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† The Virgin Mary as the new Ark of the Covenant:

The Ark of the Old Covenant contained the Decalogue (which is the Law/Word), a Pot of Manna (which was the bread from Heaven that sustained the life of the Hebrews during the Exodus), and Aaron’s Rod (which budded and convicted those who were grumbling against Moses). The Ark of the New Covenant, who is the Virgin Mary, contained Jesus (the Word of God and the Bread of Life – the new Manna from Heaven), and the Holy Spirit (which is Truth that convicts us).

The Gospel of Luke accounts for at least seven ways in which Our Lady Mary was prefigured to be the Ark of the New Covenant:

1. The Holy Spirit came upon the Arks of the Covenants in their Temples 1 Kings 8:10-13 “When the priest left the holy place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord so that they could no longer minister because of the cloud, since the Lord’s glory had filled the temple of the Lord. Then Solomon said, “The Lord intends to dwell in the dark cloud; I have truly built you a princely house, a dwelling where you may abide forever.” Luke 1:35 “And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Sprit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”

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2. The Arks of the Covenants traveling in the hill country of Judah 2 Samuel 6:2 “Then David and all the people who were with him set out for Baala of Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which bears the name of the Lord of host enthroned above the cherubim.” Luke 1:39 “During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah,”

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3. Fear of the Lord, that Arks of the Covenants coming in their presence 2 Samuel 6:9 “David feared the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” Luke 1:43 “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

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4. They dance and leap for joy in the presence in the Arks of the Covenants 2 Samuel 6:14 “Then David, girt with a linen apron, came dancing before the Lord with abandon, as he and all the Israelites were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts of joy and to the sound of the horn.” Luke 1:44 “For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.”

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5. They sing praise to God for the honor of possessing the Arks of the Covenants 1 Chronicles 16:8-36 “Give thanks to the Lord, invoke his name; make known among the nations his deeds. Sing to him, sing his praise, proclaim all his wondrous deeds. Glory in his holy name; rejoice, O hearts that see the Lord . . .” Luke 1:46-55 “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name . . .”

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6. The Arks of the Covenants remains in a foreign territory for a total of three months 2 Samuel 6:11 “The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obededom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed Obededom and his whole house.” Luke 1:56 “Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.”

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7. The Arks of the Covenants are hidden then revealed in a cave 2 Maccabees 2:5-8 “When Jeremiah arrived there, he found a room in a cave in which he put the tent, the ark, and the altar of incense; then he blocked up the entrance. Some of those who followed him came up intended to mark the path, but they couldn’t not find it. When Jeremiah heard of this, he reproved them: “The place is to remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows them mercy. Then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord will be seen in the cloud, just as it appeared in the time of Moses and when Solomon prayed that the Place might be gloriously sanctified.” Luke 2:7 “and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

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† The Virgin Mary as the Ark in the Book of Revelation :

Revelation 11:15-17,19 through 12:6

“Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet. There were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world now belongs to our Lord and to his Anointed, and he will reign forever and ever.” The twenty-four elders who sat on their thrones before God prostrated themselves and worshiped God . . . Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a violent hailstorm. A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth. Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on its head were seven diadems. Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and hurled them down to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth. She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and his throne. The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God, that there she might be taken care of for twelve hundred and sixty days.”

The Ark of the Covenant in the Temple of God, that the writer is speaking of here is one in the same with the first great sign that appeared in the sky, who was a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon (which is the serpent) under her feet and on her head a crown (as Queens wear) of twelve stars – this woman is none one other than the Queen Mother, the Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord our God. The new Eve had crushed the serpent and the Son, which she gave birth to, has redeemed humanity.

† The Virgin Mary as the New Eve:

At the prideful disobedience of Eve, humanity fell, but with the humble obedience of the Virgin Mary, humanity rose; for where Eve gave birth to death, Mary gave birth to He who is life (Jesus). Though Eve ate the food, which was a lie from the Father of Lies, Mary, through faith, accepted the truth from He who is Truth. While the first Adam obeyed the woman and ate of the forbidden fruit and blamed her, ”The woman whom you put here with me – she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it,” (Gen 3:12) the second Adam said, “Woman, how does your concern affect me?” (Jn. 2:4) and she called all servants to obey her Son, saying, “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn. 2:5).

The outcome of the original sin was that the Lord told us exactly how He was going to redeem us, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her; He will strike at your head, while you strike at His heel” (Gen 3:15). Indeed, throughout the Hebrew Bible, God went on reveal the names and character of several heroic women who crushed the head of the serpent beneath their feet. These women were prefigurements of Mary, the Mother of God.

It was Sisera who had opposed Israel for twenty years and the prophetess and judge of Israel Deborah, who prophesized to Barak, that Sisera would fall into the power of a woman (Cf. Judg. 4:9), and that woman was Jael, who had lured the serpent, with her charm into her tent, and when he had fallen asleep, she drove a peg, by the aid of a mallet, through his temple so deep that it went through his head and into the ground (Cf. Judg. 4:17-22). It was Abimelech, son of Gideon, who became a very evil serpent, and even killed great numbers of his own kinsmen (Cf. Judg. 9:5), but it was a certain woman who humiliated him by dropping the upper part of a millstone on his head and thus fracturing his skull, and leaving him to beg for his death, lest it be known that he fell to a woman (Cf. Judg. 9:53-54). It was the serpent Holofernes, general of the Assyrian army under Nebuchadnezzar, who made war against the Israelites in Judea, but it was the woman Judith, in her beauty and charm, who had been invited into his tent where she beheaded Holofernes, the serpent, as he lay prostrate in a drunken stupor. Nonetheless, these prefigurements were perfected by the Virgin Mary when she gave birth to the new Adam, who is Christ Jesus, as recounted in the book of Revelation.

RECOMMENDED READING ON THIS SUBJECT:

– The Lamb’s Supper by Dr. Scott Hahn

