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Song of the Scapegoat

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Matthew 27:46: “… My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Had God, the Father, truly forsaken Jesus as He suffered the agonies of death upon the cross?  As so many in great suffering ask the question, Jesus also asked:  “Why?”  Was He accusing God by asking this question? Or, did He cry out of self-pity?

No.  He was quoting Psalm 22, the prophetic Song of the Scapegoat. Perhaps He even sang this whole Psalm to tell the people He was dying, as the Scapegoat, for their sins.

This cry of Jesus cost Him great agony. He would have to pull Himself up against the nails in His hands and wrists in order to draw enough air into His lungs to make an utterance. This verse tells us that “Jesus cried with a loud voice.” In spite of all the pain and labor that it took, He uttered this message.

The origin of the Scapegoat ceremony is recorded in Leviticus 16:5-26. It describes how this sacrifice was to be made for the sins of the people under the Mosaic Covenant. The High Priest was to carry out these sacrifices:

(7) And he [the High Priest] shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. (8) And Aaron [the High Priest] shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other 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 into the wilderness. (Leviticus 16: 5-10)

((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.

The animals for these sacrifices were to be perfect, without blemish. They could not be blind, lame, deformed, lack parts or be scarred in any way. From the traditions we learn that, typically, the Levites were responsible for raising these animals to protect them from any possible blemish. Remember that the shepherd was to his sheep as God is to His people, Psalm 23:1: “The Lord is my Shepherd.”

We learn that the birth of this Scapegoat of Psalm 22 was attended by its Good Shepherd: “(9) But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts. (10) I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly.”

The shepherd had assisted in the birth of this goat and may have bottle fed it. These little goats for the sacrifices were probably taken into the households as the family pets, the “darling.” It probably frolicked with the children as their playmate and companion and was dearly loved.

The presentation of these animals would have been a very emotional and truly sacrificial act of worship. Perhaps as the Levite carried the goats to the atonement ceremonies his children would ask: “Why are we taking the goats this time, Father?” And he would perhaps answer them: “The Lord has prepared Himself a sacrifice for our sins.”

This Scapegoat was born of the flock that this Shepherd had cared for: “(4) Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. (5) They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.” This Scapegoat had every reason to trust in this Shepherd, which his forefathers had trusted for generations.

According to the commandment, when the High Priest laid his hands upon the scapegoat and placed the sins of the nation upon his head, the scapegoat then symbolically became sin. At this, the congregation would begin to curse him, spit upon him, revile him and make faces at him. In Psalm 22:6-8 we see this happening: “6) But I am a worm, and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people. (7) All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, (8) He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.”

Then the shepherd Levite would carry the scapegoat out through the midst of the congregation, out into the wilderness, to a cliff, a precipice, over which he would then hurl the little goat. Here we can take up the experience from the viewpoint of the Scapegoat in Psalm 22. He has been hurled over the cliff by his Good Shepherd and he begins to cry:

(1) My God [Shepherd], my God [Shepherd], why hast Thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? (2) O my God [Shepherd], I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. (3) But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”

Then he reminds the Shepherd of his faithfulness in times past, of the unfair persecution of the congregation, of the fact of the Shepherd’s care for him from his birth:

(Verse 11) Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

Then it seems that the little scapegoat may have started running, trying to find his way back home, and encounters a herd of wild bulls:

(12) Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. (13) They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. (14) I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. (15) My strength is dried up like a potsherd: and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

Then, it seems that the herd of bulls passes and the Scapegoat is left wounded and helpless and the packs of wild dogs that follow the herd attack him, tearing his flesh off of his bones:

(16) For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. (17) I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. (18) They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.”

Again he cries out to his good shepherd:

(20) Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. (21) Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.”

Meanwhile, at home, the Good Shepherd has been watching the fields and wilderness area in the slim hope that the Scapegoat would find his way back home. And here, in the middle of verse 21 the Scapegoat finds that the Good Shepherd has heard him, even “from the horns of the unicorns.” Suddenly the lament of this Scapegoat turns to triumphant praise:

(22) I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. (23) Ye that fear the Lord; praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. (24) For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard. (25) My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. (26) The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him: your heart shall live for ever. (27) All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship thee: (28) For the kingdom is the Lord’s: and he is the governor among the nations. (29) All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. (30) A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. (31) They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.

The Song of the Scapegoat continues in Psalm 23 as he exults and rejoices in his restoration to the Good Shepherd:

(1) The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. (2) He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. (3) He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. (4) Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. (5) Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. (6) Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

In His agony on the cross Jesus sang this Song of the Scapegoat to tell the world that He was fulfilling the prophecy given so many years earlier of the Scapegoat that would carry away the sins of the nation. He knew He was about to enter into the Great Shepherd’s fold and abide in the house of the Lord forever.

“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

“Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world!”

The [Appointed] Time Is At Hand – Part 3

Revelation Commentary, Uncategorized

Destruction of the Temple

       Psalm 74 is about the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians. It isbetter understood when we realize that the destruction of the Temple was the destruction of their means of telling time precisely and especially for determining the time of the sacred feasts. 74:4: “Thy foes have roared in the midst of thy holy place, (môw‘adkâh); they set up their own signs for signs,” (RSV). That is, they had set up their army banners, probably obstructing the significant rays of light and destroying the time-telling function which required visibility of the signs of the heavens as observed from the Temple.
        The Temple was the bond between heaven and earth, on earth, as the reference point for time and space. When it was destroyed and the priests and prophets who knew how to read the time-telling signs had been taken captive or had betrayed their people, it was a cosmic event. The destruction of the Temple created a disorientation so complete that it was as if the sun and moon had been darkened and the stars had fallen from their place. (See page 229, my Commentary on Revelation 6:13 “Shaking of the Heavens.”)

Time Renewal

The penultimate Lament of Jeremiah after the Babylonian destruction of the Temple is the plea: “Restore us to thyself, O Lord, that we may be restored!  Renew our days as of old!” (Lam. 5:21 RSV). The New Year celebration included the counting of the times, the renewal of the covenant vow and the return through repentance to God. Thus the New Year was thought of as a renewal or restoration of life, of time that had run out. In a symbolic sense it was the Day of the Lord, a time of reckoning and accountability.

The Hebrew verb of being is the verb of existence in time. Being and living are essentially the same. Renewal of time was therefore a renewal of life. God’s revealed Name, Yahweh, I AM, is the verb of being, of life, of time.

       Second Esdras 3:18, reflects the traditional view that spiritual events cause a cataclysmic change in the times:
“Thou didst bend down the heavens and shake the earth, and move the world, and make the depths to tremble, and trouble the times, [at Mount Sinai].”
    In 1I Esdras 4:36, Ezra has asked the question as to how long the evil seed is to prevail:
And Jeremiel the archangel answered them and said, “When the number of those like yourselves is completed; for he has weighed the age in the balance, and measured the times by measure, and numbered the times by number; and he will not move or arouse them until that measure is fulfilled.”

God dwells in Light:

Thou art clothed with honor and majesty, who coverest thyself with light as with a garment, who hast stretched out the heavens like a tent, (Psalm 104: lb-2).
But when “…they burned all the meeting places (môw‘adey) of God in the land. We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long,” (Psalm 74: 8b-9).
 God had set an appointed time for the final judgment of the nation, Israel, in Daniel 9:24-27. It was a time or probation, wherein the nation had to make its choice. For those who refused God’s Covenant, it was the end. For those who accepted Jesus Christ and the New Covenant it was the beginning.
    (See also in my Commentary, Revelation In Context, pages 21-23: Introductory Articles: “Calculating the Seventy Weeks” and page 136 Commentary 1:8 “Alpha and Omega” and page 57, “Revelation: Definition – Hebrew.”)

The [Appointed] Time Is At Hand – Part 2

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The Appointed Place

In order to set a definite appointed time there must be a designated place on earth over which the heavenly time markers pass, (“come to pass”), as the movement of the heavenly time markers is constant.  In other words a time must be designated with reference to some place.
       For example, the earth is now divided by the meridian of Greenwich, known as the prime meridian. This arbitrary line is used conventionally to mark the passing of one day into another for purposes of telling time.
        In ancient Israel the Temple, and perhaps more precisely, the Holy of Holies, served to mark the prime meridian for time reckoning. The meridian was marked in reference to the pole star, the equatorial line being established from the equinoctial rising of the sun, the zenith being perpendicular to the Temple. In this relationship we see how the lights of the heavens are the prime, established points of which earthly establishments are only the secondary images or witnesses. The mapping of the heavens corresponds to the mapping of the earth extended into space.

The Temple As A Time-Piece

       The magnificence of the Temple, therefore, was not in its material construction but in its relationship to Light and its ability to internalize Light. Materially it was quite an ordinary structure compared to the buildings of the Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, and Egyptians. Its glory lay in quite another realm. It was “beautiful for situation;” that is, it was oriented to the Lights of the Heavens. God had placed His Name there.
       Solomon’s Temple was dedicated on the day of the spring equinox, (as was the Tabernacle of Moses), and was so oriented that the first rays of the rising sun on that day shone from the Mount of Olives through the Eastern Gate, then through the doors of the Temple all the way through into the Holy of Holies, striking the mercy seat. The gold plated cherubim and the gold lined inner walls would have made a display of reflected light that was indescribably beautiful.

Portals For The Entrance of Light

       There were other orifices, windows or portals through which light entered, as an instrument of time-reckoning. No doubt the zenith would have been marked by a path for light to enter from directly above as has been found in other temples. This ray may have entered in such a way as to strike the brazen sea so that the light reflected through the water would have created a rainbow of color, the water acting as a prism.
       The important components of time reckoning, the equinoxes, solstices and the points of the moon’s movements were probably marked by portals so arranged that the entrance of the significant ray of light would create its own unique display. The gold plated interior and instruments would have acted somewhat as mirrors, but with a softer, diffusing golden glow.

The Glory of God

      This beauty was symbolic of the glory of God that fills ones being when his life is properly oriented to the Light of God. The ultimate reflection of God, as Light, was in Man himself, “Ye are the temple of the living God.” The glory is not in the material outward Man, but in his internalization of the Light, Jesus Christ. Ultimately, our bodies are the Temple, but the greater glory comes from the Light we reflect, the image of God. Just as the physical structure of the Temple was a time-piece, Man’s intellect was the reason for that time-piece; without the intellect, the time-piece would have neither meaning nor value, indeed would not exist.
       The visible glory of the various displays of Light within the Temple was indescribable; yet, as a human experience, it served as an analog by which the spiritual visions of God could be related in words, insufficient though they might be. (See “Visions of God,” page 165 in my Commentary on Revelation 1:11-20.)

The [Appointed] Time Is At Hand – Part 1

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Revelation 1:3: “The [appointed] time is at hand.”

The message is specifically addressed to “His servants” and speaks of an imminent earthly event, albeit with cosmic significance. “The time,” as mentioned in Revelation 1:3, is an appointed time, a time previously set and agreed upon by a signal, (testimony or witness), not an indefinite time. An appointed time was not arbitrarily determined, nor could it be changed by man’s decree. Time was determined by the heavens.

       That appointed time had been long foreseen and was well-known at the writing of the Book of Revelation. It was not for a remote, distant, indistinct future, but was “soon,” “at hand,” “no longer delayed.”  Revelation 1:3 announces the arrival of a time previously set and foretold, an appointed time, that was set with reference to the heavens and to the then existent, earthly Temple as a time-piece.

Daniel’s Appointed Times

The time spoken of by Daniel was an “appointed time” (Dan. 8:19; 11:27, 29, 35, etc.) This “appointed time” was set to mark the end of the nation, city, and people of Israel, a specific date was set for this event to happen. Here, too, it is the Hebrew word mow’ed, meaning “an appointed time, place, meeting or congregation.”

Revelation 1:3 announces that the “appointed time” spoken of by Daniel had come.

Words for ‘Time’

       The word time in Revelation 1:3 is a translation of the Greek kairos, meaning “a set or proper time.”  A form of this Greek word is also used in Revelation 11:18; 12:12, 14 (twice); and 22:10. It is to be distinguished from chronos, (used in Revelation 10:6), meaning “a space of time,” and from aeon, meaning “an age or interval of time.” The word horae, used in 14:15, means “an hour, or a season.”

       The corresponding Hebrew word môw‘êd is used not only for an “appointed time”, (as above), but also for an “appointed place,” as in Psalm 74:4, “thy holy place,” also translated by the Greek kairos. (See below “The Temple As A Time-piece.”)

God Created Time

In fact, Genesis 1:14 teaches that the lights of heaven were created for time-telling signs:
To separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,” (RSV).
     The Psalmist refers to this:
Thou hast made the moon to mark the seasons [môw‘edim, plural of môw‘ed, Greek kairos]; the sun knows its time for setting. Thou makest darkness, and it is night, (Psalm 104:19 RSV).

Indeed God dwells in Light:

Thou art clothed with honor and majesty, who coverest thyself with light as with a garment, who hast stretched out the heavens like a tent, (Psalm 104: lb-2).
       The Psalmist reviews God’s work in creation and so is inspired to hope, for times are in God’s hand:
Thine is the day, thine also the night; thou hast established the luminaries [mâ‘ôr] and the sun. Thou hast fixed all the bounds [gebûlôth, perhaps meaning the orbits of the earth]; thou hast made summer and winter, (Psalm 74:16-17 RSV).

Lesson 16 of Series – Did These Things Shortly Come To Pass (About Some False Teachings)

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Revelation 1:1 says that the Book is to be about “things which must shortly come to pass.” Did these things come to pass?

Jesus’ Own Claim to Fulfilling Scripture

Luke 24:27: “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scripture the things concerning himself.”

Luke 24:44-45: “And he said unto them, ‘These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.”

If we don’t see Jesus’ fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures, we are not reading them correctly.

Did Christ Fulfill Old Testament Prophecies? – Some Examples

Joel 2:28-32, Matthew 24:29-34; Revelation 1:7; 6:12 all deal with the subject of the blackening of the sun and the moon becoming blood. Have these been fulfilled?

Jesus Himself taught concerning the time of the destruction of Jerusalem: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, (30) And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory.” Matthew 24:29-30.

And in the same discourse, Matthew 24:34: “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.” Jesus said these things would be fulfilled in that generation, that is, within the next 40 years or so.

Was The Sun Blackened and The Moon Blood?

Popular prophecy now teaches that these prophecies of the sun blackened and the moon becoming blood as well as Jesus’ coming in the clouds as also stated in Revelation 1:7 has never yet been fulfilled: “Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.” Yet this passage has a referent in Joel 2:31: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.”

Revelation 6:12 makes a similar statement:  “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.” Modern popular prophecy teaches that this will happen at some future time of the “Great Tribulation,” (see below).

Joel 2:28-32 Fulfilled

The passages in Joel 2:28-32a, (which is to occur after the events of the preceding verses), are quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost, in Acts 2:16-21, as having been fulfilled. The blessings are to “the remnant whom the Lord shall call,” i.e., the Church. (Joel 2:32. See also Romans 10:13). Since Acts 2:16-21 quotes and interprets Joel 2:28-32 as having been fulfilled, there should be no further question. It was fulfilled.

Zechariah 12:10: “…And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced” is also declared to have been fulfilled in the crucifixion of Christ, John 19:37.

The Great Tribulation

Dispensationalists and pre-millennialists say that Zephaniah 1:17- 18 also has never yet been fulfilled but speaks of a yet future time of great tribulation. Yet we find in the histories of Josephus that just such slaughter occurred during the destruction of Jerusalem, (Wars 4.3.6-11).

The immediate reference of Zephaniah 1:17-18 is to the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar which followed soon after the original prophecy was given in about 610 BC as described by the Book of Lamentations, also 2 Kings 25:8-21; and 2 Chronicles 36:14-21.

As a general reference, it can be applied to the later destruction under Titus, as described by Josephus in his Wars of the Jews. There were many similarities between the conditions during the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar and that of Titus.

As an eschatological reference, it can be applied to the end of any nation or people who have had the knowledge of God and have refused it, (Psalm 9:17: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all nations that forget God.”)

The Word of God is Eternally Relevant

The Great Tribulation for the unbelievers, the wicked, which came to pass in the destruction of the Jewish nation, circa 70 AD, was an example to the whole world. All of these things were written for our learning, (Romans 15:4). They are still extremely relevant.

Some Notes On Translation

In the process of translation, there is often more than one synonym for a word. For example, the Hebrew word eretz may be translated either “earth” or “land.” Since the word that is translated ‘earth’ may also be translated as ‘land,’ the prophecy can therefore be accurately applied to the destruction of “all the land,” as when the land of Israel was destroyed, or “all the earth,” as in the eschatological future. Likewise the term “all the inhabitants of the land” can equally be translated “all the inhabitants of the earth.”

The End of the Age/(World) Came

The Gospel was fully preached before 70 AD. Matthew 24:14: “And the Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” This was fulfilled as stated in Colossians 1:6, 23: “[The Gospel] which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:… “[the Gospel] which was preached to every creature which is under the heaven:…”

The Hebrew word goy is most often translated as “Gentiles/Gentile nations”; however, the twelve tribes are sometimes called “nations” as in Genesis 35:11; Exodus 19:6; Acts 2:5. The Roman Empire is called “all the world” in Luke 2:1.

Matthew 24:14 was fulfilled. The “End” of the Jewish age (world) came in 70 AD. Many other such examples might be cited.

For a full exposition of these Scriptures, see my book, Revelation In Context, pages 229-232.

Next Lesson: More About False Teachings