The Ark of the Covenant is an interesting item in Israel’s history....it is described in the Bible, but we don’t know exactly what it was like, but we do know what the Bible says about it.
Your depiction is beautiful but one thing I noticed is the angels appear as feminine.....angels were also portrayed by the Catholic church as feminine, but in the Bible, angels are always depicted as male....strong able bodied men, showing that they had power. It’s interesting how illustrations can convey things in error. They also portrayed Jesus as feminine...a weak man rather than the perfect human specimen that he was. By portraying him that way, as a weak defeated man, dead on a cross...or as a helpless baby in a manger, the strong manly Jesus is transformed into a weak feminine or infantile figure. How sad.
It was God himself who designed the Ark, and the makers of the various parts had to follow his instructions to the letter, after all, it was a central and paramount object of the tabernacle, and the whole camp of Israel.
The chest itself measured 2.5 cubits long, 1.5 cubits wide, and 1.5 cubits high (c. 111 × 67 × 67 cm; 44 × 26 × 26 in.). It was made of acacia wood, overlaid inside and out with pure gold.
An artistic “border of gold” served as a crowning wreath “round about upon it.” The second section of the Ark, its cover, was made of solid gold, not just wood overlaid with gold, and was the full length and breadth of the chest. Mounted on this cover were two golden cherubs of hammered workmanship, one at each end of the cover facing each other, with heads bowed and wings extending upward and overspreading the Ark. It must have been a beautiful thing to behold, but the Israelites were not to make it an object of worship, so it was contained within the “Most Holy” compartment of the tabernacle.....only Moses and later the High Priest could enter that compartment where the cloud and the light represented God’s presence.
No one was allowed to see it or touch it under penalty of death. It was always covered in transit and strictly carried by the priests with poles inserted into rings on its side.
What became of the Ark of the Covenant? No one knows what became of the Ark....The final mention of it is in Rev 11:18-19...is speaking of the time of the end when Jesus passes judgment upon earth’s inhabitants, and rules as king......a time of great upheaval.....it says of Yahweh....
“But the nations became wrathful, and your own wrath came, and the appointed time came for the dead to be judged and to reward your slaves the prophets and the holy ones and those fearing your name, the small and the great, and to bring to ruin those ruining the earth.
19 And the temple sanctuary of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen in his temple sanctuary. And there were flashes of lightning and voices and thunders and an earthquake and a great hail.”
The Ark was no longer on the earth, but seen in the heavenly Temple of God....obviously the spiritual representation of it, as no material objects exist in heaven.
An interesting item to study..
