We begin Chapter 16 and we are moving away from the health and hygiene regulations we've been studying and we are moving on into more spiritual matters as we study what takes place on the Day of Atonement. (Yom Kippur). When the Lord gave Moses the pattern for the construction of the tabernacle, and when the Lord told Moses what was to be placed inside the inner room of the tabernacle, the annual Day of Atonement was what He had in mind. Aaron, the first high priest of Israel, is going to be given the instructions for properly observing this most holy day.
"The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the Lord." (Leviticus 16:1) In Leviticus 10 we found two of Aaron's four sons making an offering of fire and incense to the Lord in an unlawful and profane manner. The Bible doesn't describe for us exactly how or why they did this, but if you'll recall there was some indication that they were intoxicated. In addition to perhaps being drunk in the house of the Lord, some scholars speculate that these two men made their unholy offering inside the holiest portion of the tabernacle: the room known as the Most Holy Place where the Ark of the Covenant resides. The scholars' reasoning for believing this is because we were told the men made their offering "before the Lord", which may mean they were inside the inner room where the glory of the Lord (a cloud that represented visible proof of His presence among the people) came down to rest upon the mercy seat (the atonement cover) of the Ark of the Covenant. Our text today lends credence to this theory because, after the death of Aaron's two sons, the Lord instructed Moses to tell Aaron that he could not come into the Most Holy Place any time he pleased but only on the one day of the year chosen by the Lord.
"The Lord said to Moses, 'Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he pleases 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." (Leviticus 16:2) Aaron is never to go presumptuously into the presence of the Lord as if he and the Lord are old pals. Here is an example that might help us to see why Aaron could not do such a thing: A person in those days could not go unbidden into the presence of a tribal leader or governor or any other local high official, much less go into the presence of a king without being invited. Or here's another example: In our own day you and I can't go to the governor's mansion or to the White House and plop ourselves down on the couch in the living room and start talking to the governor or the president like we're buddies. Aaron and all the people are to regard the Lord as holy, and if Aaron can just pop in and out of the Most Holy Place like he's dropping in on a friend, the citizens of Israel are going to begin to regard the Lord as one of them and not as the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Human beings need to regard the Lord as holy, as someone completely different from us, as someone far above us. If we don't think of Him this way then we'll fail to show Him the reverence that is due Him. As the prophet Isaiah said when he beheld a vision of the Lord seated on His throne, the Lord is "high and lifted up", and we must think of Him this way in order to give Him our worship and our obedience. If we start thinking of the Lord as one of us, and if we lapse into a casual attitude when interacting with Him, we are not going to esteem Him in the way we should esteem Him. He is so far above us, and He is so holy and so perfect and so righteous, that our human minds can't even begin to fathom His greatness. Keeping Aaron out of the Most Holy Place except on the one day of the year when he's invited will help to keep the Lord high and lifted up in the hearts and minds of all the people.
But the Lord is our friend, isn't He? Don't we sing a song that says, "What A Friend We Have In Jesus"? Yes the Lord Jesus is our friend, and through Christ we have access to God the Father in a way that even Aaron the high priest could only dream about. This doesn't mean you and I are free to develop a casual attitude toward God. It doesn't mean we are allowed to pull Him down to our level in our minds and think of Him as our buddy or our equal. What it means is that instead of visiting a tabernacle or a temple to enter one day a year into the Most Holy Place, we have a Most Holy Place in our hearts where the Holy Spirit resides after we have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior.
How and why to we have this special access to the presence of God? Because Christ our high priest entered into the Most Holy Place in heaven on our behalf, once and for all, with the blood of a sacrifice. But He didn't bring a sacrifice like the one Aaron brought into the tabernacle's Most Holy Place on behalf of the people. Instead of a yearly sacrifice composed of the blood of an animal to atone for man's sins, Christ took His own blood and sprinkled it on the mercy seat of heaven. This blood is enough to atone for all the sins of every person forever. After the Lord Jesus Christ made His perfect and eternal offering, the promise God the Holy Spirit made in Jeremiah 31:33 was fulfilled, "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." The Lord no longer resides in an inner room of a tabernacle or temple. He now resides in the inner rooms of our hearts and minds in the person of God the Holy Spirit.
The author of Hebrews (believed to be the Apostle Paul) speaks of the work Christ performed on our behalf as our high priest when He took His blood into the Most Holy Place of heaven for us. This is how Paul explains our new and improved means of access to God: "Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart with the full assurance that faith brings." (Hebrews 10:19-22a) When we speak with the Lord, we are coming into His presence. We can talk with Him in a synagogue or church but we can also talk with Him in our cars or in our homes or at work. We can talk to Him any time of the day or night, wherever we are. But instead of allowing God's open invitation to us to cause us to adopt a casual attitude, we are always to come into His presence with this in mind: our access to His throne room was obtained by the blood of Christ. The greatest sacrifice ever made was the price Christ paid to purchase us an audience with the King of kings and Lord of lords. If we keep this in mind every time we interact with God, we will show Him the reverence due Him. We won't be in danger of thinking of Him as our buddy or pal.
The Lord Jesus Christ is our friend---the best friend we will ever have. But He is also God! He is perfect and holy and righteous, so righteous that nothing less than His own blood could atone for our sins, so righteous that His blood is enough to atone for every sin ever committed and every sin that will ever be committed. When we come to God in prayer we are, in essence, entering the Most Holy Place. And we could never have come into the Most Holy Place unless Christ had opened the veil for us. This is what the Apostle Paul means when he says we enter the Most Holy Place with "confidence". The confidence is not an arrogant attitude that says, "I'm welcome in God's throne room at any time." It's not a casual attitude that says, "I'm going to drop by my pal's house and vent about the difficulties of my day." It's an attitude of gratefulness that acknowledges the fact that we could never put so much as the tip of one toe through God's door if Christ had not entered in before us and poured out upon the mercy seat the precious and holy blood He shed for us.
Christ is our way---our only way---into the presence of God the Father. Blood has always been the only way into the Most Holy Place, but in times past only the high priests of Israel could enter the Most Holy Place of the earthly tabernacle with blood sacrifices that had to be repeated year after year after year since the substitutionary blood of animals could never be enough to atone for sins forever. But at the time appointed by God, the Lord Jesus Christ, our high priest, entered into the Most Holy Place of the heavenly tabernacle with a blood sacrifice so perfect and pure and holy that it atoned for our sins once and for all. The blood that Aaron and the other high priests sprinkled on the mercy seat symbolized the blood of Christ that would someday be the final sacrifice ever needed. The work Aaron and all the other high priests did was work that pointed toward what Christ would do. He is the fulfillment of every religious ritual of the Old Testament and He is the author of the New Testament---the New Covenant the Lord spoke of in Jeremiah 31:33 when He said He would "put My laws in their hearts and I will write them on their minds".
When we speak with God today, our access to Him was bought with a price: the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is indeed our friend, but He is also King and Lord and God. This is the source of our confidence when we come into the presence of God in prayer: we are coming into His presence not on our own authority and merit but on the authority and merit of God the Son. As long as we keep these reverent thoughts in our minds, we will not adopt a casual attitude toward God. And as long as we regard Him as holy and give Him the reverence due Him, our prayer life will be filled with power and our faith will grow day by day.
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