GOATS' HAIR COVERING
 


The second layer of the roof of the tabernacle was made of goats' hair.  "Make curtains of goat hair for the tent over the tabernacle---woven altogether" (Exodus 26:7).

These goats' hair curtains were placed over the linen curtains and extended down the sides and back of the tabernacle entirely to the ground.  A goat in the Bible is a picture of Jesus as our sin-bearer.  On the day of atonement, the priest was to take two goats.  One was slain at the altar and his blood poured out at the base of the altar symbolic of the sacrifice of Jesus in His death.

He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times to cleanse it and to consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites.  When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat.  He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites--all their sins--and put them on the goat's head.  He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task.  The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert.  (Leviticus 16:19-22)

This is a picture of Jesus in our place as the sin bearer.  Our sins were laid upon Him.  There was a transference of our guilt to Him, and He paid the price of death by shedding His blood.  He took our sins in order that we might become the recipients of His righteousness.  This is taught by the death of the first goat which was to be slain on the day of atonement at the door of the tabernacle.  And then the live goat, after having the sins of the people transferred upon him by confession and the laying on of hands of the priest, is sent into the desert never to return.  It tells us how Jesus as our sin-bearer carried our sins and removed them as far as the east is from the west.  The goats' hair curtain upon the tabernacle speaks in great detail of Jesus our sin-bearer, our Substitute.
 

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