Sacrifice for Sins
In Old Testament times, when someone sinned, a sacrifice would be offered to free that person from the effects of their sin. The blood from the sacrifice would be sprinkled as a sign that sin no longer had power over the person. Some of the sacrifice was taken as food for the priest. When the worshipper saw the priest eat the meat without being harmed it was believed that God had accepted this act of repentance.
The Scapegoat
Once a year, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the whole nation of Israel confessed their sin and asked for God’s forgiveness and cleansing. The high priest, dressed in white linen, first offered a sacrifice for his own sins and the sins of the priests, and then offered another sacrifice for the sins of the people. On this, the only day when the high priest went into the Holy of Holies, he would sprinkle blood from the sacrifice in the inner, most sacred part of the Temple. He would then take a goat, known as the scapegoat, and after laying his hands on its head, he would send it out into the wilderness as a sign that the people’s sins had been taken away.