This was soon after the death of the two sons of Aaron, recorded in ch. 10. Though there were yet some months until the Day of Atonement, God instructed Aaron relative to it, that he might have sufficient time to become acquainted with the ritual.

 There were two veils in the sanctuary, one leading from the court into the first apartment, the other separating the two apartments. The veil here referred to is the second veil (Heb. 9:3), the one before the mercy seat (Ex. 26:31, 32). It was before this veil that the priests stood as they offered incense upon the altar of incense, before the mercy seat. Their sight could not pierce the veil, but they knew that on the other side of it was the ark with its mercy seat, where God had promised to meet with His people (Ex. 25:22). The figures of cherubim embroidered on the veil represented to them the angels that stand before the throne of Deity. The veil shielded them from the consuming glory, and at the same time it permitted them to approach closely.

 The cherubim must have brought vividly to their minds the cherubim stationed at the gate of Eden (see on Gen. 3:24). After Adam and Eve had sinned they could not pass the cherubim; neither could the priests in the sanctuary pass the symbolic cherubim and enter into the presence of God. This must have deeply impressed upon them the holiness of God. None but the high priest could enter the holy of holies to minister, and he but briefly one day in the year.

 Throughout the year the blood of the victims was brought into the sanctuary and sprinkled “seven times before the Lord, before the vail of the sanctuary” (Lev. 4:6, 17), in instances where the anointed priest or the whole congregation had sinned. Immediately behind the veil was the ark containing the tables of the law. It was with reference to the law that the blood was sprinkled, for in sinning, men had broken that law, and their transgressions demanded atonement. The sprinkling of the blood was an acknowledgement of the authority of the law and a symbolical token payment of its demand, either for perfect obedience or for the life of the disobedient. Obey and live, disobey and perish, was its dictum.

 However, the sprinkled blood never reached the law, for the veil intervened. And even on the Day of Atonement, when the veil was drawn aside and the blood sprinkled in the holiest, the blood did not reach the law. The mercy seat covered the law, and there the blood rested. The mercy seat was a type of Christ. According to Rom. 3:25 God set forth Christ “to be a propitiation,” literally, a “mercy seat.” Christ is our “mercy seat.” By His death on the cross and His ministry in the courts above, Christ saves us by taking our place on the cross and pleading our case over the broken law. He stands between us and the law and saves us from its penalty, not by ignoring or abolishing it, but by paying its just demands, and thus acknowledging its authority and honoring it.

 The priests entered the sanctuary with the blood of a slain animal, and by virtue of it. Christ, “by the power of an indestructiblelife” (Heb. 7:16, RSV), entered, not with “the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood ... once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Heb. 9:12). We are invited to follow Him there by faith (Heb. 4:16). The new and living way He has opened for us and He Himself has trod, is the way of the cross, the way of obedience. There is no other way.

 This gives point to the expression often used—and at times thoughtlessly—of going “all the way” with Christ. He has gone into the holiest of all, and is now there ministering for us. He went by way of the cross, the way of Gethsemane and Golgotha. And again He invites us to follow Him (Matt. 20:22, 23). Those who accept His invitation must be willing to go with Him by way of the cross. And it is those who thus follow Him here that will, in a better world, have the privilege of living in His presence.

 The same lesson is presented to us in the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the cup. Says Christ, “This is my body, which is broken for you.... This cup is the new testament in my blood” (1 Cor. 11:24, 25). As we take the cup, as we take the broken bread, we enter into a solemn covenant with God that we will go all the way, even though this may mean a broken body and the shedding of our blood in martyrdom.

 It seems eminently fitting that God’s remnant church should be “time’s noblest offspring.” On them shines the light of all past ages; they have inherited not only the weaknesses of past generations but also the accumulated Biblical knowledge of the ages. To them has come light on Scripture such as has been given to no other people. They have light on the sanctuary; they have the more sure word of prophecy; to them have been entrusted the oracles of God. They understand the work that Christ is now doing in the courts above. They have been given the inestimable privilege of heralding to the world that the hour of God’s judgment is come, and that the end of all things is at hand. What manner of men ought they to be “in all holy conversation and godliness” (2 Peter 3:11)!

 In the ark, below the mercy seat, were the Ten Commandments, the very foundation of the throne of God. Here, at the ark, justice and mercy met; here, righteousness and peace “kissed each other” (Ps. 85:10); here God revealed Himself; here was the secret place of the Most High. The ark and the mercy seat were the center of the entire sacrificial service.

 The caution given Aaron is reminiscent of the disaster that had come upon his sons because of their disobedience (Lev. 10:1, 2).

 God promised Moses to meet with him at the “door of the tabernacle” (Ex. 29:42), at the altar of incense before the veil (Ex. 30:36; Num. 17:4), and, as here, directly before the mercy seat (Ex. 25:22; 30:36). The presence of the “cloud” above the mercy seat in no way implies that the holy of holies was dark, for with the “cloud” was the glory of the Lord (1 Kings 8:10, 11; 2 Chron. 5:13, 14; Rev. 15:8). The Shekinah, the visible evidence that God was indeed with His people, abode above the mercy seat (Ex. 25:22; Ps. 80:1; Isa. 37:16). To man it might appear that God dwells in “darkness” (1 Kings 8:12; Ps. 18:11). But “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). He dwells “in the light which no man can approach unto” (1 Tim. 6:16). In revealing Himself to His people, God ever veiled His glory with a cloud, so that mortal beings might be aware of His presence, yet able to endure it (Ex. 16:10; 19:9; 24:16; 34:5; 40:34, 38).