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True Weights and True Measures

By: Alan Harvey

Posted: April 5, 2017

Category: Daily Devotional

Diverse weights and diverse measures are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
Proverbs 20:10

Differing weights are an abomination to the Lord and false scales are not good.
Proverbs 20:23 (NRSV)

I am certain that Publix Supermarkets provide the large step-on scales as one more way of serving their customers and making shopping a pleasure. Let me assure you that while I sometimes have shopped in four different area Publix stores, you will never ever find me checking my weight on their scales. Almost always I run into a church member in whatever Publix I shop and he or she would most certainly pass by as I am weighing myself. I guard my weight more than my age!! I prefer stepping on the scales at home where I can be certain that I weigh 5-10 pounds less than I really do because I have fiddled with the scales. Such fiddling gets me in trouble when I go for my semi-annual check-ups with my physician. His scales are true. I am fooling only myself and only for a few months!!

As many of you know I love to cook and I particularly love to bake. It is important to weigh and measure carefully the ingredients listed on the recipes for baked goods. You can use less or more of certain ingredients in other recipes for example casseroles or stews and the outcomes will not be that different. That is not so with breads, cakes, or muffins! You need to weigh and measure accurately or else you may be very disappointed with what you remove from the oven.

At the produce market you do not want the clerk putting his finger on the scale so that you think you are getting more when in fact you are getting less than what you need. If the bag or box of a food item states that it contains one pound, then that is what you are expecting the package to contain … not fifteen or seventeen ounces. The variance is not that much, but you want to be able to trust the company.

Once you set foot on that slippery slope of not being truthful about weights and measures, it is easier and easier to fudge about them. If the person did not complain that their one pound package contained only fifteen ounces then maybe he or she would not notice if it contained only fourteen ounces. The customer is being cheated. The customer is being shortchanged. The customer is paying more and getting less.

It is for these reasons that I believe diverse weights and diverse measures are an abomination to the Lord. The Lord expects truthfulness in the marketplace. A pound that was sixteen ounces yesterday should be sixteen ounces today and should be sixteen ounces tomorrow!

Prayer

O Lord, thank You for calling us to be honest with ourselves and in our dealings with others. Keep us mindful that diverse weights and diverse measures are an abomination to You. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.