Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” -Exodus 24:8
Dear members and friends,
Trust is the most important foundation in any relationship. Through my counseling of over 500 couples for the past 20-plus years, the meaning and importance of the word “trust” became undeniably clear. In the English dictionary, the word trust is defined as “firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.” In reflecting on this definition, I am convinced that there is a lack of trust in human relationships and within communities these days. It would take a long time and much effort for any human being to have a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of another human being. Especially considering human ability to pretend, disguise or lie, it’s a miracle that there actually is still a certain degree of trust between humans. Not to mention the fact that we seem to be too busy to seriously cultivate anything requiring too much time and effort!
In the Bible, God makes a covenant with humans, not once or twice but a multiple time. In other words, God seems to try hard to trust humans who continually fail to keep the promise they make. In a way, the story of the Bible is about the truthfulness and faithfulness of God contrasted to untruthfulness and unfaithfulness of humans. Thus, I often wondered, why did God try so hard to trust humans? So far, I have found two answers for this question: 1. God trusts humans not because humans are trustworthy, but because trusting is a characteristic of God. In other words, in God there is no place for distrust or doubt; 2. Humans have the potential to be truthful and faithful, if they choose to be so. This is perhaps why Moses in Exodus 24 sprinkled blood on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” To the minds of the ancient people, blood meant life itself. Thus, Moses was reminding them that the words they have spoken before God as a covenant are actually writing in their life itself. This could be interpreted to mean that keeping the covenant would nurture their life, but breaking the covenant might damage their life.
My brothers and sisters in God, one thing that I would like to suggest to you all is that before we ask others to be trustworthy to us, let us become trustworthy to others first.
Blessings, Rev. Junchol Lee