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Ring of Truth provides 366 daily ‘proofs’ that the Bible is consistent throughout from Genesis to Revelation, and relevant for our lives today!
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Proverbs 11:1–2
The Lord abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are His delight. When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
Think about that.
Chapter 10 starts with a list of Solomon’s proverbs, which runs through to Chapter 29. Most of them are single verses or couplets. Understandably, we don’t have the time or the space to explore them all – which is why I encouraged you at the beginning to read a chapter a day.
I will pick a few which are either well-known, highlight one of God’s profound principles or are part of a ‘Ring of Truth’ which runs through the Bible. That does not, of course, mean that those I leave out are less important, not part of the Biblical ‘Ring of Truth’, or not one of God’s principles – they all are. (So read them all for yourself.)
“The Lord abhors dishonest scales.” “God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all” (see 1 John 1:5). God is truth and in Him is no dishonesty. (See also John 14:6.) He cannot deny His character. One of the 10 commandments says – “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15; Deuteronomy 5:19). Dishonest scales are a form of stealing. Throughout history, scales have been used to bring a standard for trading. Often they were related to the weight of gold so that price and weight were easily understood. Even today, we weigh goods to see if the items measure up to the ‘standard’ or in order to price them.
I was always fascinated when working in the banking industry as a cashier/teller, that instead of counting coins, we would weigh them. Not only would weighing the coins reveal if we were ‘short’ but it would also alert us to any ‘dud’ coins that were present. What I found amazing is that we did the same with bank notes, and we could equally determine if there were shortages, overs or forgeries.
Dishonest scales mean that not only are we stealing, but we are also ‘moving the goal posts’. We have created our own ‘values system’. Not only did that happen when countries decided to no longer link their currencies to gold but also when they did the same with morals. Countries' economies used to be linked to what was known as the Gold Standard. One of the last was Switzerland. (Even as I write this, they are discussing whether or not to ‘abandon it’.)
Keeping to the Gold Standard basically meant that a country could not ‘print’ more money than it held in gold reserves. Most countries found that too hard; as in line with their citizens’ personal finances, many spent more than they could earn. They then ‘mortgaged’ their future earnings. That is now the state of international finance. Most countries have so much debt that the total of their national earning power (GNP) cannot even pay for the annual interest on the loans, let alone repay any of the principal. That is why the world’s economy is so volatile. It relies upon opinion and perception more than true wealth. As long as your debt is no bigger than mine (or what I think it should be), all will be fine.
We have to believe we will never be actually called to pay off the debt. If we do get an immovable deadline, we will end up with one astronomically devastating global crash.
Sound familiar?
Please note - God delights in honest weights.
You’ve heard the proverb, “Pride comes before a fall” – it comes from verse 2. Pride produces dishonest scales. It produces a ‘sham’ world system where absolutes give way to relativity.
It is the same with morals. As long as no one stands up and says, “You are naked” (as in the children’s story of the King’s clothes), we can muddle along, but if someone does ‘ignorantly’ try and suggest it, we either have to eliminate them or we will crash irreparably like Humpty-Dumpty.
However, one day, none other than God Himself will reveal our total nakedness (see Revelation 3:14–22). That is why we have to constantly renew our minds Biblically, as we saw yesterday.
Which of your values do you think you may have to review and bring back into line with Scripture?
Remember, if you ‘humble yourself’, you can’t fall very far.
Download the above Ring of Truth devotion as a PDF.
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