The story of God’s great rescue of mankind from destruction begins in the Old Testament. There the preeminence of Jesus Christ is foreshadowed throughout His Story. Hidden among many other nuggets pointing to Christ are the annual Jewish Appointed Times that take place in the Spring and the Fall Seasons. Considered by practicing Jews as the most holy of all, the Day of Atonement is one of them. It’s also called Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur 2022 begins Tuesday evening October 4.
The book of Leviticus specifies that on this special day the Israelis are to gather at the temple in Jerusalem, rest from all of their work, afflicted themselves, and cleanse their souls from sin. Back when there was a temple in Jerusalem, the priests would offer animal sacrifices on Yom Kippur as specified, including two male goats. The goats were sin offerings of one sort or another. (See Leviticus 16: 7-22).
Here’s what happened back then with the goats: A priest would offer up one goat as a sin offering at the temple in the usual way and use its blood to cleanse certain places as well as all the people from their uncleanness.
Later Aaron would put his hands on the second goat’s head and confess the people’s sins, imputing their sins into that goat. Then the goat would be dropped off in some remote wilderness area. It would not be able to find its way back to their camp and probably would not survive. This practice of shunning and casting away one goat that is bearing the sin of the group is where the term “scapegoat” came from.
Fire Starter for Jesus 