The tale of David and Bathsheba isn't just an ancient narrative; it's a mirror reflecting the contrasts of love and lust that pervade our lives even today. We dissect this biblical account, unravelling the threads of temptation that can ensnare even the most devout hearts. As Kara and I weave through this historical lesson, we invite you to reflect on the nature of your own desires and the importance of nurturing love that's patient and kind over urges that promise instant gratification but lead to ruin.
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Kara's website - click here.
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Email - cheeruppodcast@gmail.com
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The tale of David and Bathsheba isn't just an ancient narrative; it's a mirror reflecting the contrasts of love and lust that pervade our lives even today. We dissect this biblical account, unravelling the threads of temptation that can ensnare even the most devout hearts. As Kara and I weave through this historical lesson, we invite you to reflect on the nature of your own desires and the importance of nurturing love that's patient and kind over urges that promise instant gratification but lead to ruin.
Would you like to support the Cheer UP! Podcast? You can do so by clicking here
Kara's website - click here.
Cheri's website- here.
Email - cheeruppodcast@gmail.com
Instagram - @kararhunt
Leave reviews on - Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Google Podcasts,
Hi and welcome to the Cheer Up podcast. I am your host, kara R Hunt, and with me is the lovely and beautiful and aspiring Sherry Swalwell. How are you doing today, sherry?
Speaker 2:I am doing really, really good today. And I heard on Facebook earlier this year like well, I guess it was about a month ago, but I want to run it by you because I thought it was so very cool. So you know how, like everybody does, like New Year's resolutions, and you know you take two weeks off around Christmas and then you hit the ground running and you've got all these goals and all these aspirations and all this stuff. And we're in February. And I know that you live in the Midwest, like I do, and so usually we get dumped with a lot of snow in February, but this year we've gotten quite a bit in January too. So I'm not sure if we're going to get a lot in February or not. It'll be interesting to see.
Speaker 2:But anyway, I heard this lady say on Facebook she was talking about how she had this client. She was a health coach or something and he was like oh, he's like I'm just dragging and I don't understand why. And she was like well, what are you doing? And he's like, well, I'm doing this and this and this and this and this, and he laid out all the stuff. She goes you're living, like it's summer, and he's like what she goes yeah, you're living like it's summer.
Speaker 2:She goes there are seasons that God gives us for a reason, like he created the four seasons for a reason. So the winter season is the season where you're supposed to rest, refresh, get your energy back. In the spring, you start to plan and you start to plant. In the summer it's full speed ahead. You harvest well, you don't harvest yet, but you grow what you planted and in the fall you harvest it and get ready for another rest.
Speaker 2:And I thought, oh my goodness, I want to live my life that way, like I want to be in the winter season, not just, you know, with like, wanting to eat comfort foods and stuff like that in the winter, but like I want to give myself permission to to have those four seasons and not be rush, rush, rush, hurry, hurry, hurry. Got to get it all done. Summer, summer season, 12 months out of the year, with a two month break. And I know that just because you're off the computer in the two weeks of Christmas, you're not taking a break. There is a lot of stuff that you're doing during Christmas. So what do you think? I just thought that was really kind of interesting.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love it 100% and echo it. And I was actually talking to a relative about that over our Christmas here, because in December it was like warm and there was no full sight and so and I'm like, and of course she's loving it right, she's like cause she's just not a snow, cold weather person and she's just loving it, and I'm like I don't know, like I maybe curtain, I need to pack up and go somewhere for the next few weeks because I want to be where it's cold for Christmas, because it just being a Midwestern, that's out of the ordinary.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Right, and we may not have snow. Right, we may not have snow, but at least the weather lets you know that you're in December. Then I'm right In Missouri and it just it was like what? 60 degrees or something. It felt like spring you know.
Speaker 2:Well, that's a problem. Then you get the buds out because the trees don't know what to do and they get all confused and yes, they get all confused. Yes, it's like a terrible cough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and everyone was sick. And I'm like see what happens when the seasons do not have their due time.
Speaker 2:Right, okay.
Speaker 1:And just like in our lives, it's the same thing. We cannot go into a spring where we have all this work to do and everything else, if we did not properly rest and strengthen ourselves during the winter. Right, oh my.
Speaker 2:God.
Speaker 1:And if you don't steady yourself in the spring, you're not going to be able to go full blast during the summer. Right, and during the summer, when all this stuff has to be done, you know, or you're preparing for the last. You know, you're like at the end of the uh, end of the roll, so to speak, with like everything, and you're like enjoying the weather and getting all this stuff done, but you know that fall is coming, where all that harvest is due. You have to pull everything out all the stops earlier mornings, later days, you know, and everything else. But if everything doesn't have its due season, you feel out of whack.
Speaker 1:Right you know um weather wise and in our personal lives. So, yes, I absolutely agree with that wholeheartedly.
Speaker 2:And then you get sick, just like you said. And then you get sick, Right?
Speaker 1:And then you can think if it doesn't have its due time because there's so many people in December and they're like, oh my gosh, I'm feeling this. I'm feeling that that's because the weather there's someone, you know, the weather went crazy. You know mother nature, whatever they call it, you know, and it was like you know, I laugh when I see memes like mother nature's upper mids, you know, and the seasons are all kind of, all kind of out of whack. But rest assured, it's February and I would not be surprised. Uh well, we definitely have the temperatures that have righted themselves, overrided themselves actually, right, instead of it just being cold, they went over cold to like minus 20 something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's like, you know, we're, it's over, you know, back back to its normal cold, cold weather. But you know, as we all know, february is also known uh, at least in America, I can't say globally, but at least in America is also known as the month of love, right? Because it's Valentine's Day and everyone's, you know, thinking about their Valentine's or the love of their life, or, you know, the schools start with it, they start decorating the hallways and you know, I don't know if elementary schools do this anymore, but back then my mom used to make sure we had boxes of cards to give out to every classmate.
Speaker 1:Okay, yup, um, yes, and sometimes candies, um, the little heart shaped candies, oh my gosh, they were so full of sugar so I I don't even know if they make those anymore, but it was a box of them and it was saying like be mine.
Speaker 2:Huh, yeah, they're doing that today because today's Valentine's Day.
Speaker 1:Oh, see what I mean it's like, and all the candies and stuff you know, and, um, yeah, and all the decorations and things like that. So at least here, like I said, I don't know about globally, um, but at least here, you know, everything's a Valentine's vibe and so, of course, we're talking about love this month, but we're also talking about the other side of love Lust. Oh, my heavens, if you guys were not able to tune in into last week's episode of the podcast, please go back and listen to it. After this one, of course, but go back and listen to it. And we talked about biblical love versus, um, earthly lust, fleshly lust, carnal lust, and and. And we um dove into the stories of, into the story of Boaz and Rup, which was a really awesome biblical example of biblical love. In this episode we're going to delve into lust and how that is so different from love. So again, welcome to your nation. This is the cheer up podcast and we are about to delve into it. We're about to get into it and we are going to talk about love versus lust. But first let's talk about, let's give a biblical, uh definition of what love is, and that can be found in the new.
Speaker 1:I'm reading from the new came new King James version uh, first Corinthians 13. And I'm going to start with um, uh, number uh, excuse me, verse four Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, it is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. And to read I just wrote a quick snippet um from that uh love scripture in first Corinthians, uh 13. So if you want to want to read it all, then you know, just read um chapter 13 verses. I think it goes all the way to, uh, chapter 13. All the way through verses 13. So if you want to read more about that biblical description of love, then you know you can just. And that's not kind of. That's what we're basing this series on for the month of February.
Speaker 1:For the month of February, all of the episodes are we're going to be talking about love versus lust and we're going to delve into some biblical stories that talk about that as well. And for lust, I just want to give a quick definition it's a longing desire, an eagerness to possess or enjoy. It is an evil propensity. It consists of depraved affections and desires. It is to eagerly, long, long after, to have a carnal desire, to desire eagerly the gratification of a carnal appetite. It is a regular and ordinate desires and to for those of you who are like the biblical basis for this biblical basis for these definitions, it's Exodus 15, romans 1, 2 Peter 2, psalm 81, james 1, deuteronomy 12, proverbs 6, matthew 5, matthew 5, I'm sorry, james 4, and 1 Corinthians 5, just to give a few that just kind of delve more into the description, the definition that I had just given. So, oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:Oh, and if you want to know me and Sherry's personal thoughts about you know, on love versus lust, again, we covered that in the first episode of this month, so just go, when you go back and listen to it. You'll be able to hear all of our personal thoughts on those two things right there. But today we're going to talk about one of the most well-known stories in the Bible and that's the story of David and Beth Sheba. Sherry, did you want to give it? Oh, wow, sherry, do you know of hand, exactly where that's found in? That's 2 Samuel, right.
Speaker 1:Yep, 2 Samuel 11 is when it starts Okay 2 Samuel 11, for those who, may, you know, just want to go back and read the story when the podcast is over. So it's in 2 Samuel 11, in the Old Testament of the Bible, and we're going to start and just talk about. Last week. We talked about love and we used the biblical stories Boaz and Ruth and Boaz. There and again, like I said, today we're going to be talking about lust. Sherry, can you give us a quick summary of the David and Beth Sheba story?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. First off, it starts off David is this war hero. He's like this mighty man of God who it talks about in Samuel when Saul was made king. So Saul was the first king ever that the Israelites ever had. They demanded a king. God wanted them to just have him as king and they said, nope, we want a human king. So God finally gave them what they wanted and Saul. It says that Saul killed thousands and David killed tens of thousands. So, and it also said Saul did not have a heart after God and David had a heart. His full heart was after God. So here we have King David, who is used to go. He's a warrior like God made him this warrior.
Speaker 2:When I think of David, I think of like a apostle Paul, I think of like people who are ready for the fight, people who don't necessarily whisper sweet nothing to their loved ones, but instead they're ready to just go out and defend them, and that's their love language. So we've got this guy, david. Well, here's his first mistake. He was supposed to go off to war with his men and he decided to be lazy. Laziness gets you in trouble every single time. So he stayed home. He got bored. It was late at night he went outside and he saw this woman taking a bath. Well, first off, she probably thought she was safe to take the bath because all the men were supposed to be at war. But no, the king decided to stay home. So he watches her, he looks after her. He sees how beautiful she is physically and he says I want to have her. So he calls her to her place, to his place. She's not allowed to say no, because he's the king. He ends up having sex with her. They end up getting pregnant, or she ends up getting pregnant, they end up having a kid. And so then he's like, uh-oh, now I need to cover my tracks. So what does he do? He says, okay, who's your husband? So he sends for the husband, hoping that he'll come home have sex with this woman. He'll think it's his kid. She'll think it's his kid, everything will be fine.
Speaker 2:But no, he's an honorable man and he says there's no way that I can go and sleep with my wife while all my men are out there fighting this battle that you're not fighting, king David, by the way. And so no, I think he didn't sleep with his wife, he didn't even go into his house, he stayed out with the men on this stoop or something. So David's like, okay, I'm going to try this again. So he calls Uriah into the palace, he gets him drunk and he says now he'll go home and he'll sleep with his wife and all will be good. But no, uriah wasn't that drunk. He still decided to do the honorable thing. He didn't sleep with his wife, went back and said then David's like oh goodness, what in the heck am I going to do now?
Speaker 2:So David sends a letter with Uriah. So Uriah is carrying this letter that says I want you to kill him, I want you to put him in the front of the battle, go back from him, withdraw from him and make it so that he'll die. So Uriah didn't know he was carrying this letter, but he was. He was feeling his own death. So he goes back, he gets killed. David gives Bathsheba enough time to mourn and then he ends up marrying her and making her one of his many wives. And so that is the basic, condensed version of how lust ruled David's heart for a little while. If you want me to go on further, I will about how, his punishment and so forth from Nathan. Or do you want me to stop there?
Speaker 1:Oh no, that's fine, because, you know, when you hear it summarized like that, it's almost like you're like wait, where is this book at? I want to go and read it. Right, you're like, I mean, we're talking not only are we talking about carnal lust, you know, we're talking about warriors, we're talking about man, we're talking about women, we're talking about murder. Right, we're talking about an unplanned pregnancy, right, he just thought David's like hmm, you know, she's looking mighty good over there. You know he sends his guys for her and brings her back and like, like Sherry said, you couldn't say no, he was the king, you know, and scholars go back and forth on whether you know she was raped or not, you know not like a person will rape, but like she still couldn't say no. Right, she just couldn't. I mean she could have, but it probably would have cost her life. And he knew she was married. He knew her husband was your right, he was one of his best men. The scriptures say he was one of David's elite men.
Speaker 1:But, like Sherry said, david didn't go to war. He happens, he can't sleep at night. He goes on a rule he sees that she, but he has him brought to her. He sleeps with her probably thinking maybe that would be it Right. But oh no, she ends up pregnant. And he's like oh, this is, this is going to be a problem. And he again, like Sherry described, he brings your Ryan off the war, out of the battlefield, and he's like you know, hey, you're one of my elite guys, you're so awesome and you need some rest. Then go home and enjoy your wife.
Speaker 1:And, like Sherry said, he didn't want to do that. He's like well, my man is still out on the field, I can't go do this. How can I enjoy my wife when they they're not, they don't have the same, they can't enjoy the same pleasure. So he got him drunk. He tried the same thing. Never didn't, didn't work. Then David's like Okay, well, I have to kill you. And the saddest thing is like Sherry said, um, he was carrying his own death warrant. He didn't even know it, know it. It wasn't like he could open it, because once it's something to feel about the king, and if it's open, offer your head, right, you know. So it wasn't like he could open it, but so he took it to his head. Captain and I forget his name now you know and everything else, and I think the captain was.
Speaker 2:I think the captain was related to David too.
Speaker 1:I think that he was part of David's relatives, or one of David's relatives, right and he's like, and so he's like, he opens the letter and all he's like oh, he want me to kill you for you, you know, and uh, and so he put him, so he puts you right in a very um, um, contentious position with the enemies and of course he dies, you know, and everything else. And then you know, david's kind of like oh well, that went off. Okay, Now, uh, my secret is safe because, uh, he's thinking, because it's because, basically, well, what happened is that that she but would have started showing eventually, right, imagine the scandal. Her husband has been in a battlefield, right, most of them weren't allowed to come home. Sure, david brought him in from the field, but that was only because the king requested him to come home, but he didn't sleep with his wife. But imagine if he hadn't even brought your right.
Speaker 1:At home, you have a woman whose husband is in a who's, in a pregnant. You can't hide that. Surely tongues are going to wag, right, or worse. People were stoned, women were stoned for stuff like that back then, you know, and children were, um, oh, listen, we're not mocked, not banned.
Speaker 1:Uh look down upon huh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I said labeled, but yeah, look down upon is much better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just very severely, seriously, look down upon like nothing we've seen to this to this day kind of thing, like you know, and it's in our current culture. I should say, um, but it was almost like, yeah, they call them bastard children, didn't they? You know, and they would just, you know, it was just like you, you never could get out of that. Like here, you know, you kind of redeem yourself and then people are like, oh, you know, he's not so bad, but back then that was just a label that was carried right, and then Bathsheba would have had to lie, you know, um, and and then David King David would have had to been like I don't know who, that baby, who, who, who, who that baby daddy is right Exactly To use, to use today's vernacular when he know exactly who it is. And then, your eyes on the battlefield, he's like how is my wife pregnant, right? So it would have just been one huge, you know Manga scandal in David's kingdom and it would have caused all sorts of issues for that child Um, even even life wise. I think he probably would have been killed, um, the child um, and everything else.
Speaker 1:So, but it all just started because he went on a roof one night, not just to get some fresh air. Well, I think that was the intention, right. He wanted to maybe get some fresh air, hope it helped him go to sleep. But then he sees Bathsheba, and that wasn't. That wasn't one of his many wives. She wasn't one of his many wives, she wasn't even one of his many concubines, which, by the way, he had access to. He could have went into any one of them, right, but he didn't. He just had to have Bathsheba.
Speaker 1:And that's where the lust comes in. It's like an uncontrollable desire to have or possess something that does not belong to you, and it becomes evil in a way, especially in this case, because she couldn't say no, you know she couldn't say no. And so she's like, and especially if her heart was just really entwined and knitted with her husband, that had to be heartbreaking for her to even engage in an act like that, right. And then she, you know, you have to imagine she's like do I tell my husband this, like, do I tell him what's happening? Do I tell him what's going on, you know? So I can just imagine her inner turmoil when this was all going on.
Speaker 1:But, david, he was just like taking over in a way, because the man, the man, or it was the man he sent for her, or someone or one of his workers, said oh, that's Uriah's wife, right? So he knew, he knew, when he had her, both of him that she was married and he knew that, you know, she was the wife of one of his elite men. But none of that stopped him. That is how wrong a desire that lust can create in someone, right? You? Just, you know all those things and you're just like, you know what I'm going to do it anyway, I'm not looking at anyone, do it, I'm the king, you know, and things like that.
Speaker 1:Well, that was all by Ndandy, because she was, because she ended up pregnant. But as he didn't account for that, because the spirit of lust was so strong, he wasn't even thinking, like, you know what. This could go sideways really quick and really fast, and I may end up losing one of my most me and over this, or he may even try to come after me. Right, he didn't just, he just saw what he wanted at that moment. He had to have it at that moment, he wanted to enjoy this, another man's wife at that moment, and he didn't think any further than that. But consequences have a way of coming back to haunt us, don't they, sherry?
Speaker 2:They sure do. And before we get into the consequences, I think I want to read this little part when Nathan goes to rebuke him, because this goes to show you what Kara just said about how he did not pay any attention to anything except for the lust that was driving him forward.
Speaker 2:So Nathan was the prophet during this time and Nathan was the one that was appointed to the king, so kind of like an advisor or whatever, over the king. So he was the one that David listened to and David trusted. And so he came to David and he said there were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little U lamb he had bought. He raised it and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drink from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
Speaker 2:Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man restrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead he took the U lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him. David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan as surely as the Lord lived, the man who did this must die. He must pay for that lamb four times over because he did such a thing and had no pity. Then Nathan said to David you are that man. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. I anointed you king over Israel and I delivered you from the hands of Saul. I gave your master's house to you and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah, and if all of this had been too little, I would have given you even more.
Speaker 2:Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down your eye of the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonite. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house because you despised me and took the wife of your eye of the Hittite to be your own. Wow, david did not wake up until Nathan confronted him with that, and I just think that is so powerful. David was ruled by lust. Then he was angry and said, oh, this man should die. How horrible would he do something like that? Until Nathan turns around and says, uh, that man is you, david.
Speaker 1:Absolutely and basically, when you look at it, when he was saying this man had all these sheep and you know, um, and all this cattle and all this stuff, the rich man right that pretty much he was saying David you had all the, you got all these wives.
Speaker 1:You have all these crackerbots. You could have gotten anyone you wanted to, right, he's like you could have had anyone, but no, all your right ahead was this one thing that was so precious to him and you took that from him all for your own selfish desires. Not only that, you murdered him. It was murder, clearance, simple. And because of that, the, the, the, the blade of the sword will never leave your house and you guys can continue to read into um, uh, uh. Second Samuel to what happens after Nathan gives their prophecy um, because it all comes true.
Speaker 1:So here's David, a man of God, the same one who wrote, like the book of Psalms, right, the same one who has so many just um scriptures of comfort and and and wisdom and strength and encouragement. The same guy fell victim to lust and he fell big time, to where he even killed one of his own elite men. That is the power, that lust, that the spirit of lust can have over someone. And, like Sherry just said, he didn't realize it until the prophet of the Lord came to him and said you've done this and you've done a bad thing, and because of this, this is what's going to happen between you and your family, you know between your family? And do you think David, when he was standing on a roof and looking at Bethsheba, thought about all those consequences that would haunt him for generations to come? If you finished reading all the way through that, it would haunt him for generations to come. Do you think he thought of the depth of the consequences? Or was he just thinking about his five, 10, 15, maybe 20 minutes of pleasure? Right, he was. He was only thinking at the moment. Lust blinds you to the, to the, to the rest of it. It just keeps you singularly focused on what you, what is in front of you at the moment, and that is something that we have to continually guard our hearts from, right? I mean, not many of us go out and see, go out on our roof, so to speak, and just see someone, and we just automatically, like I got to have them and have the power to get them to you that night, right, you know, without force, I should say that right, and be able to have them brought to your, to your bedroom, that night for you to do with them as you will. And he was the king and he had the ability to do that.
Speaker 1:And I mean, and you just follow that a little bit longer in the book of second Samuel and you see that his son did the same thing, his firstborn son, amon. He was in love with his sister, his 15 year old half sister, david was both of their fathers but they had different mothers, and I think Emma was the oldest and she was 15. And he was. The King James version says he was faxed over his sister because he had to have her. That's the same fruit of lust that there is David dealt with now his son was having to deal with. But it all started with David.
Speaker 1:You know the sins of the father going to second and third generations I think second Samuel talks about In that scripture as well. And so now here's his, here's his first one son dealing with the same thing and he's lifting after his 15 year old sister and then he manipulates and connives and deceives her to come in. You know, puts on this whole show about oh, I'm sick, you know, dad can, can you send my sister here to help me? You know my sister Tamar, to come and help me. And they just thinking like, and mine is really sick, and he's like, sure, I'll send her to help you, you know, and everything else. And then you know Tamar goes and she tries that. You know she's feeding him and helping him, thinking she's helping him recover, and the whole time he's got plans. He's planning on raping her and the rape that he did to his half sister, tamar or Tamar, depending on how you want to pronounce it that was a bit the the biblical word used there is such as a violent rape. He violently raped at her, he violently raped her and forced her to have sex with him and got her there by deceitful means and he did that. And then afterwards, you know, she begged him. Not to the scripture you could. You can hear the dialogue between the two of them. She's like no, no, no, don't do this. You know what are you doing, don't? You know how this is gonna affect both of us? You know, in the end, because they should be considered. What soiled and tainted am I right, sherry, you know? And in the effort to happen at the hands of her brother, of all people Right, and he forces her anyway and it treats her like absolute crap afterwards, you know, and blames her pretty much for causing him to do that.
Speaker 1:And the most heartbreaking piece to me is like she had on these beautiful colors, like these beautiful I don't want to say cloak, because that wasn't it, oh, what are they called? Like a A lot of scars. Call colorful dress that they have very, all the different colors on them, which is what virgins wore back at that time, because virginity was held in high honor, right. And so it's like when the guys would see them in these beautiful, these beautiful clothing and colorful clothing, they were like, oh, my goodness, she's a virgin, right and and someone who they would want to marry, and it was held in high esteem. And a part that gets me is that, after, after she's been brutally and forcibly raped by her own brother, she tears off, tears off her honor because she no longer can call herself a virgin, something she had wore so proudly and, in that culture, was so Important for her to have if she was ever find a good husband, and she just ripped it. And she, she, she just starts crying. And she ripped it because she's. It's not something she did, it was taken from her, it was stolen from her and her other brother, her full brother, who they both had, king David, was both of her dad and they had the same mom Was like very upset and in what happens. He plots to kill the brother who raped his sister. So the sword never leaves David's house. And again it all goes back to the day he went to the roof and he was looking at someone who did not belong to him. It is crazy.
Speaker 1:And you sit here, you look at these stories and you say, yeah, Kara, but no one does anything like that. Today I'm married to my husband. You know I would never Let down my guard like that. But we have to remember. You know, when I was worked in an office environment, women used to laugh and tease about men in the office. Right, they would say, oh, these my work husband. Or Jack is my work husband. You know, our Ed is my work husband and because they spent some more time with them than they did, their real-life husband. And that never said, right with me. Because if we don't guard our hearts and we start looking at people like that, that is how lust seeps in. And little examples just like that. Am I right, sherry?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I was just reading something the other day, too, where it was talking about Even if you never have physical intimacy with somebody, an emotional affair is as bad or worse To recover from, because it it's as devastating or more devastating than a physical adultery relationship.
Speaker 1:It absolutely is and you're like because you know, I think it's, it's, it's, it's one thing when you break that covenant, that marital covenant, to sleep with someone, but you're also breaking a marital covenant by not guarding your heart emotionally.
Speaker 2:You know, because a woman, especially as a woman.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely 100%. Because if you know what and it if it's not it, they almost always end up leading to a full-blown affair, regardless you know. And or even if you don't have sex with them. But if you're confiding more and Someone who's not your spouse and you're telling them intimate details about your spouse, such as oh, my husband never compliments me. Oh, I wish my husband told me I was beautiful. Oh, you always notice when I have a different hairstyle. I wear a new dress. My husband never does. Stop it, stop it. Stop it. Stop it because, just like David had no idea that him just going out onto the roof was going to affect him for generations to come, you have no idea where that's going to lead. If you have issues with your spouse, talk to them about it. Talk to them alone about it. Learn how to communicate with them. Leave them notes. If you feel like they're not hearing you verbally, write a note, type out a note. Put it in a group cake in their briefcase On their desk or in their lunchbox, you know, wherever.
Speaker 1:You know they're gonna see the note and be like oh my right, romantic note, you know, and they're gonna read it, text them. Okay, if you don't want to write out a note, you can send them a text and be like you know what? You? You never tell me these things and these are important to me, you know. I need words of affirmation, you know, or something like that.
Speaker 1:All these things like that can be Resolved and or talked about and or dealt with a whole lot easier than if you Try to combine if someone of opposite sex about it, because then you're in engaging in an affair You're an engaging in an emotional affair and and creating ties, emotional ties and hard times with someone who does not belong to you. You're not married to them and haven't forbid if they're married to someone else. Have you thought about how their spouse make feel about him or her Combining things into you that they have no idea what's going on? So many people get hurt in situations like that and May may it just stay emotional, possibly, but the chances are that's gonna lead to hugging, touching, hand holding and it all may seem innocent at first, but then again, just like what happened with David, it can go South very fast. Am I right, sherry?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, absolutely, and I don't want to take away from the thread that you're you're talking about now, but I believe, if I'm remembering right back in the custom back in Israel's day was if Amnon had married Tamar not that the rape would have been accepted or acceptable or Approved of, but if he had married her, then that would have at least kept her honorable quote-unquote, like she wouldn't have had that label on her.
Speaker 1:But I read her.
Speaker 2:It talks about in the, in the Bible, how she Reject, or how he rejected her as soon as it happened. Like you said, he despised her and he threw her out, and so that, then, though, does circle back around to what you were talking about, where it may. It may be Exciting at first if you're missing something in your marriage and you go for it outside of your marriage, which both of us highly recommend, that you don't, that you run in the opposite direction, but it can seem exciting at first, but it's driven by a selfish desire, it's driven by Selfishness, not by unselfishness, and so it's not going to end up well at all Like there. It's just not. It's just not, so it can't, it's right can't.
Speaker 1:by the very nature of it it can't. And especially as Christians, you know better. Right you know better and, like Sherry say, it seems all exciting at first. You know, this person makes your body tingle and makes you smile and you blush every time you see them, and everything else. And in one day that culminates in something that it never should have. And it may be very enjoyable, it may even be explosive. But then what, then? What? Right Now you've broken.
Speaker 1:Not only have you broken your marital covenant and your tie with your spouse. Now you now guess what happens. It went beyond lust, it went beyond infidelity, it went beyond adultery. Now the lies start, right. So now it's like it just keeps going more. Now the lies start. Now the deception starts. Oh, I, oh, I, just oh. When you tried to come Call me at work, oh, I just left my phone there. I went out to grab a bite to eat, now in full. Well, you were doing something with someone else that you weren't supposed to be doing it.
Speaker 1:Just one simple act easily leads to other simple acts and they just keep continuing. They just keep continuing. There's no good way out of that. Once again result there could be divorce. There could be children that get hurt in the process, there could be people who could get physically hurt in a process, not to mention all the broken hearts. You know along that it just will not and cannot in that.
Speaker 1:Well, and a lot of times you think you're so special to that person right, you're, they're so special. Oh my gosh, they just, they just love me. They love the way I look, the way I walk, the way I act. They just love everything about me. But, dear one, you weren't special to them, you were just next. It was lust that was fueling all of those desires. And then, just like Amon did with Tamar, they're disgusted with you. They, they, they. They don't want anything else to do with you and it's roaring you out.
Speaker 1:It may not happen the first time, it may not happen the second time, but eventually what happened? And then you're devastated and then you go down another downward spiral of rejection and depression and possibly even suicidal thoughts, because you gave yourself to this person, broke your marriage to Marital Valve, all because you thought that you know that this person will be able to give you something that the other person wasn't. And it never ends well that way. It just it doesn't. And so we just encourage you that if you are anywhere between any type of relationship like that, or even something that has a potential to lead to something like that, run, do not walk. Run away from that situation immediately, bleeding, resisting enemy, and he will flee, because all he wants is your destruction. And it may look all pretty on the outside, but he's not telling you the other side of it.
Speaker 1:David didn't know the other side of it until Nathan, until Nathan told him about it and it was already written to him. It was nothing David could do to stop it. He even prayed and fasted that the child that Bathsheba would have would live, because there was also a part of that prophecy, right, sherry, that the baby would die, right, right, that the baby that Bathsheba was going to give to it would die. And David thought God would have mercy on him and he prayed and he fasted, I think he said, and everything else, and he hoped the baby would live. But it didn't die. The prophecy was already written that this stuff is going to happen and it all started because he lusted after someone else's wife. That led to a murder, excuse me, that led to a pregnancy. That led to a murder. That led to generations after him. More rapes, more murders, more lies, more deception.
Speaker 1:I don't know how much more we can say than that, that if you're involved in something like that and it may not even be another person, it can be pornography. You could be lusting at the people you see on the screen that you have no contact with. You may think, oh, where's the harm? All I'm doing is just looking at this woman or man on the screen. The harm goes because you opened up that portal and you're letting that spirit of lust end and before you know it, you're going to be looking at every woman that way, married or unmarried, and then it eventually leads to other things and lustful thoughts. You know, with women, with children, with men, it doesn't end. The enemy has no desire to bless your life, he only wants to destroy it and ruin it. That's all he wants to do. Is there anything you want to add to this, sherry?
Speaker 2:The only thing I want to say is everything that Kara said was true and so point on. But God, if you find yourself in that kind of a situation, don't think that just because don't think that you are irreparable.
Speaker 2:David goes on. After he fasted for seven days, the baby still died. He got up, he ate, he washed his face and he went on. And the people in this house were like, well, what's going on here, when, when the baby was just six, david fasted and looked like he was going to die and now, as the baby's dead, he's acting like everything's great. And they asked him that and he said I fasted because I hoped that God would take mercy on me. God went ahead and did what he needed to do. The consequences of my sin had to happen, but he turned back to God. He repented, he asked for forgiveness and he turned back to God.
Speaker 2:And, like I said at the very beginning that we were talking about today, David is known throughout the Bible as a man after God's own heart. God does not forsake us. God does not turn his back on us. God does not wipe his hands clean of us when we mess up. He knows we're going to mess up. He knew before we were even born how badly we're going to mess up. He knows before we make the choice to mess up. David knows everything and he loves us regardless. Does that mean that he loves our sin? Absolutely not. Does that mean that there's not consequences? Absolutely not. But it means that you're never too far gone to come back to God. You're never too far gone to make that decision, to say Lord, I repent of what I did, I ask for forgiveness, come into my life.
Speaker 2:Or if you're already a believer, don't think that that excludes you. Just because you're a believer does not mean you're going to live a perfect life. Just because you're a Christ follower does not mean that you'll never sin again. Being a Christ follower just means that you know that you mess up, that you know you're not perfect and you need a savior. So if you find yourselves in those situations and you need someone to talk to, you need prayer or you need encouragement, reach out to us at the CheerUp Podcast at gmailcom. There's no judgment coming from us whatsoever, but we would be more than honored to come alongside you and pray with you, to speak the truth and love to you, to offer grace and to say hey, you know. If you want to get back in right standing with God, if you want to have that open relationship with God without this sin hindering your communication with Him, here's what you need to do. We would be more than happy, more than willing, we'd be honored and blessed to have those conversations with you. So, just because, if you find yourself in a situation that you don't even know how you found yourself there, you took one step, one move in the opposite direction and now you've gone down this rabbit hole and you want out. But God, he's right there, waiting and willing. There's just one choice you have to make to move upward, and then He'll keep giving you the steps and the encouragement and the love and the direction and the grace to keep making one more step and one more step and one more step, in right relationship with Him.
Speaker 2:I have had such a great time talking about David and Bathsheba, about Pimar and Amnon and Absalon today. I hope you guys have enjoyed it too. Head over to Kara's website, karaarchantcom. Find out all the latest and greatest about her over there. You can head over to my website, charryswallwellcom. You can find out about the different books that I have, about the membership, about the YouTube channel, all of those things. Join our Facebook group, cheer up podcast on Facebook and come back next week. Kara, who are we going to be talking about next week?
Speaker 1:I think we're going to be doing. You know what I'm just going to say. It's either going to be Joseph and Mary or Sansa and Delilah. Now I'm going to give that as a tease to bring you guys back to finish listening to the Love versus Lust series. I'm going to let you. You know, they can't even really be a game because most people, whether you're Christian or not, know the story of Joseph and Mary and or Sansa and Delilah. You probably know which one's going to be love and which one's going to be lust, but you're going to be a surprise. You're going to have to tune in again next week to see which one we're going to do. Either way, we look forward to seeing you guys then.
Speaker 2:Have a great rest of your week. Have a great rest of your day today and come back next week.