What’s With All The Goats?
One of the ideas that’s hard to shake when you’ve seen it is the repeated goat references in the Bible. Is there something going on? There is, and importantly it relates to an idea that has general importance in our faith.
Sheep and Goats in Matthew
I want to start with the famous image of sheep and goats from Matthew 25:
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Initially, this reference starts as a simile, in that the people will be divided as a shepherd divides the sheep and goats. But then it moves to a metaphor and Jesus is judging the two types, with the goats being a representation of those consigned to Hell. So it doesn’t sound good for the goats – how come?
I’d like to pick out a few instances of goat references and then draw an idea together at the end.
Jacob and Esau
In this story, Esau is described as being hairy, related to a goat because of this passage (Genesis 27) when Jacob and Rebekah trick Isaac into giving Jacob the birthright.
11 Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man while I have smooth skin. 12 What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.”
13 His mother said to him, “My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me.”
14 So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just the way his father liked it. 15 Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob. 16 She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins. 17 Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.
Then we have this passage from Genesis 25.
9 Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. 30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom) 31 Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” 32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33 Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
It explains the line from Malachi 1:3 - “Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated”. Why would God hate Esau? Because he sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. Or perhaps better – he valued his birthright as so little that he was prepared to trade it for a bowl of soup. The picture of Esau is as a “goat-like man”.
Hold that thought…we’ll return shortly.
The Scapegoat
There’s this passage from Numbers where it refers to something called a scapegoat.
6 “Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. 7 Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 8 He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat.[b] 9 Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. 10 But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat.
Seems like just another part of the instructions given by God around the sacrifices, right? Curiously, what is translated scapegoat in the original Hebrew is “Azazel”, which is a name. Who is Azazel?
He doesn’t appear elsewhere in the Bible by name but does appear in the Book of Enoch, which describes this event from Genesis 6.
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with[a] humans forever, for they are mortal[b]; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
In the book of Enoch, the entire crime of the Sons of God mating with the daughters of men is ascribed to Azazel, one of the Sons who is judged and bound. The Sons of God descend onto Mount Hermon having decided to take the daughters of men for their own.
More curiously Azazel has links to the demigod Pan – if you want to learn a great deal more about this, read Anne Hamilton’s book “dealing with Azazel”. Pan is half goat (ie a satyr). I wouldn’t mention this link for any reason other than the following event occurred at Caesarea Philippi (from Matthew 16).
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
The place where Jesus took his disciples and gave Peter his name was known as the Gates of Hades – to which Jesus refers in the text - and was a temple of worship to Pan. It is close to Mount Hermon, curiously. So Jesus is making clear that His ministry through the church will not be overcome by the goat people.
The Goat in Daniel
This passage occurs in Daniel 8.
In the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, I, Daniel, had a vision, after the one that had already appeared to me. 2 In my vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa in the province of Elam; in the vision I was beside the Ulai Canal. 3 I looked up, and there before me was a ram with two horns, standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later. 4 I watched the ram as it charged toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against it, and none could rescue from its power. It did as it pleased and became great.
5 As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between its eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground. 6 It came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at it in great rage. 7 I saw it attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering its two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against it; the goat knocked it to the ground and trampled on it, and none could rescue the ram from its power. 8 The goat became very great, but at the height of its power the large horn was broken off, and in its place four prominent horns grew up toward the four winds of heaven.
9 Out of one of them came another horn, which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the Beautiful Land. 10 It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them. 11 It set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the Lord; it took away the daily sacrifice from the Lord, and his sanctuary was thrown down. 12 Because of rebellion, the Lord’s people[a] and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.
This passage speaks for itself. The goat is generally believed initially to be Alexander the Great, and then the final “horn” relates to Antiochus iV Epiphanes. There are nonetheless obvious allusions going on between these people and the picture of Satan, especially from Revelation 12 (“threw some of the starry host down to earth”). This link between Satan and human kings also occurs in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. But here in the Daniel, the goat-link is prominent and pits the goat against the sheep of the Lord.
So what is going on?
These and other goat references occur through the Bible. I’ve chosen these primarily because they illustrate well the theme that is implied.
To understand the theme, it’s worth knowing some things about goats that are believed to be true from the Biblical times.
Unlike today, goats looked a lot like sheep then, so they were tough to tell apart. But that’s where the similarity ends. Sheep follow their Shepherd. Goats don’t – they will go their own way and walk ahead. Goats will cause destruction to everything around them, to the detriment of the sheep and themselves. They are an inherent picture of rebellion. Not necessarily in relation to an organised revolt, but in the sense of being unwilling to recognise having a master (in this case a shepherd). They don’t respond to their master’s voice – they simply do their own thing, and cause destruction in the process.
Note this passage from Ezekiel 34 that hints at this problem…
17 “‘As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? 19 Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?
This is the theme that runs through the Bible – goats are essentially a euphemism for rebellion – especially where it relates to individuals or people who are unwilling to recognise a higher authority than themselves.
Esau, the goat man, was so determined to do his own thing that he was willing to let his birthright go for a bowl of soup. Azazel, one of the fallen in Genesis 6, was part of a group of 200 sons of God (according to the Book of Enoch) that decided they wanted what they wanted enough that they would ignore God’s commands and do it anyway – and the result was the destruction of almost all of humanity. The picture in Daniel 8 is one of rebellion and a desire for destruction of God’s people. The image is simple and clear.
When we get to Matthew 25, we see Jesus dividing the throng into sheep and goats. The clear message here is he is dividing them between those that went their own way (the goats) and those that followed Him and his commands. Again this is pretty simple…(!)
But it does pose a very simple question, that everyone in the faith needs to answer. Are you prepared to relinquish your will and follow your Master’s – or your shepherd’s – voice, or are you going your own way?
The Bible clearly isn’t hiding this point. But I wonder whether the church is, to some degree. We spend so much time on the question of salvation that sometimes we miss the point that we are saved for a purpose – life with Him as Lord. You aren’t saved to be a goat.
There is a reason so much goat imagery is used in Satanism and Luciferianism. The demon Baphomet is pictured as a goat…! Various Satanic-imaged events have the goat head as representing Satan. Based on the above, you can see why – the goat is a picture of refusal to follow the Master, and in doing so creating destruction. Describes Satan/Lucifer perfectly.
Summary
The goat imagery occurs regularly throughout the Bible, and importantly occurs in Matthew 25 when Jesus describes judgement.
The key to understanding it is that the goat represents rebellion – through an unwillingness to follow the Master’s voice, rather preferring to do its own thing and causing destruction in the process.
The picture poses a critical question for us as followers of Christ. Are we prepared to follow His voice as shepherd, or do we behave like we intend to do our own thing? Again – we aren’t saved to be goats.