Page 210 - Through New Eyes

Diagram 15.2
The Tabernacle Complex

----- --------- -------- ---- Heavenly Sanctuary

---- ------- ------- ..-

-------------- Earthly Sanctuary

The Bible nowhere explicitly says that the Ark of the Covenant is to be positioned in the
center of the heaven half, and the altar in the center of the earthly half of the Tabernacle
complex. Doubtless, depending on the terrain of a given encampment, these things might
have been positioned differently. At the same time, however, the dimensions of everything
connected with the Tabernacle tend to come in squares or double-squares, and so the
configuration illustrated above is symbolically the most appropriate. After all, if you had a
chance to set it up in a flat place, would you do it any other way? Notice how this
arrangement brings out the correspondence between altar and Ark. The altar or holy moun-
tain is the center of the earth, and the Throne of God is the center of heaven.