Scapegoat

 

Prior to reading, please read my disclaimer.

The word scapegoat was first coined by English Protestant scholar William Tyndale in his 1530 English translation of the Bible.  Tyndale, who was deciphering Hebrew descriptions of Yom Kippur rituals from the Book of Leviticus (see below)  recounted a ceremony in which one of two goats was selected by lot.

Tyndale coined the word scapegoat to describe the sin-bearing creature, interpreting the Hebrew word azazel as ez ozel, or "the goat that departs or escapes."

In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of two kid goats. As a pair, one goat was sacrificed (not a scapegoat) and the living “scapegoat” was released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities of the community. The concept first appears in Leviticus, in which a goat is designated to be cast into the desert to carry away the sins of all the people.

"Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness."
— Leviticus 16:21–22

Over the centuries, the word scapegoat became disassociated with its Biblical meaning, and it eventually became used as a metaphor to describe a person who shoulders the blame of any wrongdoing. 

Now that you know the word's background,  can you think of any situation where you or someone you know was the scapegoat?  What was the REAL situation? Were you or that person ever asked to give your side of circumstances? Were there any consequences for the person who made YOU the scapegoat? Perhaps if there were, people  might resolve to think twice before allowing one person  to take the fall for everyone else's mistakes....

Now WHAT IF that scapegoat found success anyway?  The ruining didn't last?  The lies faded? The prayers were heard and answered? After the pain, the tears, and the hurt had subsided.... the beginning of the new journey was MORE than the scapegoat asked for?

If there's one thing I've learned it's this:

If people can't find something you've done wrong, THEY WILL MAKE IT UP.

But to me, what's worse than those who make up lies... are those who BELIEVE those lies.

"I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them."
-  Romans 16:17

But those people... the TOXIC people and those who believe them... none of them are people you want to be around anyway.

Instead surround yourself with those people who pray for you, believe in you,  who lift you up, and listen to you....

And adjust yourself to the absence of those who never really respected or appreciated you to begin with...