Leviticus 16:8: “And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.”

“We were made to suffer, it’s our lot in life.”  3CPO Star Wars

In another ten days the Jewish people will be celebrating Yom Kippur.  This is the Day of Atonement.  One ritual that was performed among the ancient Hebrews is described in Leviticus 16 where two goats were taken before the High Priest, both had to be identical. Many assume the High Priest chose one goat to sacrifice and the other to let go and flee away.  One would live and one would die.

Actually we learn in Leviticus 16:8 that the High Priest, in this case Aaron, cast lots to determine which would live and which would die. I like the way the Scripture phrases this, gurl echod laYHWH or one lot was for the Lord.  The other lot was for the scapegoat.  This word for lot is gurl which means to apportion or allocate. 

During the settlement of Israel in the Promised Land, land was apportioned to eleven tribes.  The tribe owned the land not the individuals. Every family had their own portion of land to farm, but they did not personally own that land.  Some land was good land with good soil.  Some land was rocky land or difficult land to cultivate and irrigate.   To determine who got the good land and who got the lousy land they drew gurls or lots.  Once a year just before the time when the land had to be prepared for planting all the family heads gathered together and the patriarch of the family or tribe would put the names of each family on a stone and place it in a basket.  Then they would blind fold a child under twelve years of age to draw out each stone.  Before each stone was drawn the division of land that was to be apportioned was announced.  When the stone was drawn the family whose name on that stone would receive that portion of land to be cultivated for that year.  That was their lot for the year or their lot in life. This lottery was held every year so that some years some would get a good portion of land and some years they would receive a bad portion of land.

I read something very interesting this evening in the Talmud Yoma 62b.   A lot was used when one had passed beyond the realm of motive and reason.  Lots were cast when there was no reason or impetus to choose one option over the other, so that the matter must be left to forces that are beyond ones control and comprehension.  This is the reason the lots were used on Yom Kippur.  After all is said and done, no man is worthy in the eyes of God.  We all stand before Him without faults and iniquities and by all rational criteria, we should be found lacking  in His judgement.  So the Talmud teaches that we should throw our lot to God.

I find it very interesting that one lot was cast  LaYHWH for the Lord. One was cast for the goat. Both lots were not cast for the goats only one.  The Talmud goes on to explain that we should cast our lots for the Lord.  But somehow that just does not fit because the goat that got the lot was able to escape.   To me, however,  it is clear that Jesus is the one who received the lot to die and the scapegoat represents us who are made just as pure as Jesus through his death and resurrection and thus by the death of Jesus we are allowed to escape the punishment.  But then again, maybe the way the sages looked at  this lot for the Lord is also correct.

The other day I was recovering from pneumonia.  I earlier went to work too soon and relapsed so I prayed for some confirmation that I was not repeating a mistake in going back to work on this day. This particular day on my disability bus I had to take a 62 year old man to the hospital.  He has a very bad heart. He has had a number of heart attacks, wears a pacemaker and is on all the medication that is available.  The doctors told him there was nothing more they could do.  He had only two months to live.  I had to help him out of his house into the bus with his walker.  He could only take a couple steps before he had to stop and catch his breath.  On the bus to the hospital he told his life’s story.  He ran with the street gangs as a teenager.  He learned the martial arts and was a champion body builder.  He fell in with the mob and was a body guard for some of the biggest names in the “business.”  He was noted for being able to knock out a man with one punch. When not working as a body guard for the mob he would work as a bouncer in saloons.  He said the police knew who he was and usually turned a blind eye when he had to work over some scumbag.

He told me: “The things I did were terrible, horrible things. I am getting what I deserve and when I die I will get what I deserve.”  I turned to him and told him a story about  a man who lived 2,000 years ago who also did terrible things. In fact the Romans hung him on a cross next to another man who never did anything wrong. There was a third man who also did many bad things in his life who was hung on a cross next to this good man.  The third man cursed this good Man but the first man, the thief, the man who spent his life doing bad things told the third man to keep his peace that this Man in the middle did not deserve to die, He was a righteous Man, in fact He was indeed the Son of God.  Then he turned to this good Man, this Son of God and with a heart filled with grief over the bad things he did in life he simply asked Him if He would remember him when He entered Paradise.  This good Man, the Son of God, Jesus said, “This day you will be in Paradise.”  I told this dying man on my bus: “That thief had to do nothing but ask, be sorry and sad about his sins just as you are.  All he did was ask and God forgave him of every sin. This thief had no chance to do good deeds or live a better life. He did not even have a chance to be baptized, but he is in Paradise right now, just as you can be.  You are already sorry for all the bad things you did, why not tell Him, ask Him to forgive you and take you to Paradise?”  He said he would and he did.

There is an old song we used to sing when I was a child:

I believe in miracles,

I’ve seen the soul set free

Miraculous the change in one

Redeemed at Calvary.

I saw a soul set free that day, I saw a dying man smile and rejoice. I saw a man who threw his lot his gurl to Jesus. I may not see this man again, but you know what, I will see him, one day I will see him again.

Oh and I did not have a relapse of my pneumonia, I had my confirmation.