A Weighty Matter

I know for many of us, the scale is not our friend. We grieve over every ounce and can be brought to our knees in a state of depression if we gain a pound, or just cannot seem to lose those pesky bubbles. However, this just proves the importance and the weight, no pun intended, that weights and balances have. Another weighty thing in our lives is our accounting processes, whether for personal or business purposes, we need to have a handle on where our monies are going and keep an eye on our profit and loss statements.

Our word is said to ‘carry weight’. This of course is true, if you have a reputation for integrity and honesty when giving your word. In days of yore, your word and a hand shake would be as binding as any of the legal written documents that are required in the 21^st century.  However, if you were a person who had made a name for themselves as ‘not being a truth teller’, this is just a full sentence for ‘a liar’, one might say, your word ‘could not hold water’. In other words, your story is so ‘full of holes’ that it cannot be trusted or believed. This is a very weighty and serious matter. Regarding God’s word, Revelation 22:18-19 states, “…If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

There are many types of weights talked about in scripture. Per the trusty rusty internet, the Shekel is ½ ounce, the Mina is 1 ½ pounds, the Talent is 3000 shekels, 94 pounds, the Gerah is ¼ ounce, the Pimm is 1/3 ounce, the Bekah: is 1 ¼ ounce, and a homer is 8 bushels, and I’m sure the list could continue. That is quite a lot of information to absorb at one time, especially for me because I am in no way a mathematician. Fortunately, there will not be a quiz forthcoming. However, the bottom line is, that God can do math, and he takes weights, balances, and truth and justice very seriously. When he instructed the Israelites to construct or weigh out items, he gave them the specific measurements and quantities to use. He does not leave things to chance, for then the outcome would be subjective and based on the perspective of the one meting out the grain or money or measuring the requested object. He has revealed himself to us through scriptures and wants things to be crystal clear.

God declared in Leviticus 19:36, “Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have, I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.” Ezekiel 45:10-15 says, “Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath. The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer. And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh. This is the oblation that ye shall offer; the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of wheat, and ye shall give the sixth part of an ephah of an homer of barley: Concerning the ordinance of oil, the bath of oil, ye shall offer the tenth part of a bath out of the cor, which is an homer of ten baths; for ten baths are an homer: And one lamb out of the flock, out of two hundred, out of the fat pastures of Israel; for a meat offering, and for a burnt offering, and for peace offerings, to make reconciliation for them, saith the Lord God.” They were instructed what to do, and they were told what the punishment would be for falsifying the balances as well.Adding weight to a product to make it weigh more to garner a higher price is cheating and stealing and was an abomination to God. Proverbs 11:1-3 states, “A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight. When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom. The integrity of the upright shall guide them: but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them.”

A blindfolded woman, holding a scale in one hand and a sword in another is depicted as the ‘emblem of justice’. The absolute origin is uncertain, but said to be the Greek Goddess, Jusitia, the daughter of Zues. She meets out justice and pierces the hearts, with the sword, of those who deal unfairly. This story varies depending on the country and the period you are studying, but with similar Egyptian hieroglyphics showing the scales as well, sources stating “Egyptians thought that in the underworld the deceased would be judged by Anubis, who would deposit his heart on a scale and an ostrich feather on the other plate, to see if he was worthy of entry into the realm of the dead. That is the reason why the heart was buried along with the corpse, unlike the rest of the organs, extracted during the mummification process.” Anyone who believes that God is One as the scripture states, and that He created the heavens and earth, know the origin of these concepts all come from Him. Any other story, folklore or mythological writings were written by people who had heard bits and pieces of truth and made up the rest to incorporate their own gods which they made from silver weighed in the balances as stated in Isaiah 46:5-6, “To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike? They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship.”

Scales and weights are not obsolete today but are still used in a multiplicity of areas. We’ve all seen the signs on the highway for weighing stations for semi-trucks. While perusing through the new job opportunities with the State of Tennessee, I came across this job title and description: DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, CONSUMER AND INDUSTRY SERVICES DIVISION, Weights and Measures Meters Inspector for West TN. “Distinguishing Features: An employee in this class performs varied assignments in the sampling and testing of petroleum products; or inspection of weighing and measuring devices in the following areas: commercially used large capacity scales, bulk fuel meters, propane meters, petroleum terminal metering systems, grain moisture meters, small capacity scales, precision flask volume testing, petroleum dispensers and commodity weight, measure, count, labeling, and price verification systems.” Fascinating.

In the 21st century, cheating still exists when it comes to fair weights and balances, it just comes in different clothing, called marketing and sales, however, even though there is not a sword in hand to give swift judgement, the judgement will come and will be the same as to those in ancient times. God’s nature and requirements will never change, he is immutable.  Let us look at a few simple examples. Meat is sold by the pound, but do you always get what you think you are buying. There are bags of chicken that are filled with fat to increase weight, so the usable pieces are reduced substantially. Bags of potato chips are filled with air to make them look like they are filled with the product and to meet the weight listed on the shiny bag with the delicious picture of chips on it, but you are only really getting a third of the bag of actual product. You may have a jar filled with more juice than actual pickles or a soda bottle that is not filled to the brim but is marketed with a pretty label to draw consumer’s eyes to it. Deception of any kind is despised by God and counted as sin. When our daughters were little, I would take them shopping with me and have them compare the prices on similar products with different name brands, to try to teach them the value of money and decision making skills. This also taught them to be aware of deceivers.  The items on the bottom were marketed to the children and the ones on the top were geared toward adults, using the ‘eye level’ concept to attract the buyers. I tried to teach them that ‘not everything that glitters is gold’ and they should weigh all their options before making their final decision. Some people still end up buying the ‘name brand’ items even if it is more expensive because of personal preference, however, if a fair product is offered for a fair price, it makes the decision more palatable.

Speaking of the magnitude of God, Isaiah 40:12-15 says it this way, “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.” There is no way that anything we do or make can be his equal. He will not share His glory with another. However, even with His almighty power and ability to mete out judgement, which will come, it will be done in fairness using just weights.

Proverbs 16:1-6 states, “The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weighs the spirits. Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” And Proverbs 21:2, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts.” God is not impressed with all the hot air that comes out of our mouth, or the pretend lives we post on social media to impress others, he is examining our hearts and spirits. Blowing smoke will not make up for the lack of ‘weight’ or substance you have in your life. Hyperbolizing or adding gossip to make your story or sermon more likeable or lengthy, when you only have five minutes of true content, is putrid to God. He deals in just weights.

God is not influenced by our lip service, pretense, or hypocrisy. In Isaiah 29:13 God states, “Wherefore the Lord said, forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.”  In Luke 7:5-9 and Matthew 15 Jesus quotes this, “Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands? He answered and said unto them, well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, this people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own traditions.”

We may fool some people some of the time, but we will not fool everyone all the time, nor will we ever fool God. He sees and weighs the heart and the spirit. 1 Corinthians 13:1 says, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” We must seek to exhibit the love of God daily wherever we are and keep our hearts and spirits clean before the Lord through prayer and by ingesting the Word of God. We cannot pull the wool over His eyes. He is not only our creator and knows the ins and outs of mankind, but he knows each one of us individually. He knows all our failures and successes, our strengths and weaknesses, and the longings of our heart. He is not moved by the faith that you claim to have, but by the faith and love that you show. James 2:18 says, “Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith, and I have works; shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.”

God is an advocate for the underdog. The word poor is mentioned 200 times in scriptures, along with other admonishments about the poor using phrases such as ‘the needy’. Leviticus 19:10 says, “And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God.” And Leviticus 23:22 says, “And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God.” These are just a couple of examples that show how God is looking out for those in need. The ‘fatherless’ is mentioned 43 times. James 1:27 states, “Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” God states in Exodus 22:25, “If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.”  God watches the scales and weights. God requires fairness, and though we will all be judged, it will be with justice. Psalms 98:8-9, “Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together, Before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.” Punishment will be severe to those who misuse their power over others because they are not pure in heart.

King Belshazzar saw writing on the wall, and when his wise men and astrologers could not give him an interpretation, he called for the Hebrew, Daniel. God first rehearses what had happened to his father, King Nebuchadnezzar, when his heart was lifted up within himself, and then we see in Daniel 5:22-28 the conclusion of the matter,  “And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knew all this; But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified: Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written. And this is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene; God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Tekel; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Peres: Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” How God judged then is how we will be judged as well. We must humble ourselves before him now.

We see equitable treatment by Jesus in John 8 when the woman who was caught in the act of adultery was brought to him. He heard the accusations, stooped down and wrote something in the sand, possibly the sins of those in the crowd, this is not known, however, when he got back up, they were gone. “He said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”  He did not condone her sin, but in essence said by his actions, “if she must be stoned, then all of you must be stoned”. He decerns the heart and shows fairness and kindness in judgement.

God weighs the heart, therefore, we must apply the blood of Jesus to our lives through repentance and baptism in His Name, so we can receive the full weight of our sins being forgiven and washed away. God will not tip the scales or cheat. He does not use weighted dice when dealing with our hearts. He does not have a secret agenda or hidden scales but gives us a complete and full pardon. We can then walk in sincerity and truth, with purity of motive and heart and a clean spirit.