Make Atonement For Himself

Leviticus 16:2-3,11-13 – The Lord said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. “This is how Aaron is to enter the Most Holy Place: He must first bring a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering… “Aaron shall bring the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household, and he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. He is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain. He is to put the incense on the fire before the Lord, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the tablets of the covenant law, so that he will not die.

Exodus 25:17 – “Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.

Application:

• ·         Before Aaron could minister in the Most Holy Place for the nation, he himself had to be cleansed; no so Christ, who is our high priest and Aaron’s antitype.
• ·         That God’s symbolic throne was capped with an atonement cover signified His great mercy toward His people—only such a God can be revered.
• ·         Blood sprinkled on the lid of the ark made atonement for Israel on the Day of Atonement.

All Scripture verses taken from ESV