Would you like to make your own way to God? Think of yourself as your own savior or at the least, help God out? Atonement must be your task.
Atonement is an old word with a different application when it is used in God’s work of doing something about mankind’s sin problem. The first and earliest use in the Bible is back in Genesis when Noah was tasked with building the ark to bring his family and the animal stock through the flood. ‘Make the ark and cover it inside and out with pitch.’ 1 This ‘covering’ is the word later used for ‘atone’ and is that which gives the ability to do something beyond its intrinsic nature.
In our passage today, God is giving Moses the procedure by which God through the priests will provide a covering which will make you clean before the Lᴏʀᴅ. I’m guessing you just decided not to do this as a do-it-yourself project. While God gave specific details, this procedure had to be repeated annually on the same given day to ‘cover’ the sins since the last atonement.
Yes, we do not have the ability to atone for our sins but it is no longer necessary as that is what Jesus came to do on our behalf. If we are willing to let Him do it His way.