3 Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. 

4 He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on. 

6 And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house.

11 And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make an atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself:

12 And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil: 

13 And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not: 

14 And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times.

We here continue the ritual by which Aaron would enter into the most holy place of the tabernacle once every year. Personally, I find the layout of the chapter confusing, as there are two groups of sacrifices going on, Aaron making a sin and burnt offering for himself, and Aaron making a sin and burnt offering for the congregation. The verses weave back and forth between the two, and I have decided to instead reorganize the verses according to their subject. Thus, today I will cover all the verses specifically about Aaron’s sin offering, then over the next two days all of the verses about the congregation’s sin offering, and then the next day all the verses for both burnt offerings. Also, I will review the basic facts first, then consider the symbolic meanings more in depth at the end of the chapter. Hopefully I won’t just make things more confusing than they already were!

One thing that stands out immediately about this chapter is that it is describing a supremely sacred event, which required specialized ritual aspects seen nowhere else in God’s law, starting with the dual sacrifices, one set being for Aaron and the other for the congregation. Also unique is that Aaron is purifying himself in preparation for an annual visit with the Lord. Also, that a blanket atonement is being performed over the entire congregation for any sins that had been committed throughout the year. The purpose of this special event was to bring God, Aaron, and the people all into simultaneous alignment. It was the Day of Atonement.

And so, we first hear of Aaron’s sin offering, which starts off normally enough, but then in verse 14 it goes into specialized territory when Aaron uses the blood of the offering to sprinkle the mercy seat seven times. The mercy seat is, of course, the lid of the Ark of the Covenant, within the most holy place of the tabernacle. The place that was forbidden for anyone to enter except at this one time. We have heard of blood being sprinkled around the sacrificial altar for burnt and trespass offerings, and blood sprinkled on a person for the consecration offerings, but this is the first time we hear of an offering’s blood being used on the mercy seat.

But Aaron could not just enter into the most holy place. Verses 12-13 explain to us that in order to preserve his life in such a holy place, Aaron must first use coals from the altar of sacrifice to burn incense, enough to produce a cloud that would cover the mercy seat, creating a barrier between him and the direct dwelling place of the Lord. It does not explain this process entirely, but perhaps Aaron would hold the curtain open to let the incense cloud travel in first, and then proceed only when it was safe to do so.