Friday, May 31, 2019

31 May 2019 - parallel arks



We are meant to see in Mary the new Ark of the Covenant. Note the parallelisms with David bringing the ark to Jerusalem.

And David arose and went (see Second Samuel 6:2)

Mary arose and went 

And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, "How can the ark of the Lord come to me?" (see Second Samuel 6:9)

And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months (see Second Samuel 6:11)

And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.

The ark is not holy for its own sake. It is holy because of the presence of God that it contains. So too with Mary. She brings the presence of Jesus to Elizabeth causing Elizabeth and her infant to leap to rejoice and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Although the ark is not holy for its own sake the LORD nevertheless takes the holiness of the ark very seriously. He allows nothing impure to touch it.

Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God (see Second Samuel 6:6-7)

So too does he refuse to allow impurity to touch Mary, the ark which contains the presence of God more perfectly than the ark of the Old Testament. He does this precisely to maximize the blessing he can offer through Mary to the world. It is a blessing she continues to offer.

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed

We too are meant to be like Mary. We are meant to bring the presence of God to the world. People should rejoice when we come to them, not because of anything we are of ourselves, but because of the presence of God that they sense within us. We too must not allow anything impure to touch us, less these blessings be obscured or made inaccessible.

The LORD, your God, is in your midst,
a mighty savior;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
and renew you in his love,
He will sing joyfully because of you,
as one sings at festivals.


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