“Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the LORD, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.” (2 Samuel 12:20, KJV)
“…and worshipped…” literally to prostrate. At this moment David realizes something. He has finally gotten the first of many glimpses into what God has been doing in him. The last several chapters of 2 Samuel may seem like events along a history line until he finally gets what God has been doing all along. Let’s review:
- 2 Samuel 8 testing how you handle victories
- 2 Samuel 9 testing what is merciful about you. What goodwill exists and how you keep promises.
- 2 Samuel 10 testing how you handle treason. That snake-like grip that it seems to have.
- 2 Samuel 11 testing how you handle temptation
- 2 Samuel 12 testing how you handle rebuke and correction
You see that the tests that God gives are different than those that the world gives. The world insists on a certain percentage of perfection to pass and move onto the next level. God’s tests are different in two primary ways. First, he wants more to see what’s inside you than what level of perfection that you can attain. Do you trust him? Are you humble enough to acknowledge him? Obedience to God’s law draws out the importance of the essence of love to God and your neighbor. Secondly, his tests are not necessarily consecutive, i.e. passing Algebra does not lead to Calculus. It could, but he may switch whole subjects on you. We may need very different areas of our life sampled because these are the areas that he thinks are important and his line is always straight; never zig zagged. Though we may feel differently at the moment. When we wash, anoint, change, and come into his house, what do we see? Does he not highlight on our own histories how he has been working on us all along?
“Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.” (John 1:48, KJV)