  One would be sacrificed and its blood would be used to cleanse anything that was sprinkled with it. The other goat would not be sacrificed.  Instead, the high priest would lay his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the people, and “put them on the goat’s head.”  The he would send it off into the wilderness as the scapegoat that would “take their sins away.” The goat will “carry on itself all their sins to a remote place.” (Leviticus 16:22)

Hebrews 13 reminds us that Jesus was crucified outside the city gate “to make the people holy through his own blood” like the scapegoat. Isaiah 53:6 tells us that “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” like the scapegoat.

Jesus is our scapegoat who takes our sin and carries it off to a remote place. Psalm 103:12 tells us “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” That’s the best part! We don’t have to make atonement for our sins every year and Jesus’s atonement isn’t temporary. It’s permeant and he removes our sins as far away as the east is from the west. It’s not a measurable distance!

Today’s Prayer: Thank you Jesus for being our scapegoat! I am to blame for all the wrongs that I have done to you and to other people. But you took the blame and I am thankful! Help me to forgive others like you have forgiven me.