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"Divers weights and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the Lord"
(Prov. 20: 10).
"Divers weights are an abomination unto the Lord and a false balance is not good"
(Prov. 20: 23).
When Job would express his desire for even-handed, unbiased, justice, he found the
symbol of the balances ready to hand:--
"If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit; let me be weighed
in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity" (Job 31: 5, 6).
Over against this desire of Job should be placed the humbling words of Prov. 16::--
"All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits"
(Prov. 16: 2).
Hannah, the mother of Samuel, recognized this figure of justice:--
"Talk no more exceedingly proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth; for
the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed" (I Sam. 2: 3).
Even in English the word "ponder" retains the primitive idea of weighing, and is used
in such words as "pound", "imponderable" and "ponderous". When therefore we read in
Prov. 21: 2 and 24: 12 that the Lord "pondereth" the hearts, we are not surprised to
learn that the word "ponder" is the Hebrew takan, translated in Prov. 16: 2, "weigh".
Anticipating our findings, in order to press home the purpose of these studies, we say
that the words written on the plaster of the palace wall in the days of Belshazzar, have
been written by the same finger upon the hearts of all men. All, when weighed in the
divine balance, tested by the divine plummet, will be found wanting. But this is not all,
for, if it were, what incentive should we have to pursue our study? The revelation of our
own utter need but leads us to the Saviour, Who, in His fullness, meets this and every
other requirement of heaven's high tribunal.
"For He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him" (II Cor. 5: 21).
Let us be thankful that there has been revealed this all-covering and final value. When
we attain to that creation where "righteousness" dwelleth, the Good, the Beautiful, and
the True will have been raised above their present relative and conditional characters, and
find their synthesis in "The Right". Let us be thankful, too, that the great plan of man's
salvation has been so conceived and so accomplished by God as "that He might be just
and the justifier" of the believer. Salvation indeed does set forth the Goodness, the
Beauty and the Truth of the divine nature, but over, above and including all is
Righteousness. James speaks of a "crown of life"; Peter speaks of a "crown of glory",
but Paul entertained the hope of receiving at the hands of his Lord "a crown of
righteousness".