Absalom was staging a coup. David was fleeing Jerusalem. Zadok brought the Ark to go with him. David sent it back, refusing to use God as a lucky charm.

David knew this was the consequence of his sin (2 Sam 12). He accepted it rather than fought God. Torah connection: Deuteronomy 32:39 (I kill and I make alive). The Pharisaic distortion: Thinking we can obligate God by our religious acts.

The king said to Zadok, “Carry God’s ark back into the city. If I find favor in Yahweh’s eyes, he will bring me again, and show me both it, and his habitation; but if he says, ‘I have no delight in you;’ behold, here am I. Let him do to me as seems good to him.”

2 Samuel 15:25-26

Your Spirit

Loves God

Loves Neighbor

Your Body

Moral Behaviour