Dishonest Scales: Proverbs for the Young

Friday Assembly: Headmaster’s Address (November 18, 2016)

Proverbs 20:23 (NKJV)
Diverse weights are an abomination to the LORD,
And dishonest scales are not good.

bananas
What does it mean to have diverse weights and dishonest scales? It means to measure things incorrectly in a way that cheats people.

We still use scales today. At Fred Meyer when you buy bananas, they are 59 cents a pound. You have to use a scale to know how much a bundle of bananas costs. If the scale at the cash register is dishonest, it says that you are buying two pounds of bananas when you actually only have one pound. The cashier charges you double for your bananas.

In this proverb, we learn that God hates this kind of deceitfulness, this kind of lie. In this proverb we learn not to cheat people with tricks of false measurements.

If you trade Pokemon cards, don’t cheat younger kids by telling them their card is not very good so that they will let you have it. That is using a dishonest scale for your own advantage. If you play sports, don’t claim that the same ball is “in-bounds” for your team but “out-of-bounds” for the other team. That is using diverse measurements, a thing the Lord hates.

Be honest and true and avoid dishonest scales.

Spurgeon on Prayer

spurgeonOn the importance of prayer:

It is true that Satan seeks to flood the fair garden of the heart and make it a scene of desolation, but it is also true that many Christians leave open the sluice-gates themselves, and let in the dreadful deluge through carelessness and want of prayer to their strong Helper. We often forget that the Author of our faith must be the Preserver of it also…. He who built the world upholds it, or it would fall in one tremendous crash; he who made us Christians must maintain us by his Spirit, or our ruin will be speedy and final. Let us, then, evening by evening, go to our Lord for the grace and strength we need.

(Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, November 15: Evening)