“And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.”
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. The fundamental prohibition that the Day of Atonement regulations address: the high priest cannot enter the Most Holy Place at will — not whenever he chooses. The consequence is death; the reason is the divine presence in the cloud over the mercy seat. The God who appears in the cloud at the mercy seat is the God whose presence is both the goal of approach and the danger of unauthorized approach. Hebrews 9:7 says only the high priest entered the inner room, and only once a year — the once-a-year limitation of Leviticus 16:2 is the temporal expression of the authorized approach's restriction.
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