The first reason: According to many parallel texts in Scripture, Mary is depicted as the true Ark of the Covenant. One example is Luke 1:43. Notice Elizabeths exclamation when Mary enters her home shortly after she had conceived our Lord: And why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? This refers back to 2 Samuel 6:9, when the Old Testament type of Mary the old Ark of the Covenant was carried into the presence of King David. He said, How can the ark of the Lord come to me? Notice the text then says, And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obededom the Gittite three months (v. 11). Luke 1:56 says, And Mary remained with her about three months.
According to Exodus chapter 25, the Ark of the Covenant contained three sacred objects. All of these were types of our Lord. One was the manna. According to John 6:31-33, Jesus is the true manna. Another was the rod of Aaron, the high priest. According to Hebrews 3:1, Jesus is our true high priest. The third is the Ten Commandments. In Hebrew theyre called the ten words. Jesus is the Word made flesh, according to John 1:14.
According to the Old Testament, no one except the high priest could enter into the presence of the Ark (see Ex. chapters 28 and 29). If anyone else even looked inside or touched the Ark, they would die (see 1 Sam. 6:19 and 2 Sam. 6:7).
If this was the case for the Old Testament type, which is no more than a shadow of the true New Testament fulfillment according to Hebrews 10:1, it would be unthinkable that a sinful man could intimately touch the true Ark of God!
