Sanctuary Area

Leviticus 16:2-3,5 – The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died, and the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering…And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.

Leviticus 4:2-3,5-6,11-12 – “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If anyone sins unintentionally in any of the Lord's commandments about things not to be done, and does any one of them, if it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then he shall offer for the sin that he has committed a bull from the herd without blemish to the Lord for a sin offering…And the anointed priest shall take some of the blood of the bull and bring it into the tent of meeting, and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle part of the blood seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary…But the skin of the bull and all its flesh, with its head, its legs, its entrails, and its dung—all the rest of the bull—he shall carry outside the camp to a clean place, to the ash heap, and shall burn it up on a fire of wood. On the ash heap it shall be burned up.

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.
• ·         The final perfect sacrifice for the sins of God’s people was the crucified Christ, who was without any moral defect.
• ·         Jesus suffered outside the city gate, just as certain parts of the sin offering were  burned outside the camp.
• ·         The distinction between clean and unclean was a matter of ritual or religious purity, not a concern for physical cleanliness.
• ·         No single offering could fully typify the atonement of Christ.
• ·         In the Septuagint the word for atonement cover is the same one used of Christ and translated sacrifice of atonement.

All Scripture verses taken from ESV