The Lord speaks to Moses after the deaths of Aaron's sons: Aaron shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat, or he will die. Only once a year can the high priest enter.
The holiness of God is absolute. Unrestricted access would be fatal. There's a danger being named here that we've sanitized in modern faith - God is not safe, not casual, not something you can approach whenever you feel like it.
This doesn't mean God is cruel. It means God's holiness is so absolute that proximity requires preparation, structure, specific protocols. The Day of Atonement exists because access to the holy is the most serious, dangerous work anyone can undertake.
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