The Case of the Open Window Shade, Part 2

Today on Insight for Living from Chuck Swindoll. When a man or woman chooses to cross a boundary and violate their vows, the consequences are nothing short of devastating. But offenders rarely intend to blow up their relationship.

Their demise often begins with subtle concessions. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll will continue a message he started yesterday about a familiar scene in 2 Samuel chapter 11. After a season of enormous success, King David violated his own convictions and the results provided profound warnings for generations to come.

Chuck titled today's message, The Case of the Open Window Shade. David is a man of God. He remains a man of God after chapter 11, just like before it, and he has lapsed this night, we will see, into sin. And his sin has a devastating consequence on his family, on his reign, and on his nation. No person suddenly becomes base. There's no such thing as sudden adultery.

It happens over a long haul. David's life is like a neglected seawall, standing constantly against the barrage of the tide and the waves and the rocks and the churning of the sea. Finally, in a weakened moment, it crumbles at his feet and he pays a terrible price. Let's go back before 2 Samuel chapter 11 to chapter 5 and look at verse 13 with me. I want to show you the black backdrop that led to this sin because I don't want you to have the idea that he suddenly fell. He didn't.

Some chinks in his armor had already begun to form. Look at 2 Samuel 5, 13. Well, let's take verse 12. David realized that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel. You see, David realized that. He realized the hand of God was on him.

He realized that the Lord's blessing was there. Meanwhile, David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem after he came from Hebron and more sons and daughters were born to David. Now I read that rather glibly because that seems to be the way it is written.

The first word of the sentence suggests that it was sort of an afterthought. Oh, yeah, by the way, come to think of it, David added concubines and wives to his harem. This was in direct contradiction with scripture. But, you know, who in the kingdom is going to blow a whistle on that kind of person? Who in the kingdom can say, David's at fault because look at his track record, two decades of unsullied character. So what if he takes a few more women and marries them and increases his number of concubines? So what? They turn their heart, they turn the heart of the king from the Lord. That's what Deuteronomy said. Somehow something happened to break down his integrity.

That's the first problem, polygamy. Second, vulnerability. In chapters 5 and 11, you will read of nothing but a success story. He is at an all-time high. He is fresh off a series of great victories in the battlefield. He has reached the peak of public admiration. He has ample money, incredible power, remarkable fame. Further and further and further up into the clouds is the life of David. I mean, you can't point a finger of accusation at him. In the backwash of all this, David is vulnerable.

And I don't know about what he isn't beginning to believe, his own track record, because when you get to chapter 11, he is indulging himself. That's the third chink in the armor, indulgence. See verse 1 of chapter 11. We find David in this elegantly furnished bedroom. The verse says, when the kings normally were to go out to battle. But David sent Joab and his servants with him, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah.

But David stayed in Jerusalem. David's in bed, not in battle. Our greatest battle is not when we're working hard, it's when we have a lot of leisure. It's when we've got time on our hands and we're bored. And the spring of the year when we're yawning and stretching and getting sleep out of our eyes and we can't sleep at night, and we make those fateful decisions that haunt us.

It's the spring of the year and the man is indulging himself beyond the place of wisdom. He belonged in the battle. So he pushed the bedspread back, not able to sleep. He stretched himself, yawned a couple of times, sighed, looked around the room.

Nothing good on TV that night. And he thought, well, I need to take a walk. It looks like a nice night to be out in the air. So he walks on the roof, pushes aside the drapes, and he steps out. Oriental monarchs, by the way, would frequently build on the second story their bedchamber and have a door that opened onto what you and I would call a patio roof.

And it was occasionally elegantly furnished, a place to sit and a place to have leisure with the family, with the wife, with men in council. It's up above the public demands and away from the streets, and often it was secreted so that people could not spot him up there. And that's where he found himself, that unforgettable night. We read that he walked around on the roof of the king's house.

And he's enjoying the scenes and sights. And he hears in the distance some splashing and perhaps the humming on the lips of this very beautiful woman living just beyond the palace, just within sight of his own backyard. The verse reads, from the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful in appearance.

The Bible never pads the record. When it says a woman is beautiful, she's fabulous. When it says she's very beautiful, she's a knockout. She is just beyond description. Rarely will the Scriptures include the word very. And when the due, rest assured, it is not an exaggeration.

Let me pause and say two things at this point. One, the male's major source of stimulation is visual. The female's major source of sexual stimulation is touch. The female is far more discriminant than the male. The male sees a body without any discriminating concern for the character within the body.

So says Dr. James Dobson. In essence, the sheer biological power of sexual desire in a male is largely focused on the physical body of an attractive female. Second thing I want to say is that you women need to know that. You need to know that your physical appearance is the nemesis of the man. Men cannot handle the way some of you dress. You need to know that you are responsible in the family of God for your attire, your demeanor. My question is why in the world didn't Bathsheba draw her shades?

That's not meant to be funny. Why in the world did she bathe knowing that behind her was the roof of the palace upon which David would frequently walk? Raymond Brown in his work on David's life says, this attractive woman cannot be entirely excused. Bathsheba was careless and foolish, lacking in the usual Hebrew modesty or she certainly would not have watched in a place where she knew she could be overlooked.

From her place, she would often have looked out on the royal palace and must have known that she could be seen. If David had gone to war, he would not have seen her. If she had thought seriously about her actions, she would not have put temptation in his path. It is so very important today in our society when anything goes that if you want to be part of the answer rather than part of the problem, you work in cooperation with righteousness. That means you give thought to what you buy before you buy it and wear it, ladies.

That means, man, when you happen upon a very beautiful and alluring object, you do not linger. Not even David in all his godliness could handle it. It was too big for him. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was killed. He was hanged at the age of 39 in a Nazi prison camp.

The SS black guards hanged him on April 9, 1945. But before his death, Dietrich Bonhoeffer left a legacy. And like few men, his papers have stimulated deep thought as this keen thinking German scholar put theology into the shoe leather of life. In his simple book entitled Temptation, he strikes at the heart of the problem that you and I along with David wrestle with.

Don't let your mind wander or you'll miss Bonhoeffer's wisdom. In our members there is a slumbering inclination toward desire which is both sudden and fierce. With irresistible power, desire seizes mastery of the flesh. All at once a secret smoldering fire is kindled. The flesh burns and is in flames.

It makes no difference whether it's a sexual desire or ambition or vanity or revenge or love of fame or power or greed for money. At this moment God is quite unreal to us. Remember those words. At this moment God is quite unreal to us. He loses all reality and only desire for the creature is real.

The only reality is the devil. The devil doesn't fill us with hatred of God but with forgetfulness of God. The lust thus aroused envelops the mind and the will of man in deepest darkness.

The powers of clear discrimination and decision are taken from us. The questions present themselves as is what the flesh desires really sin in this case? And is it really not permitted to me, yes expected of me now and here in my particular situation to appease desire? It is here that everything within me rises up against the word of God. Therefore the Bible teaches at times of temptation in the flesh there is one command. Flee! Flee fornication, flee idolatry, flee youthful lusts, flee the lusts of the world. There is no resistance to Satan in lust other than flight. Every struggle against lust in one's own strength is doomed to failure. Now I say to you that if you do not run you will fall. It's only a matter of time. I have given that counsel so many times and I have had it heeded by only a few. It is the only counsel that works for me. If you try to fight it you will fall.

It's only a matter of time. David stood on the roof of that palace as he had stood perhaps for weeks before and in the night air with no one else around he lost all cognizance of who he was or what would happen if he fell into that sin. God was quite unreal to him. As the smoldering desire down inside burst into flames and he forgot that he was the king of Israel, he forgot that he had a track record that was unsullied, he forgot that he was in fact the inimitable man of God, the statesman, the who's who in the history of Israel. And I say tonight in light of who he was and how he fell take heed lest you too fall. Men, you will never fall if you do not take a second look.

Never. Not only did David take a second look he was staring for a period of time. Verse 3, David sent and inquired about the woman. Notice the report. Is this not Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

I think that's significant. This soft-footed servant came back with a good deal of wisdom. Normally you would give the genealogy of a person without relation to their mate. You would give the name of the person, the father's name, the grandfather's name and on occasion the great grandfather.

That's how they did it in Israel. But in this case, this servant says, David, she is Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam the wife of Uriah. She's married David. I feel that the servant knew the thinking of this man. He knew the master. He'd seen the harem. He'd watched David operate with women. He couldn't handle it. He knew he couldn't handle it. He said, David, she's married.

She's a wife. I don't believe David lingered long enough to even record that in his mind until later when that name Uriah would haunt him. But that moment David turned all powers loose, said no to all the things that you and I know he should have said yes to and yes to all the things he should have said no to and he sent messengers and took her and when she came to him he lay with her and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness she returned to her house.

Bible is very honest about its men and women. It comes right to the point and reveals the situation. Let me say at this delicate moment, and I won't linger here needlessly, you would be foolish if you were to think that there was no pleasure in the act. This act carried with it a great deal of excitement. Stolen waters are sweet and he as the king saw himself in the pleasure of this private moment and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have a feeling Bathsheba did too.

You read nothing of a struggle. This is not a rape. This is an agreeable act. But like Hebrews says, the passing pleasures of sin occur. The pleasures are gone within a matter of weeks. She comes to discover the inevitable.

Verse 5, she conceived, sent, and told David, I am pregnant. You know friends, the devil never tips his hands in temptation. Listen to that. The devil always gets you on the front end but he deserts you in the end. He presents to you the beautiful person, the beautiful body, the alluring desire, the fun and excitement and adventure of stolen waters and he convinces you that that is where it's at. But he never does tell the heavy drinker tomorrow morning there will be a hangover. Furthermore, you're about to break your home up. He never tells the drug user, you know overdose is possible, watch out for the emotional devastation this is going to take on your life. He never tells the thief, you're going to get caught friend, you do that, you'll pay for it.

Never tells the adulterer, you know pregnancy is a very real possibility. Just blanks that out of the mind and then when all of it comes due, he's gone. F. B. Meyer writes these words, one brief spell of passionate indulgence and then his character is blasted irretrievably. His peace has vanished. The foundation of the kingdom imperiled, the Lord is displeased and great occasion is given to his enemies to blaspheme.

David, I am pregnant. When David got that news he had a decision. He could take one of two courses. He could call in his counselors and openly admit as a man of integrity would do, admit to his counselors, man I want you to know the whole truth and then with them he could go before God and declare himself openly as completely contaminated, sinful, guilty and declare it to the nation, I have sinned. And God would have dealt with him one way. All the consequences wouldn't have been erased but certainly there would have been a maintenance of integrity. Or, and he chose the second, he could have gone the route of deception and hypocrisy which ultimately would lead to murder. Now when you are in the midst of panic, you don't make wise decisions.

I want you to feel it with a man, he has lived out this passionate night and as far as we know that's the only night and suddenly the news comes back and hits him right in the middle of his head, the woman is going to have a baby and he thinks, what do I do? So he chose the alternate route of deception and hypocrisy. Now just read along with me and I want you to feel with the whole scene of this the emotion of it. Verse 6, David sent to Joab saying, send me Uriah the Hittite. So Joab sent Uriah to David. Now you've got to understand Joab, well he's a swift, clever, marine, out there in the field, light colonel, up for bird colonel and he is smart. And here's Joab, he's already threatening David.

If you read 2 Samuel 3, you know that David's a little uneasy with this guy and the clout he carries. And here's Joab out in the field and he gets a message, send Uriah home. Now there's not a naive cell in Joab's body. Joab is bright and he's clever and he's malicious and he can be malignant.

And so he sees the report and he sends it. He sends Uriah back. Remember that now.

Keep that in your mind. Joab sends Uriah. The husband of Bathsheba comes home. Where do you want Uriah? You wanted Uriah with his wife. But Uriah wasn't going to go with his wife. Because Uriah is a faithful soldier whose heart is with the men in the field. And Uriah will not cooperate and verse 14 turns the plan.

Here we are now. It came about in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. Place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him so that he may be struck down and buried. Are you keeping count of the sins? Lust? Adultery? Hypocrisy?

Murder? And the whole scene of cover up in the kingdom that Israel has never known under David. Even though we're running out of time for today, I'm pleased to let you know that we're devoting much more time to David's story, including the dramatic showdown when Nathan confronted the king.

Chuck Swindoll titled this portion of our study, The Case of the Open Window Shade. And if you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit us online at insightworld.org. Riveting stories like the one you heard today remind us that the wisdom of the Bible is timeless and it speaks to both sinners and those who confront sinners. And it's one of the many reasons that Chuck Swindoll's biography of David has become so widely read. Like this teaching series on the radio, his book is also called David, A Man of Passion and Destiny. One of your fellow listeners recently told us, I've read Chuck's book on David twice.

It's one of my favorite books. Another explained how Chuck's biographical studies have become a resource for teaching a class. In any case, Chuck's book would make a great summer read because it chronicles the dramatic story of David from his ascent to the highest rank in Israel and even the darker moments of his journey, such as the one Chuck described today. To purchase a copy of Chuck's biography on David, give us a call. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888 or visit our website at insight.org slash offer. These daily programs are made possible not through the purchase of resources, but the voluntary donations from grateful listeners like you. And during the summer months when many are away on vacation, we're especially grateful for your consistent support. To give a contribution today, call us.

If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888 or go to insight.org slash donate. Take it from Chuck's window. There's nothing quite like the beauty of the great frontier. Wide open skies, pristine glaciers with various shades of blue and turquoise mingled within them, towering pine trees and all manner of wildlife. I'll tell you, Alaska is truly a masterpiece of God's creation. I've been to a lot of places and seen a lot of things, but honestly, nothing compares to the beauty in Alaska.

God is awesome. Come with us on the Inside for Living Ministries cruise to Alaska, July 1st through July 8th, 2023. When I'm in Alaska, I feel like I'm in an amazing painting created by God. Let yourself get lost in the majestic beauty. Spend quality time with those you love. Allow God to refresh your soul as you reflect on his word and his goodness in your life. To learn more, go to insight.org slash events or call this number 1-888-447-0444.

The Tour de Alaska is paid for and made possible by only those who choose to attend. I'm Bill Meyer inviting you to join us again tomorrow when Chuck's Windall describes the case of the open window shade on Insight for Living. The preceding message, The Case of the Open Window Shade, was copyrighted in 1978, 1988, 1997, and 2009, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.