[Note: The following is the prepared text for a split sermon message given to the Portland congregation of the United Church of God on Sabbath, November 30, 2024.]

In 1988, the band Bruce Hornsby & The Range released their second album, Scenes From The Southside–they were from Virginia, after all–and the second single released off of that album was a song called “Look Out Any Window.” Hitting #35 on the pop charts that year, this song is one of only a few hit songs that has ever been about the subject of pollution. With a chorus that goes: “Look out any window, look out any open door, look out any window, and you’ll see what’s going on in the world around you,” the song tells the listener that by looking out their window that they can understand the world outside them and see inside the hearts of other people, especially wealthy business owners, judging their motives and intents in causing pollution and harming the lives of common farmers and fishermen.

Why does this matter? What is the importance of an obscure pop song that only a music nerd is going to remember anyway? As it happens, Bruce Hornsby shares a quality with at least four people in the Bible for seeking insight about the world around them and the hearts of others by looking out of a window. The Bible has a surprising amount to say about the subject of looking out of windows, and most of what it has to say is quite critical at those who think that they can see inside of others by doing so. Today, in my split sermon I want to examine the pattern that the Bible shows about looking out of the window, examine why the Bible is so critical about the habit–a habit we can easily fall into in our own lives, and give a brief discussion of what windows are good for in the Bible apart from looking out of and trying to judge the hearts of others from our own personal perspective.

Before we begin looking at the passages that talk about looking out the window, let us briefly discuss two Hebrew words of interest in our discussion. The first is the word for window. This word is pronounced something like “khal-lone'” and it means, rather simply, a window, and it occurs 31 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. The second word of interest is pronounced something like “esh-nawb'” and it means something like a lattice. This word only appears twice in the Hebrew, but it just so happens that both times this word is used is in connection with looking out the window. When we look at these two words together, there is some interpretive work that should go on. Looking through a window with a lattice means that we are not seeing the outside clearly, because the lattice is getting in the way and blocking out some of the details. We can see some things, but we should be aware that our vision is hindered and that we are not seeing everything. Having a sense of humility regarding our powers of observation is a wise policy, but unfortunately it is both rare in the Bible and in life.

In the historical prophets, there are three stories that discuss someone looking out of a window, and in all of the cases the Bible gives a negative picture of what they are thinking about what they are seeing. When the Bible repeats a pattern like this, we ought to pay attention to what it is saying and see how it is relevant in our own lives, and judging based on what we see is certainly something where we can definitely go wrong. We will look at these three stories in turn, starting with the story of Sisera’s mother in Judges 5:28-30, then moving on to Michal looking at David through the window in 2 Samuel 6:16-23, and then examining the end of Jezebel’s life in 2 Kings 9:30-37. Let us examine each of these examples in turn and see what biblical pattern emerges from these three stories.

The first story of someone looking out their window that we will examine today comes from Judges 5:28-30. This particular incident occurs at the end of the Song of Deborah (and Barak). Judges 5:28-30 reads: ““The mother of Sisera looked through the window, and cried out through the lattice, ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarries the clatter of his chariots?’ Her wisest ladies answered her, yes, she answered herself, Are they not finding and dividing the spoil: to every man a girl or two; for Sisera, plunder of dyed garments, plunder of garments embroidered and dyed, two pieces of dyed embroidery for the neck of the looter?’”

When we read this story, we know what happened. Sisera’s mother, like many an anxious mother, wonders why her son hasn’t come home yet, and she comforts herself by thinking that the delay in her son’s coming home is because he has so much loot and so many slave girls to divvy up among the soldiers that it is taking him a long time to get back home after the battle. We know, though, that Sisera is dead, having fled in defeat from his chariot and having a tent peg driven through his temple as he slept in the tent of a married woman. While we might think that Sisera’s mother is to be pitied for her tragic misreading of the situation, the Bible goes out of its way to lead us away from viewing her with pity, telling us in the verse after this passage, in Judges 5:31: ““Thus let all Your enemies perish, O Lord! But let those who love Him be like the sun when it comes out in full strength.”” The psalmist here wants all of God’s enemies, and all of Israel’s enemies–including Sisera’s mother–to have the same shameful end that Sisera did.

How does Sisera’s mother get it so wrong, though? Her wise women and her own delusions of victory for her evil son lead her astray. The passage here, in translation, covers one of the most shameful aspects of the way that Sisera talks about Israelites, in that the word used for “girl” or “damsel,” depending on the translation you have, is the Hebrew word rakh’am, objectifying the young women of Israel as wombs meant to carry the children of their Canaanite masters. She envisions the property of Israel as being the spoil of the wicked Sisera and other Canaanite oppressors. She revels in the thought that her son is delayed because he is despoiling God’s people, when in reality her son’s army has been completely defeated and her son killed in embarrassing circumstances. Her hostility to God’s ways and God’s peoples blinds her to the truth of her situation.

Nor is she alone in that. Let us now turn to 2 Samuel 6:16-23 and see how a similar blindness and a similar partiality in judgment afflicts Michal, wife of King David, and see what disastrous results it has for her. 2 Samuel 6:16-23 reads: “Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.  So they brought the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.  And when David had finished offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts.  Then he distributed among all the people, among the whole multitude of Israel, both the women and the men, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins. So all the people departed, everyone to his house. Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, “How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” So David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the Lord.  And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor.” Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.”

This particular story reminds us of the hatred that can exist between people who are close to each other and know how to hit each other where it hurts. While David enthusiastically celebrates the transfer of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, showing God’s favor to his rule and the reversal of decades of estrangement between Israel and the symbol of their worship of God, Michal looks out the window at David, deliberately misrepresents his enthusiastic worship of God as being something disgraceful and dishonorable, and despises him in her heart. When David returns to his household after having offered freewill sacrifices to God and giving gifts of food to other worshippers of God in Jerusalem, his wife holds him in contempt by accusing him of shamelessly parading his lack of modesty and decorum. David, in turn, mocks Michal’s father for having been rejected by God for Him and says that the maidservants whom Michal contemptuously looks down on will honor him just as they honored God. Neither Michal nor David look very generous in their putdowns, but David was the king, and as a result of Michal’s hatred of David and her disrespect towards him she was put away and never had any children until the day of her death. Like Sisera’s mother, she was left isolated and alone as a result of her hostility towards God’s anointed king and because of her lack of interest in celebrating what was a happy day for Israel and a sign of David’s desire to bring the worship of God into a prominent place within his kingdom. Had Michal been less of an enemy of God’s will, she might not have spoken so unwisely and condemned herself to such a lonely fate.

Let us now turn to our third example of a disastrous looking through the window. We find the story of Jezebel’s end in 2 Kings 9:30-37. 2 Kings 9:30-37 reads: “Now when Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she put paint on her eyes and adorned her head, and looked through a window. Then, as Jehu entered at the gate, she said, “Is it peace, Zimri, murderer of your master?” And he looked up at the window, and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” So two or three eunuchs looked out at him.  Then he said, “Throw her down.” So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses; and he trampled her underfoot.  And when he had gone in, he ate and drank. Then he said, “Go now, see to this accursed woman, and bury her, for she was a king’s daughter.”  So they went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.  Therefore they came back and told him. And he said, “This is the word of the Lord, which He spoke by His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel; and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as refuse on the surface of the field, in the plot at Jezreel, so that they shall not say, “Here lies Jezebel.” ’ ””

What do we notice from this particular story? When Jehu had finished killing the King of Judah and the King of Israel, both of whom were related closely to the House of Omri (Ahab’s father), he came to Jezreel to finish the job of destroying Ahab’s dynasty. Jezebel looks out the window and judges Jehu as a usurper whose reign would be as inconsequential as that of Zimri, who overthrew his king and ruled for seven days before burning himself and the palace down, killing himself. Jezebel put makeup on and adopted the airs of a seductress, and then fatally and disastrously insulted Jehu as being a bloody usurper who would leave no lasting trace in Israel’s history, and both aspects of her judgment of him as being susceptible to his wiles and being easily intimidated by her insults were mistaken. As a result of her mistake, she was tossed out of the window she had looked out of by her eunuchs, leading to death by defenestration. After her death, the prophecy of Elisha concerning Naboth’s vineyard would be fulfilled, so that Jezebel did not even have a grave for people to go to, despite being both the daughter and wife of powerful kings.

What kind of pattern do we see in these three biblical stories that we have seen so far? So far, we have read three stories of powerful women looking through the window and making misjudgments about the reality that is going on in the world around them. Sisera’s mother was the mother of a powerful general, and instead of slave girls and plunder, her son was killed in the tent of another man’s wife. Michal looked out of her window and despised David in her heart, judging him as shameless and immodest. She was put away by David and never had any children. Jezebel looked outside of her window at an anointed king of Israel and that that she could either seduce or bully him, and wound up being tossed outside of that same window to her death. In all cases, these women opposed God’s anointed leaders and were hostile to God’s ways, and their looking through the window with an attitude of judgment and contempt made them God’s enemies. As a result, they suffered great loss because of their foolish hostility to God and to those leaders God had appointed to accomplish His will.

So far we have looked at three situations where people looked out of a window, and judged both harshly and incorrectly, to their great loss. Are there any cases where someone looks out of a window and judges a situation correctly? As it happens, there is one such example, which we can find in Proverbs 7:1-9. Proverbs 7:1-9 reads: “My son, keep my words, and treasure my commands within you. Keep my commands and live, and my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding your nearest kin, that they may keep you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words. For at the window of my house I looked through my lattice, and saw among the simple, I perceived among the youths, a young man devoid of understanding, passing along the street near her corner; and he took the path to her house in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night.”

We can notice something very striking about this example in that there are both striking similarities as well as striking differences between this passage and the previous three that we have looked at. This passage goes on for much longer, but I don’t wish to dwell on the details that Solomon paints here of the unwise young man whose folly with regards to being unable to avoid the allures of the seductive adulteress and finding that this folly leads in turn to his death. If you wish to read the rest of the passage you are free to do so on your own for your own personal Bible study on the subject. What I do wish to draw attention to, though, is that Solomon looks out the window and through the lattice he sees a situation in great detail and judges it very harshly. So far we are on a similar path to what we have seen before in these stories. The differences, though, are profound. Solomon has obviously taken the time and effort not only to see and judge quickly, but he has noticed a great deal about the situation and has a firm grasp of the reality that he judges. Moreover, he does not condemn God’s righteous people or righteous leaders, but as an anointed ruler he judges someone who believes foolishly according to God’s laws and ways. As a result of paying a great deal of attention to judge accurately and judging according to God’s laws rather than his own biased perspective, he is able to judge harshly but also accurately. It is only to be regretted that his son did not appreciate or make use of the wisdom that Solomon provided, even if we view it far more highly.

So far we have looked at four cases where people looked out of the window in an attitude of judgment in the Bible, and in three of those cases the Bible speaks highly negatively about the motivations of these people and provides serious consequences for looking out and judging those who act according to God’s will. It is easy for us to look out of the window and to think we see everything, even when there are lattices getting in the way of our vision. What does God do, though, with windows? As we wind our way towards the conclusion of this message, I would like to focus on one more passage that demonstrates the difference between what people do with windows and what God does with them. We know that God could surely look out of the windows of heaven and judge us for our actions, and He would judge us righteously, even if that was no comfort to us. God, though, wishes to do something different. What is it that God does instead of looking out of windows at us with judgment in His heart?

To find the answer, let us turn to Malachi 3:10-12. Malachi 3:10-12 ought to be a familiar passage to us, in that it follows an often-quoted verse about tithing, and it reads: “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” says the Lord of hosts; “And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the Lord of hosts.”

Over and over again when we look at the Bible we find that God does not delight in judgment and condemnation. Elsewhere He tells us that he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. We human beings, who are worthy of judgment, do delight in the destruction of others we view as being more wicked than ourselves, but God desires that all should be saved and enter into His family, and He desires to bless His obedient people. The only proper response to God’s generous attitude is to struggle to emulate it in our own conduct and to appreciate such graciousness directed at us. Contrary to Bruce Hornsby, it is not looking out any window to judge the motives and attitudes of other people that we understand what is going on in the world around us, but it is in appreciating and showing gratitude for the blessings that God gives us out of the windows of heaven that we truly understand God’s generous and kind heart towards those whom He has made in His image to one day be a part of His family, to share in all of the blessings that can be found in this rich universe of God’s creation.