The Meeting of the Goat and Azazel
Let us now concentrate on this amazing and mysterious event. It is the sacrifice of the two goats done on Yom Kippur; one goat was sacrificed to the LORD at the entrance of the Tabernacle, while the other, was let go to meet Azazel.
This passage is found in Lev. 16: 7-10.
Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering, but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.
When reading the different translations, the reader will be confused as to the relationship between the goat that is being let go into the wilderness, and the Azazel to whom it is going.
The problem is that in the majority of translations, the word Azazel is rendered into English as scapegoat, but Azazel is no goat at all. What the Bible says is that the goat went to meet, or perhaps confront Azazel.
Who then could the goat represent?
From the first century and on, many rabbis identified Azazel as the chief of the demons, the devil himself. The name is believed to have been derived from the word zim, the name given to demons roaming the desert, as they are described in Isaiah 13-14. This word comes from the word zaha, which came to describe jealousy and anger.
And to this word is added the word el, for god, so we have Azazel, the god of anger and jealousy. A fitting description for the devil.
Who does the goat who went to confront Azazel represent? See what it says about this goat, and you will surely recognize who that might be:
Lev.16: 20-22
“Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.”
This goat is very important; it carries all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions. Should we not know more about it? About who or what it symbolizes?
But Leviticus 16 does not give us the rest of the story. We are told that the goat carried the sins of Israel and went to Azazel and that is all. The story cuts short.
Now if Azazel is the evil one, we ask who could the goat symbolize, the one who carried all the sins of Israel and was sent to Azazel? Only one Person could ever fulfil this task; that is the Messiah Himself, the Redeemer of Israel, who carried the sins of the whole world and confronted the evil one and triumphed over him. He is the one who now allows us personal access into the Holy of Holies.
And this reminds us of another event in the New Testament. See where the goat is going. There is an emphasis on the word wilderness, Hebrew midbar. Three times we are told in Leviticus 16 that the goat was sent in the wilderness to meet Azazel (vs.10,21,22).
This reminds us of when Yeshua was Himself sent in the wilderness to confront Satan just before He began His ministry. Mark opens his book with this information; we read in Mark 1:13, And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him..
The words wild beast is one word in Greek, therion, often describing evil spirits and used in Revelation to describe the devil as the wild beast that comes out of the abyss in Rev.11:7. This same word is also the name of the antichrist in Revelation 13:1 when John saw a beast coming up from the sea.
The wilderness is where Yeshua was sent to confront Satan, the Azazel. And so we have in Leviticus 16, God, Azazel the devil and the live Goat, who is our Mediator. Hallelu-yah!