Sleeping on the Couch

I have been doing this thing lately where I like to sleep on my couch at night.  At first I thought I was just in need of some new surroundings.  Sleeping on the couch made it easier to wake up to my alarm in the morning.  And the couch wasn’t much different from my twin-sized bed anyways.  I’m not so sure anymore because I’ve gotten in to the habit so much that the “new surroundings” are now comfortably familiar, it’s still painful to wake up in the morning, and I have my queen-sized bed back in my new apartment----open and empty and, yet, it sits cold.

The other day the Lord reminded me about Uriah—the seemingly insignificant character in the story of David and Bathsheba.  You’ve never heard a sermon about God’s grace mixed with the consequences of sin without hearing the story of David and Bathsheba: David is king.  David “lays with” Bathsheba out of wedlock while she is still married.  Bathsheba gets pregnant.  David tries to make it look like it’s Uriah’s (Bathsheba’s husband) baby.  That doesn’t work.  David has Uriah killed.  The son dies.  Later David and Bathsheba have another son and the Lord loves him.  It’s your classic Old Testament episode of Maury.

The character no one talks about is Uriah.  But in my phase of couch-sleeping, the Lord reminded me about Uriah who also refused to sleep in his proper place at home.  The details of the story are that Uriah was away at war when David conceived a son with Bathsheba.  To try and cover it up, King David had Uriah brought home from war for a time in hopes that Uriah would sleep with his wife and no one would think twice about where the baby came from.

“But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.” (2 Samuel 11:9)

When David asked Uriah why he didn’t sleep at home, Uriah replied:

“The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” (2 Samuel 11:11)

In a last ditch effort to cover up his sin, David gets Uriah drunk the next night—still hoping he will go home to Bathsheba—but “in the evening [Uriah] went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.” (2 Samuel 11:13).

Humility.  Dedication.  Loyalty.  Uriah is so committed to his mission in battle and to the people he is fighting with that he evades even the most innocent opportunity for personal comfort.  He would rather sleep on the floor outside the king’s house or on his couch with servants than enjoy life’s pleasures while his friends are at war.  His dedication is such that even when his mind is sabotaged and David makes him drunk, Uriah still sticks to his conviction.

I get so excited when God speaks to me through the details in His Living Word—I can be thinking about sleeping on my couch and God has already written Scripture about that!

I want the heart and mind of Uriah—a heart so sure of its mission that it will endure sacrifice; so pure that it will not be swayed.  I want to sleep on the couch of humility forever.