“And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins, and he shall put them on the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a man that is in readiness into the wilderness, and the goat shall bear on him all their iniquities to a solitary land, and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.”
Having presented the live he-goat before Yahweh, Aaron is now to lay both hands on its head and confess over it ‘all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins'. The description is all encompassing. Included within it were their inner sins and their outward behaviour, sins in both thought and deed, and failure to do what God required, including rebellions of the heart (pesa'). But not sins done with a high hand. These last, if to be forgiven, required special mercy from God individually given as in the case of David with Bathsheba. But usually they received the death penalty.
The laying on of one hand would have demonstrated representation, the laying on of two either demonstrated transference, or that he was indicating that it represented both priest and people (or both may have been intended).
The sins and transgressions of Israel are seen as ‘put on' the head of the live he-goat. It is to be seen as carrying all their sins with it. Then the live goat is sent away into the wilderness by the hand of a man already selected and waiting in readiness, ‘bearing on it all their iniquities to a solitary land', and there he is to let it go. Clearly the intention was that this would be far enough away from the camp to ensure that it never returned. It is to be a place where no men dwell. The wilderness was to them a place where God rules without interference (Genesis 16:7; Exodus 5:1 and often). There was Sinai, the mountain of God (Exodus 3:1 with Exodus 12; Exodus 19:2-3; Exodus 19:20 and often). The goat was being left for God to do with as He willed.
The idea is clear. All the sins of Israel have been borne away and are carried by another. With both the living bird (Leviticus 14:7) and the he-goat there seems to be the emphasis that they remained alive. They could not be offered to Yahweh, and any way of killing them would have been seen in that way. They were thus banished from Israel for ever, and left with God. (This incidentally make clear that offerings and sacrifices were not themselves usually seen as being infused with men's sins. They were rather offered in death on behalf of men's sins, a different concept).
There is in this a vivid reminder here that earthly ritual could not finally deal with sin. There was no way that sin could be destroyed. It would be left to wander in a desolate place. Its destruction would await the coming of One Who would put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself (Hebrews 9:26), and Who would destroy him that had the power of death, the Devil (Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 3:8).
We have in this vivid picture of the live he-goat the reminder that our Lord Jesus Christ too was ‘made sin for us' (2 Corinthians 5:21). He took on Himself our sin, that we might be imbued with His righteousness. He was not only an offering and sacrifice for our sins, bearing their deserved punishment, but actually took them on Himself and bore them away with Him. He bore them to that must desolate of places, His grave. But such was His holiness and the sufficiency of His once-for-all sacrifice that those sins were neutralised, nay were destroyed, so that He did not need to remain in a solitary place, but was raised from the dead and glorified as the firstfruits of His own work.