The meal that heals ( PDFDrive )

Chapter 2
CARRYING WHAT YOU DO NOT NEED TO
CARRY
“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we
esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, yet
we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.”
Isaiah 53:3-4
If you were locked in prison for life and suddenly learned that a close friend
had offered to take your place, would you choose to stay behind bars? If you
were dying in an intensive care unit, and you learned that another person
willingly could carry your affliction so you could return to your family and live a
healthy life, would you allow the transfer of the disease? Under the Old
Covenant, God permitted a spiritual transfer of sin during a yearly service called
Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement.
Once every year, on the tenth day of the seventh month, the high priest stood
before God on Yom Kippur. According to Leviticus 23:27, God designed this
day as a time of national fasting and repentance. One activity during Yom
Kippur involved two identical goats that were brought before the high priest.
One goat, designated for the Lord, was slain and burned on the altar. The second
goat, named for Azazel, was also called the scapegoat. Both goats were to be
identical in age, size, and color. As both goats were presented to the high priest,
he would reach his hand into a wooden box and pull out one of two gold
engraved markers. One read “for the Lord,” and the other read “for Azazel” An
eighteen-inch red thread was then tied to the neck of the goat designated for the
Lord. This goat would be slain and offered as a burnt offering before the Lord,
while the second goat (the scapegoat) would play an important role in carrying
the sins of the nation.
According to Jewish tradition, as the scapegoat was brought before the high
priest, he would lay his hands upon the goat’s head and pray a special series of
prayers that symbolically transferred the sins of the Priest, the Levites, and the
Israelites on to the scapegoat. After the ceremony, a chosen man led the goat into
the wilderness where it was eventually abandoned. A red thread was tied to the