When God Closes a Door, He Opens a Window?

"When God closes a door, He opens a window." Log that one among everyone's favorite Bible verses not found in the Bible. Where does this saying come from anyway? Well, you can thank Rogers and Hammerstein for the phrase the way we have it. In "The Sound of Music," the main character Maria says, "When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window."

Hey, maybe you didn't get that job or the house you wanted and your dreams did not come true. But cheer up! When God closes a door, he opens a window! You know, it sounds like you just said God's way is not as great as your way.

Have you considered that maybe God shut your door because He wanted you in the house when it came down? That's the part we don't like to think about. We don't want to imagine that God would ever make us go through anything hard. But 2 Corinthians 1:9 says this is to "make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." Romans 8:29 says it's to make us more like Christ.

James 1:2-4 says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you face trials of various kinds, for you know the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

Rather than saying, "When God closes a door, He opens a window," consider Psalm 37:23-24, which says, "The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when He delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand," when we understand the text!

Did David Rape Bathsheba?

You know the story of David and Bathsheba, right? David took a walk on his roof one afternoon, and saw Bathsheba bathing. So he had her brought to him and spent the night with her. Bathsheba sent word to David that she was pregnant. So to cover the affair, David had her husband Uriah killed in battle and quickly married Bathsheba.

Now, there's been a growing interest in saying David raped Bathsheba. Some have gone as far as insisting we must interpret the story this way, or else victims of abuse will feel betrayed by the church. That sounds less like a right understanding is being drawn from the text, and more like social concerns are being imposed onto the text.

Setting aside varying defintions of rape, the Bible doesn't say David raped Bathsheba. In fact, 1 Kings 15:5 says that David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all his days, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

Besides, you could make as much of a case that Bathsheba seduced David—bathing in the afternoon where she knew the king would be taking his constitutional? You might say, "But the Bible doesn't say that!" Exactly.

Here's what the Bible does say. David was a shepherd turned King of Israel. He was entrusted to shepherd the people of God, and he took another man's wife and had that man killed. From the line of David would come the greater Shepherd King, Jesus Christ, who laid down His life for the sheep.

In mourning over his sin, David prayed, "Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God of my salvation," and the Lord was merciful to him. No matter the sin—whether it's adultery, rape, theft, or murder—forgiveness is found in Christ, when we understand the text.