Title Numbers 5:1-31
Contents
<Text> Numbers 5:1-31
Chan 123, “In the middle of the night out there”
Last Thursday, I saw the Seonggeuk at the Missionary Memorial Hall. It was ‘Baedulho Mind Research Center’. It was the story of Peter returning to heaven after being trained in the world for 100 days. One of the characters was a high school student. He was a child who was trapped inside himself while living with his parents on the verge of divorce. The child could not open the door to his heart. It was because of disbelief. Distrust of people breeds distrust of the world, and even loses faith in oneself. Peter, director of the Baedulho Heart Research Institute, wanted to open the door to that closed heart. Just like Jesus who came to this earth to open the door of his closed heart.
There is a ‘cleansing of doubts’. It is also called ‘memory meal’. It was a grain offering to reveal whether the husband had doubts about his wife's fidelity. Marriage is a relationship built on trust more than any other relationship. Because the depth of love between husband and wife depends on the depth of trust. It is for this reason that love that has lost trust easily leads to destruction. Adultery is one of the biggest factors that can break a couple's trust. Adultery leaves a mark of sin on both the soul and the body. As a result, spouses who become victims live a life of hell. Since unbelief has settled where there should be trust, all that remains is doubt and despair.
Consider the position of the wife who has to drink the 'cursed water' to win the suspicion of her husband. If you have such doubts even though you have kept your chastity, this is truly unfair. On the other hand, this would be terrifying. In a patriarchal society, the wife always has no choice but to stand in the position of weakness. Drinking the cursed water was an unfair and scary thing for my wife. However, an innocent wife could prove her innocence through the grain offering of doubt. It is true that sociology seems unfair, but the issue of doubt was significant in that it was able to save the life of an unfair wife. If you think about it, the grain offering of doubt was to leave the wife's life in the hands of God, not her husband. It was the meal of doubt that allowed the couple's trust to be restored at the hands of God. The text makes us think more when we see modern people who are said to be Enlightenment who fail to solve the problem of doubt and lead themselves to a hell of ruin and despair.
Life is a journey. Couples are people who make the path of 'trust' in their life's journey. Where would you be as a couple? The same is true between friends, colleagues, saints, parents and children. In an age of greater distrust and doubt, trustworthy people are more likely to be bullied. But trust is getting stronger. Because trust is the most powerful key to opening a closed mind. Do you not know how Peter's unbelief and doubts were replaced by the resurrected Lord with the power of trust? When an open heart through trust becomes one again in trust, the history of mankind has reached a new moment.
It seems to me that we should talk about how the child who was trapped inside him with distrust and doubt came out of that abyss. The child blamed others for her situation. That wasn't wrong, but Peter points out that it was ultimately a closed mind that kept the child locked up inside him. The two fight, and the child leaves the Bae Deulho Mind Lab. It was sad. The day before Peter's return to heaven, the child opens the door of the Baedulho Heart Research Center once again. Peter greets the child warmly, first expressing his condolences. The child opens his heart to Peter, telling him why he had no choice but to be confined in the square window he had made. Peter understands the heart of a child. It was because he had also had the experience of denying the Lord on a night of unbelief and doubt. It was the unchanging trust of the Lord that restored such Peter. What the child needed was that trust.
It is the season of Christmas. The night the Lord came as a child was also a night of disbelief and doubt. Nevertheless, the Lord came to this earth as a human child. Thus, he willingly surrendered himself to those who asked for a grain offering of doubt, and silently planted God's trust in the land of unbelief. The seed grew and became the kingdom of God, and we became the people of that kingdom. Now it is our turn to be willing to give ourselves to the one who asks for the grain offering of doubt. The time has come to silently plant the trust of God in the land still scratched by unbelief. This morning, I hope that the season of Christmas will deepen by praying that we Christians are the ones who make the path of trust in the journey of life. Those closest to the Christmas scene were also Joseph and Mary, who trusted the word of God. Merry Christmas!
God,
We are living in an age of distrust and doubt of the ‘or not’, but in the Lord who trusts us, help us to become people who eventually build the path of trust. So, let your trust be revealed and built up through us in this world where trust has been lost. I beg you, have mercy on the married couples, friends, colleagues, saints, parents and children of this land who have lost their trust and are drifting, and restore them to your trust. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.