To Know and To Really Know

As I read Scripture I observe that there are different kinds of knowing. In fact, in the Greek language there are two words, very closely related, that have important and nuanced differences.
There is the kind of knowing that is more like knowing "about" something. It is more on the factual level. Take for example the statement, "God is good." We can know this truth at face value and believe it without ever having experienced its reality. But there is another kind of knowing that is deeper. It is a knowing that has penetrated our experience. So...that statement "God is good" at this level is not something I am unacquainted with, but rather in my experience I have seen that God is good. I have experienced His goodness and know it to be a reality at the deepest level.
To take a personal example: Since the time I became a Christian I have know the fact that "God is good". But I came to really know the goodness of God in the midst of one of the most difficult times in my life. As I was struggling with the situation I was facing and seeking God, His answer to me was so clear and so direct, that at that moment I felt I "really" knew the goodness of God. I couldn't believe that He would so clearly answer the prayer of one such as I.
I think this is what is happening with the people of Israel in the wilderness. They know things about God, but God is schooling them to "really" know Him. As He walks them through the desert God brings challenges to them, so that they can advance in the true knowledge of God.
In Numbers 20 God causes them to run out of water. In their discomfort they grumble to Moses. He, in turn, looks to the Lord and the Lord directs him to speak to a rock in order for it to begin pouring out water. Moses doesn't exactly do what the Lord instructs (and pays the price for his arrogance), but in the end the people are provided an abudance of water "from a rock". Now do you think they learned something about God that day? I mean did they walk away that day "really" knowing God? They might have known that God was a provider, but after that experience they should have really known Him to be a provider. (Only hard hearts would keep them from this...)
I like the way Moses speaks of this. In verse 13 he says, "These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy." That day the people of the Lord really learned that the Lord is holy; that He is like none other. Who else can bring water from a rock? Who can do the things God does and care for His people the way God does? That day they advanced in a deeper knowledge of their God.
As we read through Psalm 58 and 59 we see a similar thing. In both Psalms the author is confronted with great difficulties, but as he walks through those difficulties he really learns something about God. He learns of God's strength, that He is a fortress, that His love never fails. Only as the author went through the flame of these trials did he truly learn these realities about God.
Brothers and sisters, the next time you walk through diffiiculty try to remember this thought: God may be advancing you in your knowledge of Him. He may be bringing you from factual knowledge to experiential knowledge. See your trial as our loving God's way of drawing you into a deeper and fuller knowledge of Himself, which in the end is drawing you into the fullness of His life.