David Flees Jerusalem With Mourning Peopleby abairrn
15:282 Samuel 15:28
See, I will tarry in the plain of the wilderness, until there come word from you to certify me.
While fleeing Absalom, after commanding Zadok to carry the ark of God back into the city, David declares he will tarry in the plain of the wilderness without advancing until word comes from the priests to certify him. He addresses Zadok as a seer appointed to instruct the people and tells him to return into the city in peace with Ahimaaz and Jonathan, the sons of Zadok and Abiathar. The waiting arrangement provides secret communication with Jerusalem, so the priests remaining in the city can learn the movements and purposes of the rebels and secretly report them to the king through their sons.
In sending the sacred chest back to be placed in the tabernacle of Zion rather than gathering everything to build up his sinking fortunes and secure his safety, he refuses to take the ark with him as a charm to preserve his kingly honor and life or to rally Israel and win back the disaffected, though with that symbol of God's presence and of Israel's strength he could greatly improve his situation. His reverence and respect for the ark will not allow it to be imperiled by the vicissitudes of his hasty flight. His high sense of right and of sacred things holds that kings and priests have no right to remove the ark from its place of rest without a divine command and that the city must not be robbed of the symbol that gives it the name Mount of Holiness.
His action shows unselfish and noble resolve in overwhelming affliction, because he views his humiliation as from the Lord and not merely the work of man's device. He submits himself to whether he shall find favor to be brought again to see the ark and God's habitation or be left to God's judgment as seeming good to Him.
While fleeing Absalom, after commanding Zadok to carry the ark of God back into the city, David declares he will tarry in the plain of the wilderness without advancing until word comes from the priests to certify him. He addresses Zadok as a seer appointed to instruct the people and tells him to return into the city in peace with Ahimaaz and Jonathan, the sons of Zadok and Abiathar. The waiting arrangement provides secret communication with Jerusalem, so the priests remaining in the city can learn the movements and purposes of the rebels and secretly report them to the king through their sons.
In sending the sacred chest back to be placed in the tabernacle of Zion rather than gathering everything to build up his sinking fortunes and secure his safety, he refuses to take the ark with him as a charm to preserve his kingly honor and life or to rally Israel and win back the disaffected, though with that symbol of God's presence and of Israel's strength he could greatly improve his situation. His reverence and respect for the ark will not allow it to be imperiled by the vicissitudes of his hasty flight. His high sense of right and of sacred things holds that kings and priests have no right to remove the ark from its place of rest without a divine command and that the city must not be robbed of the symbol that gives it the name Mount of Holiness.
His action shows unselfish and noble resolve in overwhelming affliction, because he views his humiliation as from the Lord and not merely the work of man's device. He submits himself to whether he shall find favor to be brought again to see the ark and God's habitation or be left to God's judgment as seeming good to Him.