“The tabernacle was not merely the earthly house of God, but the way to God– the way of YHWH. Now, keeping in mind the parallels between the garden of Eden and the tabernacle, one may discern readily how the entrance into the holy of holies, ‘the archetypal priestly act,’ comprised a liturgical drama: the annual re-entry into the garden of Eden.
On the Day of Atonement Adam’s eastward expulsion from the garden of Eden was reversed as the high priest, a cultic Adam, ascended westward through the cherubim-woven veil and into the summit of the cultic mountain of God.
At the heart of the Pentateuch, we find an answer to the question Who shall ascend into the mountain of YHWH? The one able to ascend is the Adam-like high priest, with blood, on the Day of Atonement.
This is the way YHWH has opened for humanity to dwell in His Presence. Within the narrative progression, then, atonement, along with its elements of purification and ransom, is that which enables the return to YHWH God, a reversal of Eden’s expulsion.”
–L. Michael Morales, Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord?: A Biblical Theology of the Book of Leviticus (ed. D. A. Carson; vol. 37; New Studies in Biblical Theology; Downers Grove, IL; England: InterVarsity Press; Apollos, 2015), 176-177.
