I Peter 1:19-22 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake. Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.
I am an animal lover through and through, and we have had a lot of adorable critters over the years, but baby goats are probably some of the cutest critters at Hodge Critter Lodge. As a matter of fact, a baby fainting goat, that I named Syncope, was the first goat to steal my heart. We had raised beef cattle, and continue to do so, branched out to some fine feathered friends like chickens, ducks, guineas, and geese, and had started building a new barn when I found a beautiful baby fainting goat online, and I just had to have her. She was a bottle baby, and though I struggled to teach her how to take a bottle the first week, she completely stole my heart in the end. She grew into the sweetest goat and loved all of our attention.
We’ve tried raising a variety of goats on our little farm, but we always end up with a small herd of fainters. We keep them for a variety of reasons. I guess the first and foremost reason is because they are so much fun. Fainting goats do not literally faint. Their muscles freeze up and contract when they are startled and they fall over. It doesn’t hurt them. Its just part of the genetic makeup of the breed. We also raise them because they are very hardy. They are tough little boogers. A reason other people have raised this particular breed is for herd protection. They place a fainting goat in with a large herd of sheep. If a predator comes in to attack the sheep, the sheep run away and the fainting goat faints and falls over thus becoming the sacrifice for the herd. Our animals are kept in a nice big barn with a secure fence around them, so we don’t use our fainting goats for this purpose thankfully.
When I think of the idea of the fainting goat being sacrificed for the herd, I can’t help but think of our Lord and Savior who was the ultimate sacrifice for you and I. When I read the Old Testament. I am always amazed at the numbers of goats and sheep that were sacrificed as sin offerings to God. They had to choose perfect animals for sacrifice, lambs or goats without blemish or stain. Through these sacrifices, they were made right with God again. The sacrifices redeemed them.
In Genesis 22, Abraham and Isaac gave a preemptive view of God’s plan. God told Abraham to go up to the mountain and sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham followed God’s instructions. He didn’t question. He didn’t refuse. He gathered his son, and wood, and went up to the mountain as instructed. Isaac asked his dad about the lamb. Abraham told his son that God would provide the lamb, and He did. Abraham was given a ram to sacrifice instead of his son, Isaac. Abraham didn’t know how things were going to work out, but He trusted God completely.
God later sent the ultimate sacrifice, His Son, Jesus Christ. He came to earth, fully God and fully man, walked without sin. He was perfect in every way, unblemished and without the stain of sin. He died on that old rugged cross as a propitiation for our sins. Yes, he was the ultimate sacrificial lamb. He was the atonement for all of the sin in this world, past, present, & future. As prophesied and planned by God, Jesus arose three days later. The holy Lamb of God was the final sacrifice. We no longer need to gather our sheep and goats and build alters and offer them in sacrifice. Jesus has already made a way for our atonement. We only have to admit that He is our Lord and Savior and ask Him into our hearts, believe that He died for us, and confess with our mouths and commit to follow him.
I’m so thankful I didn’t have to sacrifice my sweet Syncope, but it pains me to think about the agony and suffering our Lord endured to redeem me. I am ever so grateful that He loves me that much. I know I’ll be spending eternity with the perfect Lamb of God. How about you?
Inspirations from the Funny Farm 