Sunday, July 11, 2010

Fair Weights and Measures

Leviticus 19:35-36

God specifically wants His people to be honest in their business dealings. These passages (and there are others throughout the Bible) indicate that God wanted to Israelites to use the same standards in their selling that they do in their buying. To put it in context, the practice of the day was, if you wanted to buy a pound of something, you would take a set of weights out of your bag and measure out what you're scales said was one pound. But then, if you wanted to sell that product, you would have a different set of weights. When your buyer came, you would use this second set of weights that would give the buyer slightly less than one pound. The result is profit for you at the expense of either the buyer or the supplier (depending on which weight was false). God says His people are to have one set of weights--that is, they are to deal honestly in all business transactions.

Our society today have many types of "dishonest weights"--everything from Enron-style accounting and risky derivatives to questionable tax deductions. The business transactions in which we engage during the week are under God's eye just as much as our worship assemblies on Sunday. He expects us to glorify Him through honesty.

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