Set your scales
Source: Charlotte Scanlon-Gambill
‘Differing weights and differing measures - the Lord detests them both’

(1) One of the challenges facing God’s people today is the challenge to stay consistent in an ever-changing society. At a time when people are constantly changing their minds, the church is faced with the challenge of staying innovative and continuing to evolve in its methods while remaining true to the fundamental principles we believe in.
Christ was a man of his time. He knew how to connect with people by telling contemporary stories which captured their attention but the truth of his essential message never changed. He didn’t have one set of values for the Pharisees and another for the crowd that followed him. He was always the same, his love was generously given to all and his compassion reached into every circumstance. He wasn’t moody and he didn’t keep changing his mind about the message he was bringing. Our challenge as his people therefore, is to model that same consistency. But sadly, today you can enter a church or speak to an individual Christian and find there a mixture of ever-changing values, which is something God hates.The scripture says: ‘Do not have two differing weights in your bag – one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house – one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. For the Lord Your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly.’

(2)This passage is talking about the way business people handled transactions in Old Testament times. For consistency of business dealings, they carried weights with them. So, if someone wanted to buy a pound of food or grain they would have a stone to represent that weight. However, some dishonest traders carried rocks of differing sizes, each marked as being the same weight and they chose which to use depending on who was buying from them.This principle carries through into our lives and churches today where we too can have differing weights and measures if we are not careful. For example, we can have one rule for one person and a different one for another. But our churches, business lives and relationships should not be conducted with differing weights and measures. The point is reinforced in Proverbs where it also says: ‘God detests differing weights and hates dishonest scales’.

(3) We need to pay careful attention to anything that God detests and make sure we are not guilty of doing something which is so against the nature and heart of God. So what are the factors that affect your ‘weights and measures’? What makes you alter your scales?The People FactorWhen I first entered church ministry there was a person who used to really intimidate me. They would constantly undermine and criticise me. I began to realise that even their presence in a meeting was affecting me when I spoke because I found myself watering down my message. I’d be a little less clear and say, ‘I think God might be saying,’ instead of, ‘I know God is saying’; I didn’t speak from the true conviction of my heart. God challenged me about this compromise and I realised that my whole destiny and usefulness to God was being brought into question because I was becoming a leader whose ‘weights and measures’ changed depending on who I was dealing with and their response to me. I was reminded of King Saul who led the nation of Israel this way and God couldn’t bless him because he was a people pleasing leader.

(4) What kinds of people affect your weights and measures? Is it people who you find difficult to love? Do they get less time and grace? The Bible says, ‘If your enemy is hungry give him food to eat, if he is thirsty, give him water to drink’.

(5) This verse highlights that even if the hungry person is your biggest enemy, they still need feeding and you need to be consistent towards them. Maybe it’s your family who affect your weights and measures. David struggled with his own son Absalom who made his life a misery and even tried to overthrow him from the throne. Yet David let himself be blinded by this family tie. In the end David’s own men came to him in the heat of battle as David mourned the death of his son saying, ‘How dare you sit there crying over your son when we are risking our lives for you. You would have cut our heads off if we had treated you like this!’

(6) David was being inconsistent; he was treating his family different from everyone else even though they had betrayed him. Too many times I have seen people judge others harshly and then cover up and turn a blind eye to the sin or gossip in their own close family and friends. God sees it all and detests it. On another occasion we read about four lepers who were treated as outcasts because of their condition. They were expelled from the city and separated from their families because of their leprosy. However, at that time their home city of Samaria was under siege by an enemy which resulted in famine in the city, its people were starving to death. It got so bad that as a last resort they were boiling their babies and eating bird dung - I’d say that was pretty desperate!

(7)The lepers reasoned that their situation was so bad they may as well try and find food in the besieging enemy camp. They went to investigate and were surprised to find it empty, complete with comfortable beds, warm shelters and food. The enemy had fled and left everything behind. So, these four guys who had been so badly treated and expelled by their home community now had plenty; they were better off than those who had previously mistreated them. What would you have done? I think I would have said ‘it serves them right, God has blessed us and now it is their turn to suffer!’ But as they sat down to eat one of the lepers said, ‘it’s not right that we sit and enjoy all this, we need to tell the people in the city there is food here because they are starving to death.’ What an amazing response. He decided not to do to others what had been done to him. His largeness of heart broke the cycle of inconsistency that day and many lives were saved. We all need to have the heart of that leper.CircumstancesA second factor that can make you ‘alter your scales’ is circumstances. If life is going well some Christians are full of enthusiasm, they sit at the front in church and worship God with energy and passion. But just one week later you can find the same person on the back row, looking miserable and hardly singing a word. The only difference is that their circumstances have changed. Maybe they were made redundant or have had a row with their husband or wife. Last week they were saying they would go to the ends of the earth for Jesus but now their faith has taken a nosedive because something didn’t turn out as they had hoped. People will be inconsistent if they let their circumstances affect the ‘measure’ they use towards God. Handling our finances and tithing are another great example. God gave us a set ‘measure’ and clear guidelines for financial wisdom when he asked us to give a tenth. He was saying, let me help you out and set the scales so no one thinks this is dependant on how things are going or how you’re feeling. If you are ever tempted to change your ‘weights and measures’ because of your circumstances, just take a look at the life of Job and you’ll see what a bad day really looks like! One day everything is going well, he has a wonderful family, is a wealthy businessman and is respected in his community. The next day his circumstances go into freefall, he wakes up covered in sores and writhing with pain, his cattle are wiped out and all his children are killed. All this happened in just one day! But Job’s response was to say, ‘Should I accept good from God and not bad?.’

(8) He was not going to let a bad circumstance change his walk with God. However, when faced with the same change in circumstances, Job’s wife said ‘Curse God and die!’

(9) In the same way we must choose our response when faced with difficult circumstances. God can build on a consistent response like Job’s, but the other is ruining the church and our integrity as God’s people. FeelingsFinally, feelings can make us alter our ‘scales’. We all have feelings. The truth is that some days you will not ‘feel’ like getting up, smiling or worshiping God. Feelings will lie to you, rob you and leave you contemplating choices that God never put on the table of your life. We have to understand our feelings and learn how to manage them or they will manage us. The feelings of some Christians don’t just cause inconsistency in their own lives, they use their feelings to try and manipulate the ‘weights and measures’ of others too. Before speed cameras arrived, I never had a speeding ticket; I was immune from them because I could trade on my feelings. I once remember having an awful day. Steve and I had just moved into a new house and were busy sorting everything out. I nipped out to the nearby shop to get some paint; I was in a hurry and didn’t even notice the police car that had followed my speeding car home until it parked behind me on my drive! I explained to the policeman how sorry I was, how everything had gone wrong that day, I began to cry as I let him know how I felt about the situation. In the end he didn’t give me a ticket, he was just glad to escape from this mad, emotional woman! My feelings manipulated his decision that day. However, speed cameras are different. The ticket just arrives through your door with its penalty points and fine. You can’t sit it down and explain why you don’t deserve it because they have eliminated feelings from the equation. They don’t feel sorry for you and you can’t reason with them. They have a set ‘weight and measure’ for every person that drives past them above the speed limit. Spiritually, many Christians and even entire churches need to fit spiritual speed cameras that show to all who enter their sphere that this is a zone with a set way of operating, this is how we do church and we are not open to manipulation. Even the friend of God, Moses, let his feelings get the better of him and he ended up disobeying God because of it.

(10) The context of this story is important because Moses’ sister had just died and the people of Israel were grumbling once again. I think Moses was feeling a bit fed up that day and when God told him to ‘speak’ to the rock to make water flow out, his feelings caused him to ‘strike’ the rock; his feelings took him outside of God’s instruction and sadly he lost his destiny of entering the Promised Land that day. It seems harsh that after all the amazing things he had done, this one incident should change his life forever. But feelings can cost you your destiny – just imagine if Jesus had let his feelings determine whether or not he went to the cross. We know he didn’t feel like it because he said, ‘If it is possible, may this cup be taken from me,’ but he chose to override his feelings by saying, ‘Yet, not as I will, but as you will’.

(11) There aren’t buildings big enough to hold the people who will come to a church where God’s people are consistent, where no prejudice or injustice exists in the ‘weights and measures’ of their grace, mercy, and inclusion. Examine your ‘weights and measures’ today; set your scales this year and observe what God will build on a consistent life.

References:
1 - Proverbs 20:10
2 - Deuteronomy 25:13
3 - Proverbs 20:10
4 - 1 Samuel 15:24
5 - Proverbs 25:21
6 - 2 Samuel 19:5-7 (paraphrased)
7 - 2 Kings 6:24-29
8 - Job 2:10
9 - Job 2:9
10 - Numbers 20:1-12
11 - Matthew 26:39