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"balanced" the sounds that reached it. "The ear" often indicates the faculty of
understanding, as in Job 12: 11, "Doth not the ear try words", not merely "hear" them.
In the N.T. the one occurrence of the word "balances" is in Rev. 6: 5, where the
Greek word zugos, "yoke", or "crossbar" is used. But four occurrences of the word
"weight" are found in the N.T., viz.:
"The eternal weight (baros) of glory" (II Cor. 4: 17).
"His letters . . . . . are weighty (barus)" (II Cor. 10: 10).
"The weightier (baruteros) matters of the law" (Matt. 23: 23).
Here the word baros and barus mean "pressure", a meaning with which we are familiar
in the word "barometer".
The other, and fourth, word is that used in Heb. 12: 1, where we are enjoined to "lay
aside every weight", and is the Greek word ogkos (pronounced ongkos). This word
means a tumour or a swelling, then a mass, as of corpulence, and then a swelling with
pride. These meanings we gather from its use in the classics: it occurs but one in the
N.T. Such a twofold meaning however exactly fits the context, for if a runner were to
enter a race encumbered with too much flesh he could not hope to complete successfully,
even as, in the spiritual sense, pride or pandering to the flesh is fatal to the believer's
hopes of finishing his course.
We trust that these opening remarks will be useful in themselves and will, moreover,
stimulate our study of this principle of balance, as we seek to apply it to doctrine and
practice. This we hope to do in subsequent studies.
#2. The Purpose of the Ages.
Peter's testimony of the three Creations (II Pet. 3: 1-13).
pp. 113 - 117
In our opening article we introduced the figure of the balances and examined the terms
in which this figure is presented to us in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. It is our
intention in this series to test the doctrine and practice of the Scriptures by this principle
of balance, and endeavour to discover how far it underlies the ways and will of God.
Scripture opens with the creation of heaven and earth (Gen. 1: 1); it closes with the
creation of heaven and earth (Rev. 21: 1), and, intervening between these two extremes,
are "the heavens and the earth which are now" (II Pet. 3: 7).
We are indebted to the second epistle of Peter for a comprehensive statement
concerning these three phases of creation, which are dealt with, not scientifically, but in
so far as they bear upon the purpose of the ages, which is the background of all Scripture.