A Divine Design

uring the ColdWar era, a cavernous hideaway was blasted out of solid greenstone near Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania. It was equipped with two underground reservoirs, a power plant, food supplies, and several buildings to accommodate hundreds of wartime sta . The U.S. government created this sprawling “underground Pentagon,” known as the Raven Rock Mountain Complex, to provide the Department of Defense an o site location to regroup in the event that a nuclear weapon destroyed the Pentagon, the nation’s military headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. In the event of a catastrophic attack, o cials could be quickly shuttled to this “alternate seat of government” and resume operations to defend the United States. Some 3,500 years earlier, halfway around the planet, God commanded Moses, the leader of the Hebrew people, to build a temple in the wilderness. The blueprint that God gave him was based on the sanctuary in heaven, patterned after His seat of government—though on a smaller scale. But the Lord didn’t need an earthly hideaway because the sanctuary in heaven was at risk of being destroyed. No. Instead, this temple was designed to host the presence of God and to reveal His plan of salvation through a three- dimensional panorama. You see, the wilderness sanctuary and the other Hebrew temples that followed reveal the Lord’s desire to remove the barrier between God and humanity caused by sin so that He might once again draw close to us. What did this rst earthly sanctuary look like? How was it made? Did God really dwell in a building? What furniture was placed inside it? And what services were held within? Let’s nd out … This chapter will provide you with an overview of the temple on earth. The next chapter will explain the deeper significance of the sanctuary and its services. 6 D Sanctuaries I N T I M E