3, 4. Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place--As the duties
of the great day of atonement led to the nearest and most solemn
approach to God, the directions as to the proper course to be followed
were minute and special.
with a young bullock . . . and a ram--These victims he
brought alive, but they were not offered in sacrifice till he had gone
through the ceremonies described between
Le 16:3-11.
He was not to attire himself on that occasion in the splendid robes
that were proper to his sacred office, but in a plain dress of linen,
like the common Levites, for, as he was then to make atonement for his
own sins, as well as for those of the people, he was to appear in the
humble character of a suppliant. That plain dress was more in harmony
with a season of humiliation (as well as lighter and more convenient
for the duties which on that occasion he had singly to perform) than
the gorgeous robes of the pontificate. It showed that when all appeared
as sinners, the highest and lowest were then on a level, and that there
is no distinction of persons with God
[Ac 10:34].
JFB.
Picture Study Bible