Aaron was the first High Priest of the people of Israel. He was specially commissioned by God to lead the order of priests (Exodus 28:1-3), and to lead the people in their worship of God in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple. He was the mediator between the people and God; he stood between them and Him. The particular activity that was assigned by God to the High Priest was the sacrifice of atonement on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), as described in Leviticus 16. On this day, once a year, the High Priest would enter the Most Holy Place and make sacrifices in order to atone for his own sin and those of the priests and all the people. Hebrews 7-10 describes how this Old Testament sacrifice of atonement is a forerunner or shadow of the great atoning sacrifice made by Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:1). In these passages, we see that it is only by Christ’s atoning sacrifice that forgiveness of sins is possible. We see that Christ is the great High Priest who makes a way into the presence of God not by the blood of animals, but by His own blood. He now stands as the great mediator between human beings and God.
