Riding Out the Storm, Part 1

Today, from Chuck Swindoll. So much greater than the pleasure at the time of planting. You will wish to goodness you had never done it. In our study of his celebrated life, we've come to that precarious season in the aftermath of David's rebellion, when we witness the consequences of his sin.

Yes, David would eventually find forgiveness for his immoral relationship with Bathsheba, but the ramifications of his poor choices would haunt him for the rest of his life. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll delivers this sobering reminder. His application is founded on the real life story recorded in 2 Samuel chapter 12. Chuck titled today's message, Riding Out the Storm. Now, what in the world do you do when you have really blown it? I mean, in a horrific way. Well, that's where we find David today. He has taken another man's wife. He has had her husband killed. He's deceived many people, and Nathan the prophet has now confronted him and told him that since you treated God with such contempt and took Uriah the Hittite's wife as your wife, killing and murder will continually plague your family.

Listen to those words. Killing and murder will continually plague your family. And that would be true for the rest of David's life. David is going to have to ride out one storm after another for as long as he lives.

Now the question is, how do you ride out a storm? Well, David gives us our first lesson in the scriptures I want to read to you from the message today. It's found in 2 Samuel chapter 12 verses 15 to 25.

Listen carefully. After Nathan went home, God afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and he came down sick. David prayed desperately to God for the little boy. He fasted, wouldn't go out, and slept on the floor. The elders in his family came in and tried to get him off the floor, but he wouldn't budge.

Nor could they get him to eat anything. On the seventh day, the child died. David's servants were afraid to tell him.

They said, what do we do now? While the child was living, he wouldn't listen to a word we said. Now, with a child dead, if we speak to him, there's no telling what he'll do. David noticed that the servants were whispering behind his back, and realized that the boy must have died. He asked the servants, is the boy dead?

Yes, they answered, he's dead. David got up from the floor, washed his face and combed his hair, put on a fresh change of clothes, then went into the sanctuary and worshiped. Then he came home and asked for something to eat. They set it before him, and he ate.

His servants asked him, what's going on with you? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept and stayed up all night. Now that he's dead, you get up and eat. While the child was alive, he said, I fasted and wept, thinking God might have mercy on me and the child would live. But now that he's dead, why fast? Can I bring him back now?

I can go to him, but he can't come to me. David went and comforted his wife Bathsheba, and when he slept with her, they conceived a son. When he was born, they named him Solomon.

God had a special love for him, and sent word by Nathan the prophet that God wanted him named Jedediah, God's beloved. You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the Bible with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures studies by going to insight.org slash studies.

And now the message from Chuck titled, Writing Out the Storm. Some of the most difficult experiences for the child of God to endure come in the backwash of sin. This is a subject that we do not like to think about. It is sort of, well it's sort of an unmentionable in the family of God. But it might surprise you to know how much God's word addresses it. As a matter of fact, back in the Old Testament, tucked away in one of the ancient prophet's writings, the prophet Hosea, there is a very clear verse in the 8th chapter that addresses it.

And he speaks of it in terms that all of us can understand. Hosea chapter 8, verse 7 is the verse in question or under study this evening. The whole principle related to this, they sow the wind and they reap the whirlwind. I want you to think about that for a moment.

It's a very vivid picture. They sow the wind and they reap the whirlwind. Hosea is talking about a nation in the 8th chapter, the nation Israel. The ones that cry out to God as if they knew him, verse 2 and 3. The nation that set up kings but not by me, verse 4. The nation that appointed princes but God didn't know the princes.

The nation that walked in their own way and as a result, they reaped the whirlwind. In our study in the life of David, we have come to this impasse and I won't linger here anymore, but I do want to spend another time on it so that all of us will learn an unforgettable lesson. That we are to take God seriously. That he means what he says about holiness. That we, as Peter writes, are to be holy even as our Father in heaven is holy. When we choose willfully to disobey our holy God, he does not wink at that sin and cover it over lightly, calling it grace. Grace tells us that he will not kill us. Grace is also our help during the time of the whirlwind to hold us together, to keep us strong, to stabilize us. But we may be sure that when we drop the seeds of the wind in the ground, we will reap the harvest of a whirlwind.

Let me give you another side on this that you might not have thought about. There are two kinds of suffering in the midst of the whirlwind. The kind of suffering that we deserve because we were the ones that disobeyed. And second, the kind of suffering we don't deserve but we get in the backwash of someone else's transgression.

Now don't miss that. A child who is raised by a thoughtless carnal parent suffers the consequences of that whirlwind as that child reaches puberty and on up into young adulthood. The child was available, the child was ready for learning, for training, for instruction, but the parent in rebellion and disobedience chose not to raise that child God's way. And all of a sudden that child reaps the whirlwind. And our society is a vivid illustration of what that is like. Not only is this found in Hosea chapter 8, but it's also addressed very clearly in Galatians chapter 6.

We were there last time in our study, but I want to return to it just for a moment. Galatians 6 verses 7 and 8. The reason I turn to this is because I know there are some who hear this teaching and say, well that's just Old Testament truth.

That's for people under the law. And I want you to see in a passage addressed to the people in the church, people in the grace era, Paul says the very same thing. Not in the same words, but the same principle. Galatians 6, 7. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption. Hosea said, they sow the wind, they reap the whirlwind. Paul writes, they sow to the flesh and they reap the harvest of corruption. The same truth is found in Proverbs chapter 6.

Go back there for a moment. Proverbs 6 verse 27. Now this is an extremely direct section of scripture. Proverbs 6 pictures the scene of the man in the street who is met by the harlot. And she makes her move toward him and she entices him through fleshly temptations. And the man is drawn unto her, or at least he would be, and Solomon's counsel is, be careful because in the pleasure of the moment there is a painful price you have to pay.

And the lesson comes in verse 27 of Proverbs 6. Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? The implied answer of course is no. Can a man walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?

Implied, no. Sow. Sow is the one who goes into his neighbor's wife. Whoever touches her will not go unpunished. If he sows the seed of carnality and lust, he will reap the harvest of a whirlwind, which is called in verse 29, not going unpunished.

Let me pause and make it even more relevant. Many of you are working in places where adultery is smiled at and is in fact encouraged. You go to a school where that's going on. Fornication is looked upon in our generation as doing your own thing. It's sort of the expected thing among not just the young adult but middle and old as well.

And it seems as though as the child of God watches this happen he wonders, well, maybe it isn't as bad as it's made out to be. After all, so many are doing it. In fact, it's encouraged. Rare is the person who doesn't break the bond of his marital relationship. Proverbs stands as a timeless truth for all to read.

If you go into one who is not your mate, you will not go unpunished. Now the best illustration in all scripture is David. Before we turn to it, let me give you the principle again.

I want to state it in words and then I want to illustrate it in the life of David. We reap what we sow, forgiveness notwithstanding. When you sow to the flesh and you confess that to the Lord God, you lay your life before him. He in grace forgives you and he assures you of his forgiveness. But in the forgiveness, there is not the immediate erasing of the consequences. In God's own way and for God's own purpose, he will take you through a period of time where there will be the whirlwind, sometime more painful than others. You see, the other side of the principle is this. The pain of the harvest eclipses the pleasure of the sowing or of the planting. The pain that comes in the whirlwind is so much greater than the pleasure at the time of planting, you will wish to goodness you had never done it.

I think the most tragic sense of all of this is when you are an innocent bystander, as it were, and you get the backwash of it. It reminds me of when I was in Miami some time ago. We went out to fish a little and it was sort of a stormy mid-afternoon time. As a matter of fact, I didn't know it, but where we were fishing was the Bermuda Triangle.

Man, I would have been one nervous baby if I'd have known it was the Bermuda Triangle. And here we are out in the middle of this vast section of water and we get the nose of the bow of the boats going down and coming up and the rains coming down. Boy, we're fishing for all it's worth. We hang this shark, huge shark. The skipper way up on top says, as he looks out, it's about a 10-foot shark. I thought, good Lord, what do we do now?

He says, we hooked one last week and we got it up to the boat and it weighed about 400 and something pounds. And I thought, Lord, make the line break now, right now. I don't want to bring this thing in. And sure enough, he broke the line. Well, we were coming in.

It was great, believe me. We came in. We were a little late, so we were really tooling along and came into harbor faster than we should have. And the backwash of our boat rocked all the other boats and banged them around there near the harbor.

That's bad to do that. In a hurry, coming in, you just sort of tool along, but boats sitting near the harbor are, you know, banging around. And that's exactly what happens in this kind of scene.

An individual runs his own way, steers his own ship, and the backwash is other people along the side pay the consequence along with you. I got on the airplane in Wichita to come back home some time ago and a woman caught my arm as I was walking by. And she said, I heard you in one of the meetings. And I met her husband and she and then I went on. And she later on came back from the plane and gave me a little note written on a little yellow piece of paper. And she said she told her story how one of her children, now grown, has walked away from God.

And the misery and the havoc it's wrecking on the home is unbelievable. And she said, would somebody please address this? She said, I've never heard a message where somebody talks about how do you ride out the storm when you're not responsible?

She said, we raised our son as best we could with what we had and now he's turned his heels on us and he's kicked over all the traces and he's going his own way and it is misery city. How do you ride out the storm when your boat's tied in harbor and someone else moves along and it's banging against? How do you handle that when it's somebody else that caused it or when you have caused it and you're reaping the whirlwind? What do you do?

How do you handle it? Second Samuel Chapter 12, David answers it for us vicariously. We enter into his experience.

It was F.B. Meyer who wrote, the greater the man, the dearer the price he pays for a short season of sinful pleasure. And that's certainly true of David the king.

A great man who compromised and the result is tragic. Not only was David affected, but innocent people who stood by became affected. Now let me show you how he acknowledged the sowing in verses 13 and 14. David said to Nathan, 2 Samuel 12, 13, I have sinned against the Lord. I have sinned.

He acknowledges the sowing. I went into Bathsheba. I committed adultery.

I took the life of her husband Uriah. I have been guilty of hypocrisy. I have sinned. And he declared it before God and Nathan heard him. He acknowledged the sowing. Nathan said to David, the Lord has taken away your sin. You shall not die. Now there's the promise of grace.

Why does he mention that? Because under the law, when you committed adultery, you were to be stoned. When you murdered someone, you were to be killed.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. And grace came to David's rescue and Nathan said, David, you won't die. Verse 14 begins, However, there's a whirlwind. Because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.

Now that's an awful thing to hear. God in those days spoke audibly to his people. Now that we have the Bible complete in our own tongue for us to read and to find our guidelines, God no longer speaks audibly in dreams or visions. He speaks from his word.

But in those days it was not so. And Nathan the prophet who spoke as an oracle of God said to David, You are forgiven. You will not die.

However, your baby will. And it's the first in a series of things that will happen, David, that will remind you that a man who sows in the flesh shall from the flesh reap the whirlwind of corruption. Now I find in David's response four helpful guidelines for us to follow today when we go through the whirlwind, either because we have caused it or we are in the backwash of someone else who caused it.

And I never know who's in the audience. I never know who hears these teachings from time to time when we're in God's word. But I always know not one message is said in vain.

For all I know, someone hearing my words at this very moment is in the midst of the whirlwind. And you wonder, how can I make it? What should I do? What is the best response?

Well, I offer you four guidelines. Number one, pray. Verse 15, Nathan went to his house. Then the Lord struck the child that Uriah's widow bore to David so that he was very sick. David therefore inquired of God for the child, and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground. Now we don't know much about that kind of protracted occasion of prayer and fasting. We don't handle a sin as they once did. It's almost with a sort of a glib response. We say, well, Lord, I've done this and I've done that, and I agree with you that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses me from all sin. That's it. Thank you.

And we go right on. But I don't find David doing that. When the whirlwind begins to start, when he feels that old hot breath of judgment coming upon him, he fell before God and he lay on the ground all night and he fasted. And he waited on the Lord. He sought his mind. As a matter of fact, the scripture says he inquired for the child.

What does that mean? Drop down to verse 22. He explains himself to the friends later, but we'll take a look at it right now. He said, while the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, who knows?

Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me that the child may live. What does it mean when he inquired of God?

It means that he said, Lord, I call upon you and upon your grace. I ask you if it be possible for you to alter your plan. I plead with you. Give me my child. I beg of you. I ask that of you because that is the desire of my heart. I've heard what you have said.

I will accept what you send. But I ask, I inquire of you, would it be possible that you could give me this child? He prayed. This is a pivotal moment in David's life. He's been confronted by Nathan for his egregious sin. His family is in absolute chaos, and now he's dealing with the painful consequences. Recently, Chuck Swindoll titled this message, Riding Out the Storm. To learn more about Insight for Living, we invite you to visit us online at insightworld.org. Well, we realize that today's message may touch a raw nerve for many families.

The story that's unfolded for your life doesn't look anything like the one you'd written for yourself. Rest assured, God knows about the storms you're going through, and he's prepared to guide you through the unwanted weather. As reinforcement, I'll encourage you to read Chuck's letter, which should have arrived in your home by now. His timely comments are founded on the passage that we studied in today's program. Plus, if you're determined to foster spiritual growth in your children and grandchildren this summer, be sure to check out our recommended resources. Chuck's newsletter clearly illustrates a wide variety of great options that are geared for every age and stage of life. For instance, you might not realize that Insight for Living offers some great options for your children and grandchildren.

So take a look at your choices at insight.org slash store. One of those options is a listener favorite of Chuck's devotionals called Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life. This classic collection of 144 readings will help you grow closer to God in whatever stage of life you happen to be in. To purchase Chuck's devotional book called Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life, go to insight.org slash offer.

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Or you can give online at insight.org slash donate. You've heard him teach about the Holy Land using word pictures to make us feel like we're actually strolling through the old city. Learning about Jerusalem is fascinating for sure, but seeing the land of Israel with your own eyes is life changing.

In fact, it's absolutely magnificent. And now you can see Israel with Chuck Swindoll and the gracious hosts and experts assembled by Insight for Living Ministries. Join us on an unforgettable 12-day tour, March 5th through the 16th, 2023. At special sites along the way, I will teach from God's word. We'll worship at the Mount of Beatitudes and share the Lord's table at the Garden Tomb. In fact, we'll sail the Sea of Galilee together and we'll visit places where Jesus walked and taught. To learn more, call 1-888-447-0444.

Just imagine walking along those sacred sites and seeing the Bible come to life before your very eyes. Mark your calendar for March 5th through the 16th, 2023. And make your reservation by calling 1-888-447-0444. Or go to insight.org slash events. Insight for Living Ministries Tour to Israel is paid for and made possible by only those who choose to attend. I'm Bill Meyer, inviting you to join us when Chuck Swindoll continues his message called Riding Out the Storm, Monday on Insight for Living. Copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.