DIVERS WEIGHTS
“Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD. Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good.” Proverbs 20:10, 23
Stones were used in old time as a means of measuring. A stone of a particular weight would be placed on a balance, and it would be the standard for measuring whatever was being bought or sold. An honest man would use a stone of the exact weight at all times. However, a dishonest man would try to deceive people for his advantage. He would use one weight when he was buying so that he might gain more goods for less money, and a different weight when he was selling that he might get more profit for fewer products. So God says a system of “Divers weights, and divers measures, both of them are alike abomination to the LORD,” and “a false balance is not good.”
God will not bless dishonesty, nor is He pleased when we live by a double standard. Though we may not use “Divers weights, and divers measures” in the market place, we may do it in our own minds and with other people. When we use one standard to judge ourselves and another standard to judge others, it is just as wicked. If we would be honest, we all have probably been guilty of using divers weights. We are able to excuse behavior in our lives, or find a reason to justify it, but we judge it mercilessly in the life of another. This is the same as having a “false balance.” We have one bag of weights that we use to consider our faults and another bag of weights to measure the faults of another. This kind of deceit and dishonesty is surely just as much an “abomination to the LORD.”
It is pride that causes us to look at our shortcomings differently from how we look at the same sin in others. We tend to be harder on the other person in order to make ourselves look better. Their sin looks vile and wicked, but our offense is excusable. The Scribes and Pharisees were guilty of this reasoning when they brought the adulterous woman to Jesus. They wanted Jesus to agree with the Scriptures that she should be stoned. However, when Jesus said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (John 8:7), they were all convicted by their conscience and went away one by one. They were guilty of using one set of stones to measure her sin, and another set for their own. This is hypocrisy.